INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Merchants – Business Process Outsourcing Services
Merchants is a leading customer experience and business process outsourcing (BPO) partner, delivering digitally enabled, human-centred solutions that drive measurable business outcomes. Rooted in South Africa and backed by over four decades of industry experience, we have played a foundational role in shaping the evolution of customer experience delivery. Today, as a wholly owned subsidiary […]
AUTOMATED CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MONTH: Closing the loop at scale – using automation to turn feedback into action
Collecting customer feedback has arguably never been easier. Surveys, post-call ratings and digital feedback tools generate vast amounts of data. The real challenge is not gathering insight, it’s acting on it quickly, consistently and at scale. Organisations at the Contact Centre Summit are increasingly turning to automation to ‘close the loop’, i.e. transforming feedback into […]
Consumer scepticism over AI poses new trust challenge for brands
Rising consumer scepticism around artificial intelligence is creating a new trust challenge for customer experience leaders, as brands accelerate adoption of generative AI across customer interactions. Research from Gartner finds that 50% of consumers would prefer to do business with brands that do not use generative AI in customer-facing content, highlighting a growing tension between innovation and […]
Research highlights ‘Experience Divide’ as consumers abandon disconnected brands
UK brand leaders are being urged to address a growing ‘Experience Divide’, as new research reveals a stark mismatch between customer expectations and business perceptions. According to SAP Engagement Cloud’s 2026 Engagement Index, 82% of UK consumers are frustrated by disjointed interactions—such as repeating information or being passed between teams: yet 80% of businesses believe […]
TECHNOLOGY MONTH: Practical use cases delivering measurable CX impact (that aren’t AI chat bots)
AI adoption among contact centre leaders initially centred on chatbots and virtual assistants. While these tools remain valuable, the real transformation in 2026 is happening beyond the front door across routing, agent support, analytics and operational decision-making. The focus is shifting from experimentation to measurable outcomes, with organisations prioritising use cases that deliver tangible improvements […]