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Read about 3 challenges impacting the energy and utilities sector – and how the right digital transformation approach can help overcome them.
“A big focus for me in the last year or two has been on improving the security and privacy of consumer data that we manage”
Each week we talk to leading CTOs about life in the C-Suite and the technology industry.
This week, we spoke to Nicola Pero, CTO of Engage Hub.
Many organisations are currently facing unprecedented pressure, falling revenues and reduced profits. A large number have temporarily closed or have adopted new ways of working, and rightly so, as the focus of most business leaders has been on protecting employees, understanding the risks to their businesses, and managing disruption to supply chains.
Many organisations are currently facing unprecedented pressure, falling revenues and reduced profits. A large number have temporarily closed or have adopted new ways of working, and rightly so, as the focus of most business leaders has been on protecting employees, understanding the risks to their businesses, and managing disruption to supply chains.
With the grey and gloomy circumstances we have been experiencing lately, it may be increasingly hard to imagine the long and bright days of summer. Yet, many retailers are already marketing summer deals and discounts to their customers. Some even started as early as the 21st of January, otherwise known as ‘Blue Monday’. Is that too early? Or do consumers want to stock up on summer dresses before the season rolls around?
It is forecasted that mobile banking is set to be more popular than visiting a high street bank branch within two years. And as the banking industry continues its digital journey, consumers are coming to expect more control over their data, greater convenience, and “anytime, anywhere” accessibility.
By defining an optimum level of customer engagement, and building safeguards to protect customer data, organisations can create lasting relationships with their customers.
Today, just 17 per cent of those working in the UK technology sector are female, which is significantly lower than most other UK sectors. Paige O’Neill, Chief Marketing Officer, Sitecore comments “It’s great that calendar events such as International Day of Women and Girls in Science are getting ever more recognition, as we get to not only celebrate women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) but also raise awareness of the wide gap between the number of men and women in the tech industry”.
On 11th February, the United Nations, partners worldwide, women and girls mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This provides a great opportunity to reflect on the importance of the contributions by women in the technology sector to date and why more women need to be working in the sector for the UK’s future prosperity.
It has been one of the most tumultuous decades in the history of retail as the industry is dusting itself off and searching for strategies that will provide a more prosperous future. Why, where, when and how customers choose to shop will continue to change and the demands of consumers are radically different to those hitting the high street a decade ago. In 2020, experience, ease and quality will continue to rocket their way to the top of shoppers’ wish lists.
Millennials can be demanding – they want variety, they want value for money, and they want everything to be available to them at the touch of a button – and quickly. Their demands are being met – from fast-fashion retailers delivering clothes to their doorstep the next day to Netflix and Amazon Prime providing hundreds of films and TV shows anywhere, at any time, on a variety of devices.
Businesses have entered an era of eternal data-harvesting, making data an extremely valuable commodity. And for that reason, as with any other high-value asset, it is vulnerable.
2019 was a busy one for hackers. In the last year we saw globally-renowned businesses, public authorities, and even voting systems become victim to crippling instances of system outages, data theft and ransomware attacks. As a result, it’s no surprise that this year, Data Privacy Day has become Data Privacy Month!
The fact that Data Privacy Day is being celebrated for the entire month of January rather than just one day this year is testament to the importance of data security, and reflective of a complacency that persists and urgently needs addressing amongst both businesses and individuals.
The last year was a busy one for hackers. 2019 saw globally-renowned businesses, public authorities, and even voting systems become victim to crippling instances of system outages, data theft and ransomware attacks.
It has been one of the most tumultuous decades in the history of retail. 2019 will end with nearly 6,000 stores across the UK closing their doors as the industry is dusting itself off and searching for strategies that will provide a more prosperous future.
Three key reasons why chatbots will help businesses scale faster and improve CX in 2020.
2019 has been the year of disruption for the Financial Services (FS) sector, largely driven by evolving customer expectations and the influx of new technology. Increasing regulatory requirements, combined with new entrants in the market and shifting economic policies also continue to mould the industry.
2019 has been the year of disruption for the Financial Services (FS) sector, largely driven by evolving customer expectations and the influx of new technology. Increasing regulatory requirements, combined with new entrants in the market and shifting economic policies also continue to mould the industry.
It is forecasted that mobile banking is set to be more popular than visiting a high street bank branch within two years. And as the banking industry continues its digital journey, consumers are coming to expect more control over their data, greater convenience, and “anytime, anywhere” accessibility.
Providing the ultimate customer experience is a key element of any organisation’s strategy to compete with online rivals, retain market share and achieve a recurring profit year on year. Brands that deliver the best customer experience achieve 54 percent higher revenue growth, according to a KPMG Global Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) report.
