Additionally, Acefone was recognized as the Most Scalable CPaaS Platform at the Insurance Innovation Summit & Awards 2025. Shella Seth, Chief Business Officer of Acefone, received the award on behalf of the company at the event. 

The Award-Winning AceX Platform: Transforming CX 

Acefone’s CXaaS platform, AceX, has been designed with the latest CX trends and market evolution in mind.  

Here’s what sets it apart: 

• True Omnichannel Communication: AceX integrates multiple communication channels—voice, video, messaging, and email—into a single, unified solution, ensuring seamless customer engagement across platforms. 

• Scalability and Flexibility: Built on a robust cloud infrastructure, AceX scales effortlessly to meet business demands, providing uninterrupted service even during peak periods. 

• Advanced Analytics: AceX’s real-time analytics offer actionable insights, helping businesses monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize CX strategies. 

• Security and Compliance: Acefone adheres to the highest data security and regulatory compliance standards, ensuring customer trust and satisfaction. 

Acefone’s CPaaS Excellence 

Acefone received the Most Scalable CPaaS Platform at the Insurance Innovation Summit 2025, for empowering businesses with agile and cost-effective cloud communication solutions.

This award validates the relentless pursuit of excellence in providing businesses with highly adaptable and robust communication infrastructure. AceX enables enterprises across industries to streamline communication, enhance engagement, and drive growth at scale.

Leadership’s Message 

Ashish—This recognition reflects our dedication to empowering businesses with the tools they need to deliver exceptional customer experiences. As CX continues to evolve, Acefone remains committed to innovation and excellence, helping our clients build lasting relationships with their customers. 

Shella Seth—While Acefone believes in scaling its solutions to meet customer expectations, it also fosters scalable teams. We have formed new team structures, bringing in enterprise-level experts in the operations and tech teams. This new hierarchy creates space for dynamic growth at all levels.  

A Vision for the Future of CX and Cloud Communication 

As businesses evolve, Acefone remains committed to delivering industry-leading solutions that empower them to build meaningful and lasting relationships with their customers. Acefone is focused on driving further advancements in CX and CPaaS technologies, ensuring businesses stay ahead in an evolving market. 

The post Acefone making headway with recognitions as an industry leader appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

His specialty lies in advising FTSE 100 & Fortune 250 companies on assessing, measuring and re-designing their customer experience. Pennington was one of the first pioneers of good CX, seeing that there were ways to attract customers but none to keep them happy.

“Back around the turn of the century CX was just in its infancy, it was dominated by research businesses that told you the problems with your customer service,” he said. “But not how to fix them. Advertising agencies were creating amazing campaigns to build demand, but creating expectations that could not be delivered by the operation.” 

According to him, there was a big gap in the market for a firm to take the research and advertising data and translate that into deliverable experiences. 

“While it is true that just because there is a gap in the market it does not necessarily mean there is market in the gap, fortunately, our hunch turned out to be true,” he said.  

He has since gathered two decades of experience in CX, working across the world for top companies. We asked him for some quick advice he could give us from his vast repertoire. 

What strategies do you follow while creating a business plan for the operations group?

I focus on real-time in-year deliverables where we can engage as many individuals a possible across functions and where we can demonstrate line of sight business along with measurable improvements. I make sure to focus on the quarter ahead but with an eye on the longer-term cumulative goal. Ensure that your deliverables are customer-outcome focused.  

So, start with what you want to achieve, by when, then create the plan of actions. 

Based on your experience, what are some common mistakes that businesses make that hinder their customer service?

Many believe that CX is very complicated, that it is an expensive undertaking and that it is a project. In reality it is a never ending journey of changes and adjustments. 

They spend too much time fixing recurring problems rather than redesigning the experience based on the known issues. Data, information and research are too often used as reasons not to act. The phrase, “we need more data” means it is not turned into actionable change; too many times the default is to create a huge program and then to wait for the 2-3 years it might take to deliver on that.  

In the meantime the world has changed, you need to make hundreds of tiny changes that require little or no governance. When it is a collective cross functional approach making lots of tiny changes that will really evolve your CX/EX to the next level, in the words of Nike “Just Do It!” 

How do you implement your strategy at the ground-level, when dealing with a frustrated customer for example?

I take them back to basics. I destroy the often-held myths that hold leaders back from fully embracing the huge commercial wins available from integrating CX/EX as PART and only part of their business strategy and business solution toolkit.   

By doing this I give people the confidence that they can succeed, then I go ahead and prove it to them. Now you have a fully engaged sponsor. 

Remember that CX is not an input, it is the output of activities inside your company.  We are in the memories business in CX, and this is about designing positive ones, attention to detail is critical to success. Remember customer centricity is rarely if ever the answer, it is about dialing up the CX component of your business strategy to the right level for your brand position. 

