The Importance of Personal Touch in Business and Software Development Partnerships

Attrecto team

Attrecto team


The Importance of Personal Touch in Business and Software Development Partnerships

As of 2020, we have entered into a new, far more digitalized age. Covid forced almost every area of our lives to adapt digital solutions or lag behind and suffer from the severe limitation of in-person interactions.

Before the pandemic, only a few experts had believed that digitalization would accelerate to the pace that we see today. As a result, we’re now living in a hybrid world where it’s still not easy to make sense of increasingly digitalized interactions and relations.

And this has affected sales, cooperation, and partnerships in the outsourced software development niche as well.

In this blog post, I look at how the shift towards more online and remote meetings have changed the way software developers and their customers connect and what ramifications it has on current business strategies, using some of Attrecto’s partnerships as examples.

MORE ONLINE SALES CALLS LEAD TO LOWER CONVERSION

 

Let’s start with the basic premise that we’ve discovered early on:

As the majority of meetings and sales calls were now taking place online as a result of the pandemic, the conversion rate of these calls started to decrease.

It wasn’t the lack of leads or prospects interested in outsourcing the development of their custom software. As the physical, in-person meetings were dropped, only to be replaced by online ones, it became increasingly difficult to convert these companies into partners and customers. Even in cases where a deal was eventually struck, the road leading to the signing of the contract was lengthy with lots of back-and-forth calls. When in-person was still available, one could progress much more smoothly and hammer out details in 2-3 meetings instead of half dozen or more online calls.

While you might already see where this is going, our business development team looked to the bottom of this to find out the underlying cause.

PERSONAL TOUCH STILL TRUMPS DIGITAL CONNECTIONS

 

The business development team managed to gauge our existing partners’ attitude towards online meetings. Then, they cross-referenced the results and what they established based on these observations was not surprising at all:

“Digital connections are tolerated, but neither embraced nor accepted.”

People of all walks of life – most of them without consciously knowing – are desiring the personal touch and are not satisfied or engaged by the illusion that is provided by the online replacements for meeting with and talking to others.

There’s a raw, instinctual need for a personal interactions that can be only realized and felt in-the-flesh. And if this need is not fulfilled, it affects the quality of connections and relationships negatively, even in the more calculated and logic-driven world of business. If the personal touch is not there to catalyse a connection, businesspeople will be less enthusiastic about the prospect of a deal and less trusting about the company they’re negotiating with.

 

THE COUNTERTREND AGAINST DIGITAL RELATIONSHIPS

 

“For every new trend, there’s a countertrend.”

The quote comes from a TED talk. And based on what we’ve seen from the trend of rampant digitalization, its wisdom is especially applicable to this situation.

As people crave connections both in their jobs and private life, and in turn are met with a trend that takes those away, replacing them with virtual ones that appear on screens and come across with slightly distorted voices, a new countertrend has emerged. One that seeks to counterbalance the sheer number of digital connections and online calls.

In business, it manifests as a drive to reimagine how partnerships can work in more natural ways and make business partners stay in touch and connect in-person as regularly as possible.

 

HOW PERSONAL CONNECTIONS LEAD TO BETTER BUSINESS


We have several such examples from the past; partnerships from the previous “age” that existed before the pandemic-induced wave of digitalization, and which show how a software development company can work as closely as possible with its partners.

For instance, our partnership with Telenor Norway dates back to 2013, when we began developing Mitt Telenor for them. We have been in constant touch with the team there as the project is a continues development of the software using our TaaS model. However, as soon as the cooperation began, our teams regularly visited each other’s offices to talk business and discuss the scope and design of the software, as well as the technologies and solutions that would be used to implement it. The product owner was basically working from Norway full-time.

Ultimately, the partnership has led to 120+ successful releases, and today there are more users of this app than that of the main corporate web platform, which offers the same functionalities. Throughout the partnership, we felt that Telenor Norway considers the TaaS team as part of their own team.

They also view Attrecto not as just another service (provider) but as a trusted partner and advisor in anything software related.

We’ve had similar partnerships based on mutual trust and close-knit cooperation. We didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight, we clearly see that these connections could be formed because the human need for personal touch and interactions was fulfilled, which built trust and demonstrated that the service provider has a full team of likeable and talented professionals who are ready to work on their problems. Just to name two such additional examples, for Aegon Hungary we’ve had an on-site team that worked from Aegon’s offices twice a week, while for E.ON, we’ve had our project manager in their office, constantly keeping touch with our partner and our tech team in our offices.

On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned this in the premise, even with some of the new clients that we’ve started working with during the pandemic, the scope of development was sometimes a lot smaller than with the partners mentioned above. Of course, the vast majority of our calls were online, and thus were mostly devoid of the personal touch. As a result, neither party could build trust as the client didn’t know us well enough to involve our teams in the more challenging projects.

 

CONCLUSION

 

As you can see, that personal touch is not something that’s only required in intimate relationships, as it practically determines the quality of business relationships as well, serving as a catalyst for closing deals and increasing trust as well as cooperation.