With many brands offering multi-channel customer experiences, standing out is becoming more challenging. Brands need to build trust to earn customer loyalty and this is where social media can provide the competitive edge.
Online sales accounted for 19.2 per cent of all retailing in October, with consumers now spending more online than ever before, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
To keep up with customers’ demands banks need innovative business models that revolutionise the marketing, delivery and consumption of financial services while also delivering differentiation, competitive advantage and significant growth.
It is forecasted that mobile banking is set to be more popular than visiting a high street bank branch within two years. And as the banking industry continues its digital journey, consumers are coming to expect more control over their data, greater convenience, and “anytime, anywhere” accessibility.
What threats are presenting the biggest risks to businesses this Cyber Security Month and how can they be prevented? Industry experts discuss
October marks European Cyber Security Month. Businesses are embarking on digital transformation journeys; emerging technologies are continuing to transform the way we live and work. At the same time, the cyber threat landscape is continually evolving and expanding, so there’s no time for businesses to sit on their laurels.
This article will outline how to master the most common misconceptions surrounding AI and automation so your business can start reaping the many benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Envisage the future of retail and it’s currently hard to imagine anything other than purchases being made on five-inch screens. It is no secret that the UK high street is struggling to keep up with retail developments driven by the rise of ecommerce, and according to a recent study by Royal Mail, consumers are now doing 80 percent of their shopping online. This has had a massive impact on the sector and challenges brick and mortar stores to transform their approach or risk extinction.
Cyber security is a crucial component to IT that every organisation needs to take into account all year round – not just for a day when big breaches hit the headlines and act as a reminder of the potential risks.
The biggest cyber threats, their consequences and how to protect yourself and your businesses.
Should banks choose between security and customer experience? asks Mark Grainger, VP Europe, at software company Engage Hub. As the risks posed by data breaches and the needs of customers evolve at an ever-accelerating pace, many financial institutions are struggling to find the right balance between security and flawless customer experience.
According to new research, 79% of students “worry about making ends meet”. This means retailers could have an opportunity to offer student discounts in a bid to attract a new demographic. But the real question is, are there other ways to appeal to the student market in the midst of financial struggles?
A year on from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance deadline, long gone is the stream of emails asking for consent, and to some organisations, GDPR has proved an all-round inconvenience and challenge. Any organisations that doubted the severity of compliance have been proved wrong. This year has seen European data protection agencies flexing their muscles, issuing fines totalling €56m for GDPR breaches, from more than 200,000 reported cases – and watchdogs warn that they are just getting started.
It is no secret that the Irish high street is facing a perfect storm of market pressure, from changes driven by the rise of ecommerce, to the damage that Brexit is having on consumer confidence. Ecommerce in Ireland is set to increase by 12.9 per cent this year with the online retail industry expected to be worth 2.2 billion euros at the end of 2019.
The history of augmented reality and virtual reality can be traced all the way back to 1838, when when Charles Wheatstone invented the stereoscope — this technology used the view from each eye to create a 3D image for the user
Oxford Economics’ latest report estimating that robots are expected to ‘replace up to 20 million factory jobs’ by 2030 opened up a heated debate about what the future of the workforce would look like. One of the most worrying potential outcomes being the impact it will have on already stagnating wages.
It is fair to say that UK retailers have been on a tumultuous journey over the last year or so, having had to face a variation of market pressure, challenging e-commerce rivals, not to mention rising rents and tricky trading conditions. It’s become the norm for retailers to be fighting for their survival. However, a way to stop retailers from vanishing off the high street is to keep up to date with the latest technological trends and apply them to their business.
Will the British Airways GDPR fine have a bigger impact than the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
The current conditions for UK high street retailers are far from favourable. Not only are they battling market pressure and challenges from ecommerce competitors, but also increasing rents and tough trading conditions. To ensure survival, retailers today must keep their finger on the pulse of all the latest technological advancements.
It is no secret that the UK high street is facing a perfect storm of market pressure, from changes driven by the rise of ecommerce, escalating rents to unfavourable trading conditions. The key to battling this storm is for retailers to rapidly innovate and stay at the forefront of technological change.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR), the friendly voice that we as consumers have all had a relationship with, often simple, sometimes ugly, but always with little patience. There are many misconceptions about IVR, and the lack of patience from consumers is making the benefits that they are receiving obsolete.
In the year leading up to the 25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to consumers, was best known as a continuous series of arduous rapid-fire, opt-in/opt-out privacy notices from organisations. For businesses, it was the cause of tension, confusion a rush to ensuring compliance for fear of a maximum fine of 4 per cent of global annual turnover, amounting to €20 million.