Acefone’s Virtual contact center solution allow for you to collect and access all the data you need. Our manager portal allows for managers to listen in on calls, advise the agent privately and get downloadable data on agent performance. Furthermore, the system can be tailor-made for your needs, your customers and your agents. Call us today to get a free trial and plans starting as low as $19.99. 

About the expert:

Alan Pennington is a CX expert and one of the world’s Top 25 Global CX Thought Leaders and Influencers for 2019, 2020 and 2021.  

He began his career at the Royal Mail where he was retail director and eventually became commercial director of its subsidiary call center business. He was then managing director of UK-based management consulting firm, Mulberry, after which he began freelance, working across the world with companies like Emirates, Vodafone, Reed Elsevier, City & Guilds, British Council and Aviva. Currently, he sits on the board of SuiteCX in an advisory role.  

His specialties are customer experience management, CX strategy, CX team development, education and deployment, CX experience design and measurement, CX organizational design, CX coaching and Advisory.

The post The key to good CX is to use your data well: Alan Pennington appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

Surprising. One would expect most companies to work for a larger customer base rather than extract the most from their present clientele. But that’s precisely what this is: Quality over quantity. 

A loyal customer base means more opportunities to upsell and cross-sell your products, fueling your growth. To build this loyalty, businesses need to invest in developing a dynamic customer experience strategy.  

Debbie Akwara, founder of the NicheCX group, is a customer experience (CX) expert who has been helping businesses scale up by working on their CX practices. We picked her brain for some new insight on the topic. 

Products vs product experiences 

What sets a company apart is not only a high-quality product, but one that comes with good product experience. But the only way to understand what experience a customer is looking for is through regular feedback and communication.  

In Akwara’s words, “If, as a customer, I get value from using a product, i.e., it solves my problem, for sure I will be happy.” She adds, “Customer feedback is highly valued because it is how businesses know if they’re delivering value to customers through their products or services.”  

When a customer communicates that they are satisfied, it helps stay on track with the services provided. When they say otherwise, it is important to ask why and how to make those changes accordingly. 

This process will boost your word-of-mouth marketing, with existing customers referring their friends and family to your business.  

Read for more details about “Remote Working“.

Hidden barriers faced by businesses 

Brands often have a tough time communicating their intentions with their customers. 

Akwara said, “The real barrier faced by businesses while building brand trust is brand motive.” 

According to the Harvard Business Review, there are 10 high impact emotional motivators that cause customers or employees to trust a brand: 

1. Being the person you want to be 
2. Enjoying a sense of well-being 
3. Standing out from the crowd  
4. Protecting the environment 
5. Confidence in the future 
6. Sense of belonging 
7. Sense of freedom 
8. Succeeding in life  
9. Feeling secure 
10. Sense of thrill 

If your business reflects any or all of these in your brand motives, you can build trust with your customers and employees effortlessly. 

Customer service practices to achieve loyal customers 

The practices that help businesses gain loyal customers can be put together as the LACID principle. ‘Lacid’ is an actual word, but to Akwara, it’s an acronym encompassing the practices she recommends for businesses to retain their customers. It goes like this; 

L- Listen to the customer’s feedback and track their experiences before and after buying your products. Check whether your products add value to their lives or not. 

A- Act according to their feedback. Make changes to your brand motives and products to match the customer’s needs. 

C- Communicate with your customers to assure them their feedback has been looked into. 

I- Innovate new ideas to meet customer and employee demands and keep the relationship alive. 

D- Design structures and products that align your innovations with the customer’s demands, fear, and expectations. 

Implementing self-service in the customer support department 

Akwara’s thoughts about implementing self-service in customer support is that “it has to take into cognizance the organization’s customers, their preferred channel of communication and of customer support operations (people, processes and systems).” 

What that means is that businesses should consider customer expectations and experiences. Simply adding self-service options to your organization might have a negative impact on your branding. 

There are many companies that add self-service channels to their operations without consulting with the frontline operators. As a result, customers are driven away rather than being reeled in. 

Simply adding self-service technology from big name brands to your business is not going to benefit you from any end. If you do apply it to customer support, make sure they are oriented towards improving your customer’s experience. 

You can also work on designs and technology inspired by respected brands that use self-service in their businesses as a mode to improve customer support. 

Read for more details about “customer experience strategies”

The bottom line 

“My tip on how professionals can scale up their businesses effectively, is to let customer needs and not business needs inspire innovation. Don’t be caught in a vortex by Keeping up with the Kardashians and doing everything your competition does,” Akwara says. 

What Akwara means here is that businesses should be customer centric. They should prioritize customer needs and expectations over everything else. It helps innovate and come up with products and services that help customers solve their problems and improve their state of life. 

It’s even better if you provide a unique solution to your customers that no one else does. Akwara suggests businesses “start with the need of the customer, the gap in the market and how their solution can solve real problems that customers have.” Ultimately, this practice leaves a positive impact on the brand reputation and helps scaling up faster. 

The post Debbie Akwara explains how customer experience is the key to business growth appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

Some say a solid business plan, some emphasize a well-defined pricing strategy, and some still swear by a talented employee pool.

