Happy Friday! We’re bringing you the latest roundup of industry news. This week, we’re looking at Medallia’s integration with Salesforce, a new product launch by Forsta and Spotify, and new research from inriver about what really drives customer loyalty in the cost-of-living crisis.
Key news
- Medallia launches Frontline Engagement and Quality Management app on Salesforce AppExchange.
- Starting from September 20th, Spotify listeners in the U.S. will be able to purchase and listen to more than 300,000 audiobook titles. While audiobooks represent just a 6%–7% share of the wider book market, the category is growing by 20% year over year.
- Forsta announced the launch of the enhanced online focus group solution InterVu, which is purpose-built for the needs of research professionals and enables focus group leaders to seamlessly facilitate online group discussions with a feature-rich digital experience.
- UK companies in a four-day week pilot reach landmark halfway point of a six-month trial. More than 3,300 employees are getting a paid day off weekly through the course of the trial.
- New research from inriver looking into online shopping behaviours and preferences confirms sustainability is a top priority for consumers when making purchases.
- Contentsquare, the global leader in digital experience analytics, announced it has partnered with ASICS EMEA to support the sportswear giant’s ambitious digital growth strategy. Contentsquare will be providing the ASICS team with in-depth insight into how customers behave online, as well as recommendations for optimising the customer journey across all touchpoints.
- HubSpot, the customer relationship management (CRM) platform for scaling companies, has been positioned by Gartner as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms for the second consecutive year for its offering, Marketing Hub.
- New research from Odigo reveals that 75% of European businesses have invested in AI for customer experience (CX). However, only 20% of business executives rate their own contact centre as delivering industry-leading CX. The survey highlights the trends and evolution in the market, which will be published across three eBooks, analysing: How AI is changing European contact centres, the Natural Language Processing (NLP) challenges in the contact centre industry, and ways contact centres can improve CX using AI.
Medallia launches Frontline Engagement and Quality Management app on Salesforce AppExchange
Medallia, the global leader in customer and employee experience, this week announced its frontline engagement and quality management app is now available on the Salesforce AppExchange. This integration makes it seamless for brands to receive agent-level customer feedback in Salesforce to power service recovery, agent coaching, and quick resolution of customer issues.
Built specifically for teams handling support interactions in Service Cloud, Medallia Frontline Engagement and Quality Management triggers real-time, post-interaction surveys the moment a ticket is closed.
The app is powered by Medallia Agent Connect, which provides personalised, user-friendly surveys that deliver industry-leading response rates. Survey response data is available in Service Cloud and can be aligned with customer or account profiles, ensuring agents have insights on hand to help with issue resolution. Sales and support leadership gain visibility into key service performance metrics like NPS, CES, and agent-level CSAT.
“Contact centre teams are on the frontline of solving customer issues and creating improved experiences,” said Farooq Javed, SVP, Strategic Platform Partnerships, Medallia. “Having real-time, clear, and useful customer insights right in their system of work is empowering for agents and a critical tool to help them make customers feel known and valued.”
In addition to integrating survey feedback in Salesforce, teams can use Medallia Agent Connect for real-time personalised coaching, quality management, and rewards and recognition. This combination of operational data with Agent Connect’s targeted coaching and customer insights helps deliver the best experiences for both customers and agents.
UK companies in 4 Day Week pilot reach landmark halfway point of six months trial
At the halfway point of a groundbreaking six-month trial of a four-day week pilot programme in the United Kingdom, data points and qualitative feedback are flowing in. The indicative research being gathered by 4 Day Week Global reveals a general tenor of positive experiences alongside valuable lessons for some organisations that are striving to change decades of ingrained work cultures and systems.
More than 70 organisations signed up for the six-month trial, which kicked off at the beginning of June and is being run by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with leading think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and Oxford University. More than 3,300 employees are getting a paid day off weekly through the course of the trial.
4 Day Week Global CEO Joe O’Connor says: “The organisations in the United Kingdom pilot are contributing real-time data and knowledge that are worth their weight in gold. Essentially, they are laying the foundation for the future of work by putting a four-day week into practice, across every size of business and nearly every sector, and telling us exactly what they are finding as they go.”
