Happy Friday! We’re bringing you the latest roundup of industry news. This week, we’re looking at Microsoft Team’s integration into ‘walkie-talkie’ devices, Alida’s new conversational surveys product, new research into data breaches, and how industries have progressed 2 years on from the pandemic.
We also have the latest business updates from the cost-of-living crisis. This investigates the most recent actions and impacts on customers and organisations alike.
Key news
- A recent NFON survey reveals that UK employees who work from home suffer the most in Europe from poor EX. This is due to lack of space and technostress. This is also uncovering a trend towards self-medication in WFH employees.
- Thoma Bravo, a software investment firm, have now acquired UserTesting (video-based customer insights platform) for $1.3 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023. Thoma Bravo also acquired Medallia for $6.4 billion last year.
- Shipping company DHL has knocked LinkedIn off the top spot as the number one brand being imitated in phishing attempts. This is the first time LinkedIn hasn’t been listed number one in 2022. DHL now accounts for just under a quarter (22%) of all phishing attempts worldwide.
- The first four alpha partners for Reddit’s Ads API have been announced – VidMob, Sprinklr, adMixt, and PMG. These partnerships will empower advertisers to measure creative efficacy. They will also be able to automate, scale and optimise their campaigns to drive increased usability, efficiency and functionality of their Reddit Ads. Currently in development, the framework is part of Reddit’s ongoing commitment to elevate the Ads experience for their growing advertiser community.
- NICE have announced the launch of FluenCX. It is a complete, integrated suite of digital CX solutions, to deliver the best outcomes using AI. It will understand customer data to build orchestrated customer journeys.
- The release of the Uniphore X platform with enable brands to accelerate and improve two key business areas: Customer Experience and Sales. The platform is complete with conversational AI, emotion AI, knowledge AI, computer vision and robotic process automation (RPA).
Microsoft Teams integration will create ‘walkie-talkies’ for frontline mobile workers
Honeywell have integrated with Microsoft to help mobile workers. The integration will provide a set of digital tools to enable enhanced communication and collaboration on one platform.
Users of select Honeywell mobile computers in the warehousing, logistics, healthcare and retail fields can download the Microsoft Teams for frontline workers application. Workers can turn Honeywell devices into a walkie-talkie with a dedicated button. This push-to-talk solution enables clear, instant and secure voice communication over the cloud.
According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, 46% of frontline workers reported they value tech tools over mental health and wellness benefits at their job to help reduce work-related stress. Empowering them with the right technology makes their job easier and allows efficient collaboration between co-workers.
The addition of Microsoft Teams for frontline workers to Honeywell’s software ecosystem allows employees to communicate and collaborate with each other effectively. They are now able to use just one powerful mobile computer, rather than carrying separate bulky radios.
“Mobile workers are being challenged to know more at a moment’s notice than ever before. The combination of Honeywell’s rugged, versatile mobile computers with Microsoft Teams gives workers access to the answers they need. [This works by] connecting with each other to coordinate the right outcomes.”
– Karen Bomber, Senior Director of Marketing at Honeywell Productivity Solutions and Services
“Frontline workers are the backbone of many organisations. This solution empowers the frontline workforce to deliver agility in responsiveness and optimise productivity. And all on a single, secure enterprise platform.”
– Kristina Behr, Vice President of Product, Frontline and Workflows at Microsoft
Alida’s release of fall 2022 products includes conversational surveys
Alida have recently delivered their fall 2022 product release. This includes a new conversational surveys product.
Here are some new abilities assured through this product release:
- Engage with more customers quicker with Conversational Surveys. This will unlock new insights through a conversational style of feedback capture. Further, this will leverage the universal channel of SMS to create engaging feedback surveys. These will minimise friction to enable faster responses.
- Increase response rate with enhanced experiences for all languages. This will give respondents the opportunity to provide feedback in whichever suited language to them. Through this, it will broaden the demographic reach of customer feedback. The mobile app will also automatically detect languages and translates non-user generate content into multiple languages.
- Streamline workflows. ‘Community’ will develop, distribute, and manage numerous communications across multiple segments and markets in a single workflow. This eliminates the need for individual reminders and invitations. This will distribute actions to specific roles across the organisation.
- Conduct deeper analysis for better decision-making. ‘Surveys’ and ‘Community Reports’ will allow the ability to leverage the date-range filter. This will gain more granular insights and identify trends. There is the ability to dig deep into reports by applying data filters. This will gain better insights into audience needs.
For more information, you can check out this video which highlights what’s new in this release. The video features of the President of Products and Engineering at Alida – Riaz Raihan.
Consumer data breaches declined, but threats to data still remain
Data from NordVPN’s Dark Web Monitor has found new insights into breaches and data threats. The number of users affected by breached company data leaks has decreased 18 times since 2019.
However, with the data of two thirds of Dark Web Monitor users available on the dark web, the risk of data theft is still very high. In 2019 the average number of users affected in a breach amounted to 9.3M per incident. In 2022, this number decreased to 497K per incident.
In 2020, 18% of data breaches affected more than a million users. In 2021, only 10% of breaches affected millions of users. In 2022, this number is even smaller at 7%.