But there’s one most important aspect: Enhanced and personalized customer experience.

According to Gartner, the modern customer wants to be satisfied. 78% of customers would back out of a purchase after a poor customer experience. This whopping number is enough to convince business owners to ramp up efforts in the CX domain. However, many often treat it as an 11th-hour task.

CX Expert Jim Bass sits down with Acefone to discuss why this shouldn’t happen. Bass has been in the industry “before it was even called CX,” a certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), a CX-Pro, and the VOC manager at Verizon’s SaaS division.

What’s the most crucial part of building a CX plan?

It’s empathy. Demonstrating true customer empathy requires us to be empathetic to everyone we encounter, both personally and professionally.

You cannot turn empathy on and off for specific people or segments. To be good at empathy, we have to practice it with our family, friends, team members, bosses, and peers, as well as with people who serve us in restaurants, retail stores, and the person in line with us at the subway.

To truly understand empathy, one must know how it differs from sympathy. We consistently demonstrate this and walk the talk for our children, team members, spouses, friends, and strangers.

How does one optimize the customer’s online journey?

Listen to the customer. Don’t assume you know what’s best for your customer. Instead, find out what they are currently experiencing. Deeply understand the ‘what, how, and why’ of their experience expectations and how they impact them or their business. Once you know this, design an improvement model and ask the customer to validate it before, during, and after the launch. The goal is to keep listening.

How important is it to build personal and deep connections with customers?

This is a part of the equation but does not tell the entire story.

What if the employees with whom deep relationships are built leave the company? What if the customer contacts with whom deep relationships are built leave their company?

Culture drives much of this. Businesses must develop a culture of closing the loop with customers and employees in every interaction (not just survey responses).

This type of focus generates a culture of advocacy, empathy, and listening. Focus on this first; deep relationships will become sustainable during employee and leadership turnover.

What is the impact of digitalization in the world of CX?

This can be either awesome or disastrous. Many businesses are ‘transforming’ digitally to reduce costs. When cost reduction is the driver, CX suffers further.

However, when the experience of the customers and employees is the driver of digitalization, the result can reap great rewards. Remember, technology should add value to the experience rather than replace it.

Can you suggest ways businesses can use customer data and insights to increase engagement and drive revenue?

One of the best ways to create better engagement using customer data and insights is to share what you’ve learned from the data with your customers.

• Let your customers know what they are telling you in aggregate
• Tell them you want to take action and have a sincere desire to improve
• Ask them to help you validate/prioritize the improvements
• Close the loop with their feedback when you’ve delivered.
• These four items are the path to improving and cultivating engagement and driving revenue through re-purchases, renewals, and add-on products and services.

What are your thoughts on the rise of chatbots?

My thoughts on this are to tread carefully when it comes to chatbots. The chatbots and other digital interfaces must add value to the experience.

My experiences with chatbots as a consumer have not been good. Initially, it felt like they could help me, but they could not. They waste my time and frustrate me. They don’t understand my problem or question and then provide incorrect information. Or they direct me to a phone number, which I was looking for when the chatbot popped up and enticed me to interact with them.

Remember that chatbots interact with humans of all different perspectives, needs, cultures, and education levels. Invest heavily in their design and put them through many test scenarios. Design, design, design! The chatbot’s purpose cannot be to reduce costs for the business—the purpose must first be to add value to the experience or don’t do it.

Can you share some tips for newcomers on successfully delivering a personalized experience to their customers?

Active listening. Don’t assume anything. When you think and act with empathy, you will understand what the customer needs and wants. When businesses think about delivering a personalized experience, they must first consider ‘why’ they want to provide one.

Is it more important than delivering a low-effort experience? If the effort in the experience has not been significantly reduced, then no amount of personalization will matter.

Before you go

While he provided many insights into achieving specific objectives, his overall message can be summarised in one word—listening. Business owners should not assume they know their customers’ preferences and experiences.

Establishing a two-way communication stream with your customers is critical in building a successful CX plan. Bass says this is one of the most credible methods for designing and measuring a CX strategy’s success.

Acefone’s cloud phone system automation and features help your clients listen more. Once set up, your agents can save time on dialing, filtering, and gathering caller information. All they are left with is communicating with customers and helping them solve their problems.

The post CX Expert Jim Bass on how to improve CX through better communication  appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

In such a saturated market, startups need to stand out from the crowd. However, most of them focus on scaling up rather than building a loyal customer base. And the latter is what makes the difference.  

But how do you ensure that your customers remain loyal? 

The answer is quality customer experience. 

Brad Cleveland, the founding partner and former CEO of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), shared some insight on this with us. During our recent discussion on customer experience and startups, we talked about how startups can retain their customers.  

How can startups earn customer loyalty right off the bat 

The best way startups can ensure that their customers stick longer is to establish a broad understanding of quality customer experience throughout their organization. Cleveland says, “Build a customer-focused culture. Goals, objectives, what you celebrate—everything should be centred on customers.” 