A plurality of views and diversity of approaches to the pilot is evident among respondents to a brief internal check-in survey of the participating companies undertaken around the pilot’s halfway point. A series of questions were posed with a multi-choice answer on a scale of 1 to 5. Of those that responded (41 out of the 70 companies responded):
- 88% of respondents stated that the four-day week is working ‘well’ for their business at this stage in the trial;
- 46% of respondents say their business productivity has ‘maintained around the same level’, while 34% report that it has ‘improved slightly’, and 15% say it has ‘improved significantly;
- On how smooth the transition to a four-day week has been (with 5 being ‘extremely smooth’ and ‘1’ being ‘extremely challenging’), 29% of respondents selected ‘5’, 49% selected ‘4’ and 20% selected ‘3’;
- 86% of respondents stated that at this juncture in the trial, they would be ‘extremely likely’ and or ‘likely’ to consider retaining the four-day week policy after the trial period.
Claire Daniels, CEO at Trio Media, says: “The four-day week trial so far has been extremely successful for us. Productivity has remained high, with an increase in wellness for the team, along with our business performing 44% better financially.”
An anonymous respondent stated, “Radically rethinking the real value of everything you do as a business is never going to be seamless. To just try and cram the same work into shorter hours completely misunderstands the problem we are seeking to fix. The four-day week pilot has already shown us that there are things we could have implemented years ago which would have improved our productivity and offered increased value for the organisations we work with.”
? Is the future of work really 4 day long? Check out our podcast episode with Charlotte Lockhart from 4 Day Week Global movement.
Online shoppers value sustainability over brand loyalty
New research from inriver looking into online shopping behaviors and preferences confirms sustainability is a top priority for consumers when making purchases.
The report by inriveris based on a survey of 6,000 consumers across the US, UK and Germany found a mere 18% of respondents thought it wasn’t important for a brand to showcase their sustainability or eco-practice product information online.
Combined with accurate product descriptions and product availability surpassing any notion of brand loyalty, the report explores the essential elements retailers, and product manufacturers should consider leading up to the Golden Quarter and holiday shopping season.
- Research is king for consumers
With rising living costs and continued supply chain issues, research is king during the purchasing process, with many consumers looking to compare and shop in more than one place to find the best deals. The report found that even if a website provides all the production information, 83% said they would look elsewhere.
What’s more, findings show that brands need to get it right the first time to increase their chances of making a sale. Nearly three quarters (69%) of respondents will not buy a product if the product description is poor.
On top of that, inaccurate online product descriptions left almost half (47%) of respondents feeling frustrated and even 36% feeling angry, with a significant 86% admitting to taking their business elsewhere.
- Instant gratification versus returns
The need for “now” overtakes brand loyalty almost every time, with two-thirds (62%) saying they would switch to a competitive product if their first choice was out of stock, with only 12% saying they would be unlikely to switch.
Despite this need for immediate access to products whenever they want them, the research suggests the reasons behind having to return products could also impact trust and confidence. The most common reasons for returns for those surveyed was the product not being as described (32%), followed by a poor fit (21%) or it being the wrong item (12%).
- Creating the right digital impression
At a time when online experience is critical to the purchasing decision, complete and accurate product information is the first opportunity to make a good impression. In fact, 81% agree that product information was either an essential or very important factor when deciding to buy.
And written descriptions are still seen as the most important detail (39%), ranking above images (25%), customer reviews and ratings (18%), and video (12%). This has interestingly remained somewhat unchanged compared to the survey conducted last year, cementing the critical need for the right information and written content online.
“Our report highlights the need for brands to build a digital shelf customers can rely on. This is true across all sectors, with even B2B industries like manufacturing seeing buyer behavior that now reflects B2C trends. For companies looking to exploit these behaviors, the importance of better product data has never been clearer. Not only to drive revenue and customer experience but to also create the product stories that truly matter,” said Niels Stenfeldt, CEO at inriver.