Wipro Digital makes a Rational acquisition, the CX-privacy connection and banks’ customer-centric challenges
Even if you’ve never heard of Rational Interaction, you can see pretty much immediately why a company like Wipro Digital would find it valuable enough to acquire.
The consulting firm offshoot announced late last week its purchase of the Seattle, Wash.-based firm for an undisclosed sum. Wipro Digital said Rational Interaction would become part of its practice aimed at CMOs and uses ethnography to study a client’s customers and their needs to better advise them (as opposed to pushing a particular product or service. Wipro said it had no plans to reduce headcount at Rational Interaction, which is 11 years old and claims a number of Fortune 500 clients.
Given the ongoing concerns about the use of cookies and opt-ins for marketing messages, meanwhile, a guest blogger on CRM Buyer offers a good take on how privacy by design could be considered part of an outstanding customer experience. Not the first area most firms focus on, but in certain sector it could have a short-term effect in terms of positioning, at the very least.
I find myself increasingly visiting The Financial Brand for all kinds of research, but I particularly admired this recent feature that talked to a handful of CX executives about how banks could improve the way they interact with customers. Best quote: that “digital should allow people to be more human,” and that it’s not just about eliminating friction but recognizing the needs of “digital laggards,” like small businesses.
Salesforce Ventures is investing $80 million in its partner ServiceMax to help boost its abilities to improve the work of field service technicians. This still a somewhat under-examined niche and what I’d almost call the “last mile” in CX. (Disclosure: I provide content marketing services to Salesforce in Canada.)
Finally, I probably shouldn’t link to something that’s so obviously self-interested, but this lighting company’s essay on the value of good lighting in retail customer experiences was actually pretty convincing. Data-driven thinking is great, but people will definitely judge a store by how well they can see what’s on the shelves, and the way in which it might influence their moods.