Every employee from the bottom to the top, must have this factor engraved in their mind. To ensure this, you must communicate your goals with them. Set benchmarks for customer experience so that every employee can strive for their fulfillment.  

Ensure regular communication with your employees, and also your customers through direct conversations, social posts, product reviews, operational data, etc. The idea is to direct the company’s objectives towards the needs and expectations of the customers. 

Ensuring a better customer journey 

Find out ways to gain information about your customers’ experiences. Use surveys, forums, interviews, or employee enactments. In those enactments, ask your employees to act on what the customers go through during their experience with your business. In the meantime, surveys and interviews can help you get direct information from the customers and employees. 

To support this concept even more, have departments collaborate to come up with better designs and processes that resonate deeply with the customers’ unmet expectations. Organise operations like marketing, billing, product management, contact centers, etc. to better suit the customers. 

Lastly, you want to establish effective governance. Having control over how the departments churn out results matching your objectives, ensures a better buyer’s journey. 

Maintaining minimal service costs without affecting quality 

—Ignore customer service at your peril— 

Customer service is your way of telling customers that you value your relationship with them and understand what they need. You can take the information that you gain from their feedback and use it to structure your designs and processes. 

Hence Cleveland suggests—that customer feedback is something that gives you insight to what they experience, while customer service gives you the chance to respond accordingly. It is your golden opportunity to show your customers how much you value their inputs and needs.  

He further says “Customer service can help you see where and how to improve, simplify products and services, fine tune processes, etc.—all of which can reduce the need for customer service. So, ironically, you have to make an investment in customer service to keep those costs down.” 

With that, you get the significance of customer service costs. You must invest actively in customer service to keep the customers satisfied which can help you keep those expenses down. 

The importance of customer feedback to improve overall service experience 

We just read that customer feedback is a tool that tells you about the customer’s expectations. To know truly how important it is, you must listen to the experts here. In Mr Cleveland’s words, “feedback from customers and employees is like oxygen.” 

He talks about the “Voice of customer (VoC) program” and finds it highly strategic. He further explains “the process and initiative captures a wide range of feedback, analyzes it, identifies priorities, and ensures the organisation is taking action.” 

Nonetheless, there aren’t many organisations that give importance to customer feedback as much as they should. Those who do it at all, use surveys as the only means to gather feedback, and still don’t look into it. 

Therefore, the key factor that’s going to help you stand out, is utilising customer feedback. Listen to what the customers have to say and design your processes in that manner. 

Creating a customer-centric thinking in your organisation 

Cleveland calls this “ developing a culture of customer advocacy.” It entails the actions you take to keep your organisation focused on doing what is best for your customers. In return, your customers advocate for you and your business. 

To bring this practice into full effect, you must encourage it into your conversations and operations. Teach your employees to advocate for your customers’ needs and operate accordingly. Doing so might require you to realign your business’s vision, objectives, and functioning to do right by the customers. 

Is Artificial Intelligence an ally? 

AI is a powerful tool, yet not many companies are utilising it at its full potential. While it is quietly and significantly improving customer experience, its effects are not properly being looked into.  

On the other hand, there are a few companies that have been making headway with it. AI has been working hand-in-hand with employees to improve the customer’s journey and enhance the human touch simultaneously. It has been able to reduce many working hours spent doing lengthy, repetitive, mundane and less important tasks. 

According to Mr Cleveland, “most are working in tandem with employees, enabling technology to do what it does best—and humans to do what we do best.” Therefore he suggests us to look at AI as an ally rather than a replacement for humans. 

The verdict 

The single solution that will make startups survive and grow is focusing on providing their customers with the best experience possible. Give importance to customer feedback, and allow that insight to reflect in your services. The more you focus on satisfying your customers, the longer they will stay with you and even bring more with them. In return, your business will flourish not just today, but also in the long game. 

If you’re a startup too, and wish to get the same results, we can help you do that. At Acefone, we focus tremendously on quality customer services which is why we have also been rated as one of the best in the industry by Capterra.  

You can check out our solutions page to know more about our products and services. You can also book a call by simply following this link here. 

About The Expert 

Mr Brad Cleveland is a speaker, consultant and author. He has worked across 45 states and 60 countries, with clients like Apple, American Express, USAA, University of California. All the more, he still serves at the ICMI as an advisor, and other organizations as a keynote speaker, and workshop leader.  

One of his bestselling books is– Leading the Customer Experience: How to Chart a Course and Deliver Outstanding Results. It has been nominated among numerous lists for best reads on CX in 2021. 

The post How startups can retain their customers long term with Brad Cleveland appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

Any successful business owner will tell you the same, however, maintaining high service standards is easier said than done. 

Dr. Joseph Michelli, a CX expert with decades of experience, sheds light on methods companies can use to boost customer experience. He comes with experience from industry giants like HP, Fiat, Starbucks, Volkswagen, and many others who always place their customers before their business. Here’s what Dr. Michelli has to share. 