In 2020, the number of breached companies reached a peak as the pandemic caused company vulnerability. Looking at the past two years, the number of attacks on companies remains high. However, most data breaches affected fewer than a million users; potentially because companies invest significant resources into securing their customers.
According to Dark Web Monitor data, 62% of its users have had their data breached on the dark web. But even though the Dark Web Monitor team works hard to alert users — people still choose to ignore the alerts and don’t change their habits.
“On the one hand, this is great news. On the other hand, we don’t see cybercrime slowing down because of those numbers. A recent report by Verizon showed that around 50% of security incidents in 2021 happened due to leaked credentials. So criminals continue to reuse and exploit the data that was leaked on the dark web in the past.”
– Daniel Markuson, cybersecurity expert at NordVPN
Monitoring the progress of brands since the pandemic began
The digital strategy team of global ecommerce accelerator Pattern, has benchmarked the direct-to-consumer (DTC) websites of 50 well-known consumer brands to understand how they have improved since the pandemic began.
Nike topped the ranked brands for a second time, improving on the brand’s 2019 score by 11%. Levi’s and Ralph Lauren came in second and third respectively, also scoring highly against the criteria. The study showed a stronger emphasis on providing value-adding products, services and content.
Top scoring brands offered compelling reasons to buy direct from their websites such as online exclusive products, subscriptions, community-generated content, and appointment-booking services. Offering such features means that a brand’s DTC website is able to stand out from other marketplaces or retailers selling their products.
- Beauty brands scored 65% for Value-Added Product offering – Beauty brands scored the highest in the Value-Added Product section, with all brands offering exclusive online products, exclusive online bundles, product gifting and free samples. However, only 20% of Beauty brands offered product personalisation.
- Clothing brands scored 84% in Product Pages – Clothing brands scored the highest in the Product Pages section. 80% of Clothing brands scored full marks for providing ratings & reviews functionality, 90% provided delivery information on product pages, 80% scored highly for product imagery, and 90% scored full marks for product descriptions.
- Food, Beverage & Alcohol brands struggling in Customer Service & Delivery Proposition – F&B brands scored lowest in the Customer Service, Value-Added Content & Delivery Proposition sections. F&B brands scored 30% for the Customer Service offerings, with only 10% providing a responsive, efficient live chat function on their sites. These brands also scored 33% for Delivery Proposition, the lowest of all categories.
“The ecommerce landscape has changed significantly in the last few years. With the easing of lockdown restrictions and re-opening of physical retail, brands must optimise their DTC website offerings in order to stay competitive and outperform the market. Providing online exclusive products, services, and content is integral to a strong DTC proposition”
– Stephanie Firth, Pattern’s Head of Consulting
Cost-of-living crisis: business and customer updates
Here’s the latest updates of the cost-of-living crisis on businesses and customers, how they are being impacted and predictions of the impact.
Marketing teams to adapt campaigns amidst the crisis
75% of UK marketers openly admit to awareness that they are hindering their marketing efforts. This is during a time where brands must pivot and manage changing consumer needs. This comes according to research from Treasure Data.
Treasure Data have also found that 83% of Brits think marketing campaigns should be adapted to be sensitive to consumers’ changing priorities and needs during the crisis. Almost two thirds (63%) believe they should be marketed to less altogether.
73% of marketers have reported their recent change of marketing strategies. However, 61% don’t feel properly equipped to get the most out of the data they use for marketing. Almost two thirds of marketers (65%) have had to make cuts to budgets as the cost of doing business rises. A further 65% are predicting more cuts to come.
Most marketers (72%) believe the cost-of-living crisis has led to increased pressure on them and their team to deliver ROI/ROAS.
Threat of recession prompts retailers to increase investment in tech L&D
85% of UK retail and eCommerce companies will increase investment in tech learning and development (L&D) over the next twelve months. This is in the face of the threat of a recession. 96% of HR leaders in retail companies feel supported by their leadership team to invest in tech-related L&D. This is signalling the sector’s growing concern around the widening digital skills gaps.
The majority of companies within the retail sector plan to spend no more than £10,000 on recruitment (76%) or L&D (79%). This is to bolster software architecture skills. Furthermore, companies will spend no more than £10,000 on recruitment (82%) or L&D (77%) for data analysis talent.
Instead, 20% retail organisations plan to spend up to or more than £20,000 on recruitment for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) talent. Additionally, 21% will spend at least £20,000 on AI and ML-related L&D to upskill employees.
“This has never been more pertinent, with the cost-of-living crisis meaning that almost 60% of British shoppers will cut back during the upcoming retail golden quarter. With over 80% of all jobs advertised in the UK now requiring digital skills, employees should prioritise L&D to make themselves an invaluable asset to their organisation.”
– Alexia Pedersen, VP of EMEA at O’Reilly
Online furniture retailer Made.com is on the brink of collapse
The company stopped taking new orders on Wednesday, first communicated via a message on its homepage encouraging customers to “sit tight, we’ll be back soon”, then later displaying all products as out of stock. The brand has struggled with supply chain issues in the wake of the pandemic and had been seeking a bailout or a buyer. It’s the latest direct-to-consumer brand in the home sector to face financial struggles
Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!