Seamless customer experiences that balance technology with human touch. As organisations increasingly take a multi-channel approach to customer experience, examining how people interact with them digitally and by phone, this Caledonian Sleeper example is a timely reminder of how neglecting face-face interactions can be very damaging.
Technology truly has the power to move society forward—and we’re seeing it being adopted for good across the world. When it comes to healthcare, for example, AI is being used to process medical research in a way we’ve never seen before. In recent weeks, we’ve seen reports from UCLA that a new AI system can detect prostate cancer with the same levels of accuracy as experienced radiologists.
The chatbot has come a long way since ELIZA was developed in 1966. Improvements in NLP (natural language processing) and automation mean that they are now able to engage in meaningful, flowing conversations with customers in real-time, delivering human-like interactions without the waiting times associated with contacting a call centre. As a result, all kinds of businesses are looking into how they can use chatbots to improve customer experience. But advances in technology does not guarantee success.
We’re more used to automation than ever before. There may have been some grumbling about the self-service checkouts that have become the norm in many supermarkets, but it turns out many people are happy to scan their own shopping in return for the speed that these kiosks offer. Inside the home, it’s a similar story—despite scare stories about always-on surveillance by tech giants like Amazon and Google, people are using Alexa and Google Home every day to adjust their heating and play music
Engage Hub, the data-driven customer engagement company announced the latest release of its NextGen Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution. The new features of the AI-driven technology enable a fully-personalised experience for customers and full cross-channel integration.
Engage Hub announced the latest release of its Next-Gen Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution. The new features of the AI-driven technology enable a fully-personalised experience for customers and full cross-channel integration. The solution, part of the Engage Hub platform, gives IT and contact centre managers the ability to add voice to their systems and provide automation while still offering the best customer experience.
Engage Hub today announced the latest release of its Next-Gen Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution. The new features of the AI-driven technology enable a fully-personalised experience for customers and full cross-channel integration.
In this piece, Simon Brennan, VP sales, Engage Hub, outlines for RetailTechNews the current state of self-service within customer experience. It’s fair to say that self-service in the retail industry has taken huge strides in recent years. Once a gimmicky and unpopular form of customer interaction, chatbots powered by highly advanced AI and machine learning technologies have delivered self-service that is seamless and fast.
When GDPR was finally put into motion earlier last year, and the reems of emails associated with it from online retailers finally stopped, many hoped that for EU citizens a new era of improved personal data security was around the corner. The regulation was very much a watershed moment in the overall debate that has been dominated by increased worries around data misuse and breaches in recent years.
What is best practice when it comes to UX? Unfortunately, a lot of advice out there on ‘user experience’ (UX) directly contradicts other advice. Some of this bad advice is simply out of date, but some is simply wrong – always was, always will be.
How do these myths take hold? Sometimes what makes for good advice is sector-dependent and not universally applicable, other times it’s because of “truthiness”: “Don’t make users click more than three times” sounds like it should be true, even if it isn’t.
For financial services providers, the needs of their customers must be at the heart of their digital transformation. This is true for both fintechs looking to steal business from established players, and those established players looking to protect their market share.
The study, put together alongside Sapio Research and which polled 100 UK-based customer engagement decision makers, argued organisations see customer experience as more important than even profit and revenue growth going forward. 36% of those polled said CX was the top business objective, compared with 34% for net profit and revenue growth, followed by 24% for staff development and 23% for cost reduction.
Customer experience is now more important than even profit and revenue growth for most businesses, but successful implementation is being hampered by siloed systems and people.
You’d be surprised to remember it’s early November, the festive lights have started to go up in Carnaby street, our favourite selection tubs are on the shelves, and the mystery has been lifted to what seasonal flavours we can expect from Starbucks and Costa! Readers, this can only mean one thing; the Christmas period is here!
The big tech companies – predominantly Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (GAFA) – have taken the western world by storm in the 21st century. But none of these companies have officially entered the banking industry in the UK, although the door could be open in the future.
In order to drive customer satisfaction, organisations need to successfully embrace digital transformation – and success boils down to defining measurable goals and then rolling out the technologies, skills and processes needed to achieve them.
Transform or die: Why failing to digitally transform your business will end in disaster
Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Freelance Technology Journalist Kate O’Flaherty explores how technologies are creating opportunities for Mobile Virtual Network Operators. AI customer service, 5G and virtualisation are among the key technologies helping to transform the MVNO market
How can a chatbot improve your customers’ experience? And, if you are going to make an investment, what steps should you take to ensure implementation runs smoothly? Here, Chris Crombie finds out.
The implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is just around the corner, and it is about to usher in an age of improved customer experiences.
Increasingly demanding consumers are redefining the standards for online and mobile banking. Digital savvy customers now use mobile apps on a daily basis to assist with both their routine banking and with longer-term savings, investments and financial planning.
When considering the imminent implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is understandable that many organisations may see the application of stringent privacy laws and the ability to personalise the customer experience as opposing ideals. But with the deadline just a month away, it’s time to have a swift rethink.
We’ve all heard much moaning and groaning around the upcoming GDPR. The work! The fines! The cost! But with just three months to go until the much-maligned new rules become a reality, we wanted to paint a more positive picture, with some success stories of those making GDPR work for them and, dare we say, even using it as a chance for disruption.
How Gordon’s used location-based targeting for selling G&T to 20,000 delayed commuters.
A couple of weeks ago, I travelled out to New Delhi, India as part of a trade delegation visiting the India-UK Tech Summit, along with Prime Minister Theresa May, and the great and the good of the UK’s tech industry
Every year, customer-centric professionals are bombarded with research and studies.
So we’ve compiled a list of some of the statistics that have been of most interest to us and our audience over the last 12 months. Some make for interesting reading. While others are very concerning!
This week has seen another wave of appointments and departures at brands, media owners and agencies. The Drum has rounded up the key moves from the EMEA, APAC and North America regions below.
The exponential rise in digital data over the past decade has changed the way the public and organisations of all kinds engage.
Now every bank, local charity, hospital or public authority, each holds personal data about every customer, patient, client or constituent it comes in contact with.
The way consumers interact with brands through their devices is changing in “the age of voice”.
The latest phase affecting the customer experience is voice interaction. Consumers now have the option to interact with a business without even picking up the phone or talking to a real person. In this age, when time is a luxury for consumers, being able to interact with a business as quickly as possible is the most appealing thing for a customer.
Amazon’s AI-driven personal assistant, Alexa is becoming a more familiar part of many households, with more than 11 million devices sold across the US, UK and German markets before January 2017.
It’s been a difficult 2017 so far for the retail sector: Jaeger collapsed into administration, Rue 21 closed stores, and Debenhams is closing stores to focus on a more digital approach. Many retailers are failing to meet consumer expectations by realigning their approach to a more digitally focused marketing strategy that ensures the retention and growth of their customer base. Digital has revolutionised where and how we can connect with our consumers.
It’s official – poorly targeted and overly frequent digital communications from retailers are turning consumers off. Statistics show a staggering amount of people unsubscribe or simply ignore messages that are so often littering their inboxes, the recipients deciding they are email overkill . . . spam. What’s to be done?
When our attention span can be as short as eight seconds, capturing consumers’ attention is no easy feat. It doesn’t help that in the world of marketing communications, campaigns have traditionally centred on product news whereby a new product is introduced, or an existing product is updated, with the hope that customers will start purchasing it.
We can’t promise it’ll be too cheerful, but hey, the sun’s been out this week. You can’t have it all.
The roundup includes news about ad fraud, online delivery, and digital ads. For even more, head on over to the trusty Internet Statistics Compendium.
A lack of communication from delivery companies is the main reason UK consumers miss scheduled deliveries, with nearly one in four British consumers (23%) saying poor communication has caused them to miss a delivery in the past 12 months, according to new research from Engage Hub.
Consumers have the apps they need and are not looking to add to their collections. Xavier discusses why consumers may block beacon marketing from mass adoption.
Research commissioned by Engage Hub, the data-driven customer engagement solutions company, reveals that a lack of communication from delivery companies is the main reason UK consumers miss scheduled deliveries, with nearly one in four British consumers (23 per cent) saying poor communication has caused them to miss a delivery in the past 12 months.
How often do you visit your bank branch? I’m going to guess it’s a lot less frequently than you used to, say, five years ago. And you wouldn’t be alone – figures show that daily visits to branches have fallen by 32% since 2011 and the number of times people visit a branch is set to almost halve by 2020 as more people favour their smartphones to manage their finances.
Despite all the buzz around beacon technology as the new and exciting frontier of customer engagement, are marketing messages and promotions sent as part of a pre-existing transactional conversation still more effective and less intrusive?
With significant regulatory changes coming into force over the next couple of years, it is clear that key governing bodies want to intensify competition in the financial services industry. The Revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2), for example, will completely change banking as we know it.
Christmas is a time to shine and be remembered by customers for efficient, great service so how can retailers ensure they really do deliver, asks Simon Brennan, vice president of sales Europe at Engage Hub.