Basic principles you must follow to connect better with customers. 

Superlative customer experience starts with a genuine interest in service and requires servant leadership from the top of an organization. Customer service as a concept must reflect your mission, vision, values, and woven into every brand touchpoint. 

How customer insights help strengthen relationships and business communications? 

The more you listen, empathize, and design around personas that reflect your core customer segments, the more success you will enjoy. The days of a one-size-fits-all experience are over. Similarly, you can’t be everything to everyone—design around 3 or 4 customer segments. 

Listening and empathic design is a never-ending cycle. What you learn about and develop for customers today can be irrelevant by next week depending upon the speed of change for a customer cohort. 

Share some ways that startups can adopt to ‘wow’ their customers. 

Start by understanding what your key customer segments want, need, and desire. Focus on delivering solutions that consistently meet those expectations and fulfill their satisfaction. From there onwards, work consistently on over-delivering expectations at moments when they need you the most. 

What are the best practices to follow for filtering out non-value customers for efficiency? 

Ask your customers, observe them, and design value-based models on what you hear and observe. Also, iteratively improve your people, processes, and technologies using agile methodologies. Always listen, test, and enhance your offerings. 

Give some tips about how businesses can identify the point of most vulnerability to losing customer’s trust. 

Not all customer touchpoints are created equal. Behavioral economists have researched the most memorable moments in a typical customer journey. High-value moments include arrivals, transitions, pains/peaks, and endings. You should triage your resources to engage customers operationally and emotionally at these critical moments along their journey with your brand. 

Ever encountered situations where employee experience impacts customer experience? 

There is ample research to show a high correlation between employee and customer experience.  

An example from my work with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company shows how small improvements in team member experience (as measured by the Gallup Q-12 Employee Engagement Survey) reflect similar improvements in customer engagement (as measured by the Gallup CE-11).  

A good rule of thumb is, “it must live inside the walls of an organisation, if it is going to be experienced outside the walls.” 

Can you share how you dealt with demanding challenges that you faced during the pandemic? 

I pivoted during COVID-19 to virtual consulting and engaged clients with in-depth and personal conversations that focused on their fears, challenges, and needs.  

One of the byproducts of those shifts was a McGraw-Hill-published book Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic – Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges. 

It features insights and tips on coping with acute and sustained challenges—as shared by me and over 140 other CEOs, Presidents and senior leaders of companies like Microsoft, Google, and Marriott. 

Any insights that can help business managers utilize loyalty for more conversions? 

Whether you are converting leads to sales or seeking to turn an existing customer into a repeated buyer, the formula is the same—get it right as often as you can. ‘Make it right’ when a breakdown occurs, reduce the effort of your prospect or customer, and slightly exceed expectations with a personal touch. 

Would you like to share some customer experience lessons you learned while writing? 

I am blessed to have written ten business books about brands like Starbucks, Mercedes-Benz, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Airbnb, and Zappos. Despite the differences between these brands and their leaders, I’ve come to believe that all business is personal, lasting success requires a constant desire to serve others, and your impact depends on envisioning a legacy and making choices to make that legacy a reality. 

The Wind Up 

Your customer’s input holds valuable information. These inputs give your business direction towards a more secure and sustainable future. A dialer can be a handy tool as it helps you connect more intimately with your customers. 

Acefone’s dialler has a smart AI that saves your agents’ time spent on manually calling numbers. It filters out unanswered calls, spam, and busy numbers and connects only when there’s a human on the other side. 

If the call goes unanswered, it moves to the next number in the list, and dials them. This way, your agents focus on making meaningful interactions with the customers. You can learn more about Acefone’s auto dialer.

About Author 

Dr. Joseph Michelli is not just a CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional), he is also a #1 Bestselling Author for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times. Some of his bestselling books include– ‘The Starbucks Experience’, ‘Prescription for Excellence’ and his most recent one being– ‘Stronger through adversity’. 

He is an astounding speaker on leadership and is considered a role model by many. Apart from how amazing he is in his professional life, Dr. Michelli is also committed to social causes associated with curing cancer and abating world hunger. 

The post Expert Opinion: Dr. Joseph Michelli draws on his experiences to provide fool-proof CX tips appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

The Fascination Behind a Career in CX

Solomon’s obsession with improving customer experience began so early that he recalls pointing out service flaws even as a child. His professional journey took off when he co-authored a book about creating legendary hospitality principles. Inspired by his experience building a manufacturing business and his co-author’s tenure with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Since then, he’s written four books and worked with some of the most customer-centric brands worldwide. 

The Fundamentals of Exceptional Customer Service

Solomon emphasizes that good customer service starts with selecting the right people for the job. Using his memorable WETCO framework, he identifies the key personality traits of effective customer service representatives: 

• Warmth 
• Empathy 
• Teamwork 
• Conscientiousness 
• Optimism 

Additionally, he advises companies to: 

1. Match the style of service to the customer and venue. 
2. Avoid the “cliff of dissatisfaction” by meeting customers’ expectations of timeliness. 
3. Adapt to the rapidly changing digital and social media-driven landscape. 

