Successful CX is not confined to any single industry but cuts across a diverse array of fields, as can be seen in this latest customer wins roundup. The industries represented here include insurance, grocery, off-price retail, healthcare diagnostics, and telecommunications—each benefiting from astute, well-executed CX strategies and programs. Details follow below.
Vonage is Manulife Singapore’s Choice to Deliver Timely Notifications
Vonage, the New Jersey-based global cloud communications provider, has been selected by Manulife Singapore, a regional arm in Asia of the Toronto, Canada-based insurance and financial services behemoth, to enhance customer engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Manulife Singapore is using Vonage’s SMS API to support secure texting while also delivering automated and timely notifications for one-time passwords (OTPs), policy announcements, and promotional messages to customers in the region, an area that includes Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and China. Vonage communication APIs enable businesses to build intelligent customer experiences directly into their existing applications, systems, and workflows, enabling communications across channels and devices for better customer service.
SMS, in particular, remains a vital communication format in the Asia-Pacific region, where mobile penetration continues to rise, with 1.8 billion subscribers expected by 2025. Both the number of application-to-person (A2P) messages and their value are growing as brands add mobile and digital channels to interact with their existing customers and recruit new ones. Approximately 1.3 trillion A2P SMS messages were sent in 2020 in Asia-Pacific, accounting for 70% of all A2P messages worldwide, according to a report from Analysys Mason, the London-based consulting firm specializing in telecoms, media, and technology (TMT).
PowerReviews and Albertsons Partner to Launch Product Ratings and Reviews
PowerReviews and grocery chain Albertsons are partnering to launch product ratings and reviews on the grocer’s retail websites. For the first time, consumers can read and provide product ratings and reviews when shopping online on 11 Albertsons websites, including Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw’s.
Chicago-based PowerReviews is providing ratings and reviews technology and services to Albertsons, the second largest grocery chain in North America with headquarters in Boise, Idaho, including the ability for brands to syndicate their user-generated content (UGC) to related product pages on Albertsons sites to ensure a consistent shopper experience.
Ratings and reviews have become a significant factor in the decision-making process of buyers, with recent research from PowerReviews showing that 83% of grocery shoppers are more likely to purchase a new grocery item online if customer reviews exist for that product.
“Customer-generated ratings and reviews empower purchase decisions,” says Jill Pavlovich, senior vice president of digital customer experience at Albertsons. “We’re proud to be one of the first grocers to offer this authentic conversation with our shoppers about their favorite products.”
SMG Teams Up with Tuesday Morning on New CX Program
Service Management Group (SMG), the Kansas City, Missouri-based enterprise CX and employee experience (EX) management partner to more than 500 brands, has unveiled a new CX program with specialty retailer Tuesday Morning to capture and measure location-level customer feedback across all its stores to boost revenue.
In combination with solicited feedback, Tuesday Morning is using SMG’s always-on digital feedback channel to provide customers with an unsolicited channel that helps the brand understand points of friction and case management to efficiently close the loop with customers. As the central source of feedback data, the smg360® platform provides leadership with real-time program metrics, while role-based reporting gives the field visibility to store-level customer feedback, strategic areas for focus, and targeted insights to improve the customer experience.
One of the original discount retailers and with nearly 500 stores in the US, Dallas-headquartered Tuesday Morning chose SMG for its hands-on approach and breadth of experience across the retail industry to spur operational consistency and increase customer satisfaction.
Tuesday Morning CEO Fred Hand says the company recognized an opportunity to better understand the customer as store traffic started returning to pre-pandemic levels, and its enterprise program with SMG will provide a holistic view of CX and actionable insights for the company. “With SMG’s unique software model and outcomes-based approach, we have a partner that can help us uncover insights that will drive business results,” Hand states.
NICE CXone Selected by MedQuest to Enhance Patient Experiences
NICE, the provider of contact center CX platforms, says its CXone Essentials Suite has been selected by MedQuest Associates, the owner and operator of outpatient diagnostic imaging facilities, to enrich services to patients, health systems, and hospitals. The implementation is part of the ongoing investment of Georgia-based MedQuest to improve its interaction with patients, bolster the company’s provision of self-service options, and boost the effectiveness of employees.
MedQuest will leverage various features of the CXone platform, including intelligent call routing, outbound dialer automation, support for multichannel interactions, and caller sentiment analytics on a cloud-based platform—all of which is aimed at ensuring MedQuest stability and high uptime for the company’s customer support services. Additional CXone Essentials features include a secure self-service format for patients to schedule imaging appointments; and Proactive XS, which creates automated dialer lists that MedQuest employees can use to communicate more easily with clients.
MedQuest partners with hospitals and health systems to develop and execute strategies for outpatient radiology, including mobile MRI unit management, women’s imaging services, and other aspects of end-to-end radiology workflows. The company operates a network of more than 50 imaging centers in the southeastern United States, supported by several contact centers that handle up to a million inbound and outbound interactions every year.
With the deployment of NICE CXone Essentials Suite, MedQuest is introducing new process automations, digital channels, and self-service options to improve efficiency and patient experience. NICE, headquartered in Israel, has offices in more than 30 countries, including its principal US location in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Oracle Helps Nokia Move HR Functions
Oracle and its Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) system has been selected by Nokia to manage all of its HR processes, including recruitment, compensation, and performance management for the Finnish telecom provider’s global workforce in 130 countries around the world.
Founded in 1865, Nokia launched its One Nokia Digital strategy in 2021 to digitalize operations and make the company more competitive. By replacing its on-premises HR systems with the Oracle solution, Nokia will standardize its HR processes on a common data platform to provide consistent EX across teams and to more easily manage and scale HR services globally.
Oracle will also enable Nokia to connect HR processes across an employee’s lifecycle, helping to improve decision-making and reducing operational costs. With AI-powered technology such as digital assistants and new capabilities being added each quarter, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM will make fresh innovations and best practices available for Nokia to operate more efficiently while also supporting the telecom provider’s employees, people managers, and HR professionals.
Lisbeth Nielsen, head of people experience at Nokia, says the Oracle HR system provides a strong foundation to build user-centric digital experiences. “Optimizing employee care and experience is a central part of our people strategy,” Nielsen asserts. “Our aim is to deliver organizational agility, a seamless employee experience, and efficiency gains that support Nokia’s competitiveness.”
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
