Customer loyalty is no longer based on price, product, or brand. Gone are the days when traditional loyalty programs could generate brand commitment from customers. As customer behaviors undergo change, today, more than ever with the digital revolution, they seek a good experience overall other factors.
Companies today realize that customer experience (CX) is critical to their business, however, most do not have an executable strategy. Their CX technologies - including customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, contact center platform, point of sale (POS) system, data warehouse system - often work in silos and thus lack a single source of the customer record.
"Companies have to seek 3-4 vendors to build and execute a customer experience strategy and often these work in solos. This becomes expensive, and does not always work in the favor of a client's best interest,” says George Demou, President & CEO, Avtex.
Riding on its 40 years of business expertise, Avtex set out on a different journey, at the beginning of the decade, to cater to the needs of the changing customer behavior patterns.
In 2012, Avtex built an end-to-end customer experience technology portfolio, known as Avtex 360. As part of this portfolio, Avtex maintains strategic partnerships with multiple “best of breed” CX technology providers and implements their solutions, coupled with the company’s own IP products, to deliver integrated customer experience environments.
“We compete against companies that offer CRM, contact center, data/AI, CX consulting, or IP for CX applications. We have integrated all of these capabilities into our customer experience platform," adds George.
Avtex: About the Company
Avtex offers consulting services, software, cloud subscriptions, and technology support under a unique framework, called Avtex 360, to tap into the rapidly growing demand for integrated CX solutions.
"An end-to-end CX solution is having the knowledge to address all aspects of your customer experience — from transformation planning to orchestration. It is about understanding how things like journey mapping and CRM work together — and how to make them work for your business,” adds George.
Avtex's end-to-end CX solution helps with:
Customer Experience Strategy: Avtex helps with developing a comprehensive and actionable strategy as the first step in creating experiences that amaze customers.
Customer Experience Understanding: Avtex helps with developing comprehensive knowledge needed to drive effective customer experience.
Customer Experience Visualization: Avtex helps in building a current state Journey Map (consisting of customer’s current state experience and current state of a company’s customer experience delivery) with a cross-functional team and aligning on the most important pain points on the journey.
Customer Experience Design: Avtex helps with designing experiences, with your customers in mind, in order to meet and exceed the expectations of your customers.
Customer Experience Enablement: Avtex helps companies to prioritize and implement clearly defined roles, processes, and tools to support all facets of CX delivery.
App Development: Avtex helps companies to solve a unique business challenge with no readily available, out-of-the-box solution with their innovative approach.
Cloud Services: Avtex helps companies to avail the full benefit of cloud-based solutions by offering a know-how of the technologies and processes involved, and a clearly defined plan of action.
Contact Center: Avtex offers effective technology, well-trained and empowered agents, and clear processes to ensure the success of individual interactions and the contact center as a whole.
Unified Communications Strategy: Avtex helps in the planning and creation of a holistic unified communications strategy to ensure accurately, and consistent flow of information across departments, platforms, devices, networks, and locations.
Employee Productivity: Avtex helps companies to implement specific technology tools and best practices – and trains employees to use them – thus increasing productivity and morale.
CRM: Avtex offers cutting-edge CRM solutions to help companies to manage important information related to each relationship, be it with customers, or with partners and vendors.
Data and Analytics: Avtex helps companies to develop a strategic plan of action and technology to support it in order to put data to work for your business.
Avtex: We Help You Provide 'Wow' Customer Experience
Today, customers want companies they do business with to 'know them', 'help them', and 'value them'. They want to interact via the channels they prefer. And, they expect an experience that is better than the last best experience they had.
This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. AI can help analyze customers on a real-time basis. It allows companies to have access to various customer data sets, such as what products they use, who they have interacted with, and what information is available regarding those interactions. This invaluable information can help brands offer customers the best option and shape their optimal journey and experience.
"Data and AI are critical to any successful CX strategy. We embed AI not only in our CRM strategy but also in our contact center and holistic data strategy. These customer insights help us intelligently handle inbound inquiries, manage propensity to procure, and help us be proactive in making changes prior to a customer issue even arising," adds George.
Avtex also uses external data resources to manage customer insights.
“We have implemented this approach for a client in the financial sector. Now, that client has access to invaluable data whenever a customer contacts them for a loan, including details on approval qualifications, at what rate and limit amounts. This takes an arduous prequalification process down to a few minutes.”
Avtex has built the company’s culture around three core values - Flexibility, Giving, and Transparency. The company strives for excellence in what it does so that their clients can do the same for their customers.
"My wife recently had to call one of our major clients in the consumer goods space and she was amazed that the authentication was seamless. She was automatically connected to the same person (“Becky”) she had talked to the previous day. Becky was given my wife’s profile prior to connecting, started with some fun relationship small talk before quickly finishing her transaction, and ultimately left a lasting impression. What my wife did not know is that they have 4 contact center locations and nearly a thousand agents logged in!" adds George.
Avtex: Leadership
George Demou, President & CEO
George became CEO of Avtex in 2012. Prior to coming in to run Avtex George was the National Sales Leader for IKON Solutions. He then acquired and ran his own data security, networking, and IP telephone company that became known as Transcend. George is a master at building high performing teams and building a culture of trust, flexibility, and superior technical talent.
Future Outlook
Avtex will continue to invest and develop its IP to help solve current and future issues. It has built an application that does mobile facial authentication. The company has also built an application, called Interaction Portal, which allows one single agent desktop that interfaces with all the systems in the backend. Avtex has also built an application that provides AI embedded mobile CRM management for field employees.
"Our goal is to push the boundaries of Genesys and Microsoft technologies while continuing to fill gaps and drive CX innovation with our own products," adds George.
Avtex's revenue grew from 40 million in 2014 to over 150 million in 2020. The company will continue to innovate in areas such as CX technology integrations, AI embedded digital journeys, and commerce intelligence.
"I don’t want to reinvent what is working so well. Instead, we will continue to innovate around what we currently do. Our growth is the outcome of our clients' appreciation for what we have been doing for them; help build brands by providing extraordinary customer experiences. We want to keep up the momentum. This has a long runway and many innovative opportunities to come," concludes George.
Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Website: www.avtex.com