De-escalating a Furious Customer: The MAMA Method

Handling angry customers is a common challenge in CX, and Solomon has a proven system for de-escalating such situations: 

1. Make time to listen. 
2. Acknowledge and, if appropriate, apologize. 
3. Achieve a Meeting of Minds to align on solutions. 
4. Act promptly and follow up. 

This structured approach ensures customers feel heard, respected, and supported. 

The Power of Recognition in Customer Experience

Solomon believes that recognition is one of the most overlooked aspects of CX. He shares the story of a longtime customer, Mrs. Gold, who owns a large number of cats. By taking a few seconds to personalize interactions—playfully referencing her “menagerie” of cats—the company delivers a “wow of recognition” that transforms a transactional call into a memorable moment. 

On Writing and Future Projects

Solomon’s latest book, Ignore Your Customers (and They’ll Go Away): The Simple Playbook to Deliver the Ultimate Customer Service Experience, offers a roadmap for creating exceptional CX. It’s available now, with a paperback release coming in August. 

When asked about future books, Solomon teased the idea of a memoir titled Paid to Complain, humorously adding his wife’s suggested subtitle: (But My Wife Listens for Free). 

Takeaway 

Micah Solomon’s insights reinforce the idea that customer experience is both an art and a science. By hiring the right people, personalizing interactions, and employing structured recovery methods, businesses can transform ordinary services into extraordinary experiences. 

The post Unveiling the Secrets Excellence with CX Expert Micah Solomon appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

Acefone had the privilege of interviewing a seasoned leader in the field of CX, who shared invaluable insights from their journey—Diane Magers. 

Diane is not just a CX expert, but also the founder of Experience Catalysts.  

Let’s look at some of the highlights from our discussion with her: 

1. What drew you to the field of Customer Experience? 

“A CEO at my first company with a leadership role believed in understanding and satisfying customer needs above all else. This perspective, especially in the early 1990s, was ahead of its time. For me, the human side of business and its potential to impact outcomes was deeply compelling. My background as a clinical psychologist, with a passion for human behavior and needs, made CX a perfect fit. I’ve always been a lifelong learner, forward thinker, and connector, so this profession aligned seamlessly with my values.” 

2. Is there a one-size-fits-all approach to improving CX?

“Customer Experience and Experience Management now have structured frameworks, competencies, and certification opportunities. While there’s a common model that can be applied universally, the execution depends on an organization’s ability to shift its mindset and operations to prioritize the customer’s perspective over its own.” 

3. What was the biggest turning point in your 25-year CX journey?

“Becoming the CEO of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) was transformative. It gave me the opportunity to connect with hundreds of practitioners and learn how they innovatively reshaped their organizations through Experience Management.” 

4. Can you share memorable experiences that defined your career?

Some of the most defining moments include: 

• Building connections with a network of incredible experience professionals. 

• Leveraging my deep background in psychology to understand customer needs. 

• Acquiring advanced business and leadership knowledge to grasp the critical relationship between CX and business value creation. 

• Sustained involvement with CXPA, which has been instrumental throughout my career. 

5. What factors do businesses often overlook in CX delivery?

“Many businesses miss the connection between their results and the experiences they create. They underestimate the importance of employee experiences—the foundation for defining, designing, and delivering exceptional customer experiences. Employee engagement is crucial for success.” 

6. Advice for entrepreneurs and startups from the founder of Experience Catalysts

“This is a golden era for new entrepreneurs and startups. The dynamic marketplace offers immense opportunities for innovation, agility, and redefining ways of working. To stand out, you need to be a thought leader, a learner, and a forward thinker. Focus on People, Purpose, and Proaction to thrive.” 

7. How can businesses enhance CX during challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic?

“Businesses must revisit their core purpose—building value for customers. This involves understanding customer needs and creating experiences that foster stronger relationships with products and services. It’s about engaging with customers on a deeper level, even during uncertain times.” 

8. Best practices for ensuring seamless customer experiences

“Journey management and orchestration are essential. Organizations must understand the current experience and implement purposeful changes to shape a desired future experience. This approach must remain flexible to adapt to evolving expectations and emerging technologies.” 

9. The role of technology in the future of CX

“Two guiding principles for CX and technology are: 

1. Define the experience you want customers to have, then use technology to enable that experience. 

1. Technology makes things happen, but humans determine its role in their lives. 

Human-centered brands focus on meeting customer and employee needs before turning to technology as an enabler.” 

Final Thoughts 

The insights from Diane underscore the importance of human-centric approaches, thoughtful innovation, and the integration of technology in redefining Customer Experience. As businesses continue to evolve, these principles serve as a valuable guide for creating meaningful and impactful experiences for customers.

