“Our mission is to use our technology know-how to enable our clients to deliver an exceptional experience to their customers”: Avtex

What is the best way you can improve your business? It's not to build an excellent product using the latest innovative technologies. The answer lies in improving Customer Experience (CX). But just how important is customer experience for your organization?

Customers don't just buy a product, they perceive the entire process as an experience or memory they recall when doing business with the company again. Customer Experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences and interactions a customer has before, after and while using a particular company's product or service. It's the customer's perception of the brand.

Avtex is a full-service Customer Experience consultancy focused on helping organizations build trust with their customers. Its breadth of knowledge uniquely positions it to assist in the identification, deployment and optimization of technology platforms that support the customer journey. As a peer-recognized consulting firm, Avtex guides organizations through the process of creating or improving CX strategies, platforms and policies.

To get more insight of the company we conversed with George Demou, CEO

Why did you set up the firm?

Avtex was originally established in 1972 as a reseller of automated dialing systems. As the ways that customers communicated with companies continued to expand beyond the phone, the company embraced a multi-channel approach to the call center industry. Avtex was one of the first partner resellers of Interactive Intelligence contact center software, and became the top partner in North America prior to Interactive Intelligence’s acquisition by Genesys. The market continued to transform, and in 2012 the company shifted its focus to Customer Experience strategy and technology delivery. We’re now living in an experience economy, and the foresight that Avtex leadership had to align the company with this trend has uniquely positioned the organization to help clients differentiate through customer experiences.

What is your vision statement, and to what extent are you successful in achieving the same?

Our company’s vision: Fueling Exceptional Customer Experiences

As a whole, Avtex is guided by our North Star: Everything we do, every day, adds fuel to exceptional experiences. This allows each employee to help answer challenges across both strategy and technology. While we continue to grow, and have specific areas that we are looking to improve upon, we’ve been able to establish a deep level of trust and communication with our clients. These client relationships have been invaluable in helping us identify areas we should focus on growing and progressing.

On an individual client project basis, we employ the Avtex 360 approach. This holistic view of each project provides the right path to achieve the vision. We start with strategy, developing the overall plan for the client’s CX goals. Then we implement technologies from our platform partners, to accelerate the project and get some early wins. Next, we bring Avtex innovation to the various technologies that will make the solution fit the specific client’s unique challenges and their customers’ experiences. Finally, we offer managed services and ongoing support to provide peace of mind to clients, allowing them to focus on their business.

The success factors; in CEO’s words

Alignment to CX: Every one of our service and technology offerings supports the delivery and management of CX in some fashion. This focus, combined with our ability to make processes and technologies work seamlessly together, allows us to support all phases of the customer journey.

Technology & Strategy together: Avtex not only provides the roadmap to success, but also implements and maintains the tools necessary to achieve client goals. We are uniquely suited to help our clients create an overarching CX strategy, then deliver upon it using a range of technology solutions.

Avtex Employees: Our employees possess countless years of experience and an unparalleled breadth of knowledge of CX strategy and the various technology platforms we have to offer. Few organizations can match the expertise and passion of our employees.

Commitment to innovation: At Avtex, when we see a problem, we solve it, either through the creative use of an existing technology, or the creation of a new one. We’ve developed a number of IP solutions designed to resolve issues commonly faced by our clients, and never back down from a new challenge.

Our relationships: We partner with industry-leading technology providers, including Microsoft and Genesys. This allows us to provide our clients with the technology they need to execute upon their CX goals.

Where do you envision your company in the coming years?

We are on a path to connect more customers than ever with brands looking to differentiate through experiences. In five years, we will still be laser focused on CX, but with more technologies under our delivery umbrella. We are also focused on continuing to create Avtex IP that we can deliver across multiple customers and use cases. Doubling down on investments and clients will help fuel our growth and keep us grounded in our customer relationships.

Meet the luminary

George Demou has a strong track record of acquiring, integrating and leading technology organizations. He has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years and run companies in the Contact Center & Consulting Services industry for the past 18 years. Having served in many leadership roles, George is very passionate about technology’s role in delivering on a customer experience strategy.

We are uniquely qualified to help clients deliver exceptional experiences to their customers using technology.