The post Insights from a CX Leader Diane Magers: Redefining Customer Experience for the Modern Era appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

Heverton Anunciacao, a global customer experience (CX) expert, shares his incredible journey on how CRMs help enhance customer services and ultimately create long-lasting customer relationships.  

He also provides valuable insights into the evolving world of customer interactions, technology’s role, and empathy’s significance in customer service. In this interview with Acefone, Heverton sheds light on his experiences, challenges, and strategies for success. 

A Journey into Customer Service: From IT to CX Excellence 

Acefone: How would you describe your journey of becoming a customer service expert? Tell us all about it. 

Heverton: I began my career in information technology (IT) in 1983. However, by the end of 1999, I found myself disillusioned with IT—it felt too static and detached from practical results. A friend suggested I explore CRM, and I jokingly asked, “Is that something you eat?” (laughs). That suggestion changed my life. Transitioning into the dynamic world of marketing, sales, and cloud contact center brought daily challenges but offered tangible results and immense satisfaction. 

The Role of Self-Service in Contact Centers 

Acefone: What is your opinion on introducing self-service options in contact centers? 

Heverton: Today, we serve various generations—X, Y, Z, and beyond. While cutting-edge technology is crucial, companies must understand that not all customers are ready for fully digital interactions. Self-service is important but should never replace empathetic human support. Striking this balance is key to ensuring customer satisfaction. 

Crafting a Winning Customer Experience Recipe 

Acefone: According to you, what are the must-have ingredients in a successful CX recipe? 

Heverton: Based on my experience, I recommend: 

1. Data Utilization: Customer data shouldn’t be siloed within marketing and sales. It’s a resource that all corporate areas should leverage wisely, supported by robust business intelligence. 

1. Leadership Involvement: Company leaders must regularly immerse themselves in frontline roles, such as contact centers or retail environments, to understand customer pain points. 

1. Reengineering 2.0: Companies should now destroy and rebuild processes to prioritize customer satisfaction instead of tweaking processes for better products. Today, everything is about service. 

Addressing Employee Mental Health Post-Pandemic 

Acefone: With the rise of mental health concerns during the pandemic, how should organizations take care of their employees? 

Heverton: The pandemic highlighted the need for trust in remote work in Latin America and Brazil. Many employees flourished by spending more time with their families and avoiding traffic woes. Companies should encourage weekly periods of “productive idleness”—time for employees to think creatively and develop innovative solutions. 

5G and Its Impact on Customer Engagement 

Acefone: What’s your take on 5G technology? How will it impact customer engagement? 

Heverton: In regions like Brazil and Latin America, 5G can revolutionize connectivity, especially in underserved areas, boosting e-commerce and digital interactions. With increased connectivity, however, comes higher customer demand. Companies must invest in enhancing customer service processes and culture to keep up with the surge in expectations. 

Optimizing Proactive Chat Triggers with CRM 

Acefone: How can CRM systems optimize proactive chat triggers for a better customer experience? 

Heverton: CRM systems combine technology and processes to analyze customer data and behavior. For example: 

1. Loyalty Campaigns: Reward frequent customers with discounts or perks. 

1. Retention Campaigns: Proactively adapt offerings to provide better value to existing customers. 

1. Upsell Campaigns: Identify specific customer needs and tailor offers to meet them. 

The Importance of Happy Customers 

Acefone: How vital are happy and satisfied customers for a business? 

Heverton: The goal is to make customers happy and ensure they feel heard. Mutual understanding fosters growth, much like a relationship. Companies should focus on active listening and meaningful dialogue to build mature, long-lasting relationships. 

Secrets to Customer Retention and Acquisition 

Acefone: Can you share some secrets to retaining and attracting customers? 

Heverton: Certainly: 

1. Data Integration: Merge transactional and behavioral data across platforms like CRM, BI, and ERP using ELT data connectors to offer personalized experiences.. 

1. Strategic Gifting: Delight loyal customers with gifts unrelated to your core product, showcasing thoughtfulness. 

1. Referral Programs: Promote current customers to refer new ones and reward them for their recommendations. 

Customer Privacy and Its Role in Long-Term Relationships 

Acefone: Do you think customer privacy is vital for long-term relationships? 

Heverton: Absolutely. Companies must avoid being “good hackers” by overstepping customer boundaries. Poorly coordinated marketing campaigns can backfire, leading to customer dissatisfaction and even legal challenges. Always respect customer preferences and involve cross-functional teams to ensure ethical practices. 

The Hidden Depths of CRM 

Acefone: Lastly, which aspect of CRM do you enjoy the most? 

Heverton: CRMs are like icebergs—what you see is only a fraction of their depth. It’s fascinating how CRMs can uncover opportunities and challenges, helping companies refine their strategies and boundaries. 

About Heverton Anunciacao 

Heverton Anunciacao is a globally celebrated CRM and CX thought leader, recognized as the #1 influencer by Thinkers360 and listed among Global Gurus for customer service in 2021. A prolific author, Heverton has penned multiple books on CRM, data science, and CX methodologies. To learn more, visit Thinkers360. 

Takeaway 

This interview provides a glimpse into Heverton’s expertise and philosophy, offering actionable insights for businesses aiming to excel in customer service and CRM. His journey is a testament to the transformative power of empathy, innovation, and strategic thinking in customer interactions. 

The post A Journey Through Customer Service and CRM Excellence with Heverton Annunciacao appeared first on Blog | Acefone.

There is one thing, however, that most tech companies miss: If your employees are disgruntled or poorly looked after, they will never be able to keep your customers happy. Reasserting this belief, CX expert Deirdre Martin says, “Employees are assets of a business and their performance determines how well the customer experience is going to be.”

This is just one of the many insights that Martin—who is also a renowned author and founder of the CX Creators group—shared. Read on to find excerpts from our interaction that are sure to help you address your CX concerns.

What is the first step to a flawless customer experience strategy?

The best way to make your customers feel more valued is to get to know them better. It allows you to have a better understanding of their lives and their problems. You can use that knowledge to align your services and objectives with the client’s needs and enhance their experience with your business.

When you have clarity on your ideal customer’s pain points, problems, goals, needs, desires, typical behaviour and so on, and when you can visualise what their idea of success is, you will then be better able to build a brand that customers will flock towards.

Suggest three tips for businesses to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations.

1. Get feedback from customers to know whether you’re meeting their expectations or not. Use metrics and insights to gain that feedback and work on the lagging areas.
2. Listen to employee complaints as importantly as customer complaints and take action, especially on those (complaints) that overlap with each other.
3. Personalising services lets you connect with customers on a stronger level. It establishes two-way communication, which benefits both of you remarkably.

Please share some insights that helped you enhance first-call resolution in your business journey.

I believe that helping staff with active listening and empathy skills will help in any situation. 

Once the employees have been supported in this way, and a policy has been put in place around what constitutes a complaint, the front line staff should be empowered to offer instant resolution to customers. Be that monetary refunds, goodwill gestures, or some other quick-win that will satisfy the customer.

Here are a few pitfalls that can frustrate customers:

• Passing them to different agents
• Making unfulfilled promises
• Having the customers repeat their problems
• Robot-like messages with no human essence

Can you share a few CX lessons you learnt while co-authoring the book Customer Experience 4?

I came across a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum in October of 2020, the results of which surprised me. 94% of the survey respondents (organisations) stated that they expected employees to pick up soft skills on the job.

This came as a surprise to me, because whilst I knew this to be true for small business owners, many larger organisations have the means and know-how to educate and support their employees. The very fact that they don’t use their means and know-how indicates that these organisations brand’s values are not reflective of their brand’s culture and reality.

The companies that have the best leaders tend to be known as the companies that deliver the best customer experiences.

What advice would you like to give to businesses for running a successful call center?

The best advice to run a successful call center is to help your employees and they will help your business. Give them a voice and listen actively to what they say.

Your employees are as important to you as your customers. They are the bridge that connects you to your customers and help you get acquainted with their needs.

Spend more time on coming up with ways to enhance the employees’ experience in the company. Work with your employees to improve their soft skills, confidence, mindfulness, and empathy. This practice gradually leads to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty. 

A key skill which employees must work on is active listening. It not only enhances their connection with the customers, but also makes the customers feel more valued.

How can businesses optimise cross-functional collaboration in their workplaces?

Something that I would have advocated for during my banking career was for people to spend a day in the life of another within the organisation. This can help with:  

• Identifying ways to collaborate with colleagues to better serve clients
• Creating a positive culture by assisting others from different departments
• Understanding the pressures, processes and systems available to those in other departments

It’s helpful to bring the concerned stakeholders together while working on the customer experience strategy. This inclusion is bound to bring different perspectives on how to formulate the best strategy. Collaborations like this help cross-functional departments create seamless journeys.

What’s your take on improving customer response time to win customers?

With the current advancements in technology, the audience has an abundance of options to choose from. This makes the first step of putting a foot in the door of the customer’s mind a difficult task. 

Additionally, people are less patient now with significantly reduced attention spans. Studies show that the average person today has an attention span of only 8.25 seconds!

This means that any customer interaction—whether it’s answering calls, responding to emails or chats—needs to be done instantly.

My team and I won customers in the bank over the years when other institutions were less responsive. I also believe that customer response times can be managed by communicating clearly with customers at the outset of a relationship.

Any strategies for businesses to improve the hybrid work culture?

Businesses that are working on a hybrid model currently should focus on improving their communication—both, internally and externally. Resolving employee issues must be given equal importance than those of customers. If there are businesses that haven’t yet worked on this, now is the time.

The second step is to ensure that employees are provided with adequate support to deal with customers when working from home. Be it tools, software, accessories or equipment that allow employees to interact better with customers.

The post Expert Opinion: Deirdre Martin on how happy employees are key to happy customers appeared first on Blog | Acefone.