When the ability to cultivate these personal connections was taken for granted, we built connections that resulted in more business and enabled a more responsive, authentic, comprehensive, transparent, and real relationship with out partners. We could prove to them every day that some of the most talented individuals of the software development industry work at Attrecto. Professionals whose skills are in line with modern development standards and quality processes; they know them all as their talents have been honed at Attrecto. During the pandemic, because of the countertrend of people only tolerating but not embracing digitalization while desiring human touch, we couldn’t reach the level of trust where we could truly show off our teams’ state-of-the-art expertise.

Fortunately, now that the pandemic is coming to an end and in-person meetings happen more frequently once more, we’ve already seen an increase in enthusiastic engagement and a willingness to work more closely on the success of our newfound clients.

What were your experiences regarding the lack of personal touch in business during the worst months of the pandemic?

Download your free guide for development process in UX driven projects

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email

Celebrating Customer Centricity with ARCET Global

Attrecto team

Attrecto team

Celebrating Customer Centricity with ARCET Global

It all started with an apartment purchase.

Mark Hamill, the CEO of ARCET Global met our Chief of Business, Benedek, in our hometown and HQ of Győr. Mark was looking for an apartment to buy, and Benedek was incidentally selling his. Naturally, as business-minded people they discussed work, and they quickly realized that there’s a significant overlap in both organizations’ portfolio: customer experience forms the core of our companies’ mission, and a customer-centric mindset permeates both ARCET and Attrecto. It became obvious that there’s plenty of room for cooperation.

This story occurred last August, and since then much has happened. Yes, Mark bought Benedek’s apartment, but their meeting has set other things in motion as well.

We signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November last year, and today Attrecto is heavily engaged in helping ARCET in setting up two of the largest celebrations of CX in Europe and North America: the European and North American Customer Centricity Awards, organized by none other than ARCET Global

But before we jump into the awards, let’s see who ARCET Global is and what they do exactly!

Helping Organizations Do Better, Customer-Centric Business

 

ARCET Global was founded on the simple yet hard-to-master tenet of aiding organizations of all kinds become better at their business through learning, recognition, and the building of business communities. They enable clients and partners to create customer-centric business practices that lead to amazing, personalized CX, which ultimately makes customers come back for more.

They are a group of professionals celebrated for their expertise in CX-driven and customer-centric solutions; they are truly passionate about improving business through transformational events, awards, and training.

But how do they accomplish all this?

They run recognition programmes across the world and provide training as well as additional CX programmes. In our partnership, for example, recognition plays a major role, as we promote the Awards to our existing customer base, while ARCET promotes Attrecto (and other partners) at the Awards themselves – as well as during the marketing campaigns that lead up to them.

Specifically in Europe, ARCET works with a broad network of companies, including consultancy firms, financial institutions, media and marketing agencies, and even IT companies like us.

Challenges in Central Eastern Europe

 

We asked Mark about the common challenges that companies face in our broader region of Central Europe and Central Eastern Europe. With what sort of problems do companies hailing from around here approach ARCET?

The answer was hard-hitting: it’s the lack of customer-centricity stemming from a systemic and mentality-related structure of roadblocks.

Sure enough, we’re talking about a region that was part of the Eastern Bloc until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Customer focus was never a true concern of any business that operated in the bloc’s unique economic and political constellation. Nevertheless, the issue is rooted deeper than a historical heritage that is slowly being left behind.

When it comes to Customer Experience in the CEE region, it certainly falls flat as a result of a lack of empathy. This is systemic from the management who deem people as ‘workers’ as opposed to people. This lack of empathy is passed onto the customers in almost every customer interaction, which leads to friction and lowers the likelihood of complaints being dealt with properly or professionally, too.

As such, it comes as no surprise that this region is lagging behind in customer-centric solutions compared to the rest of the world. And yet although CX is quite new around here, and organizations still have a lot of catching up to do, they’re going on about it at a relatively quick pace.

And since those decades of experience that the rest of the world gained compared to this region is palpable, there is a desire in most companies in CEE to perform better and become customer-focused. However, another obstacle blocking progress is that CX professionals are still in shortage around here.

Mark told us that organizations from the CEE region come to them to learn how to accomplish a full-scale CX transformation. They want to become customer-centric from marketing through sales to operations in order to bring in a steady stream of customers. The problem is that they often get no qualified support from leadership – not because they don’t want to, but simply because they don’t know-how.

Educating organizations on CX and teaching how to acquire and retain new customers is one of the most sought-after services that ARCET offers. However, success in this regard is not possible without the proper recognition, which brings us to the importance of the Customer Centricity Awards.

The Customer Centricity Awards

 

ARCET Global organizes three Awards annually: the European, the North American, and the World Series Customer Centricity Awards.

In a nutshell, all these events are among the largest virtual CX knowledge-sharing events in both Europe and North America; 2 entire days of celebration filled to the brim with business practice stories, more than 100 real-world case studies, thought-provoking presentations, and incredible networking opportunities.

The idea is to get these organizations together – both big and small – and allow them to learn the best ways from one another and see how a CX transformation can make any company a truly customer-centric organization.

But how does it work exactly?

For each entry, a comprehensive case study is required that describes what the participant organization has been doing lately in terms of customer experience; what was that pioneering new strategy, practice, or trend that they initiated, implemented, and which led to a much more customer-focused operation?

After receiving all the entries, ARCET picks the finalists who are usually announced a month after the entry deadline. The finalists then have to bring their case study to life and show it via a video presentation.

As such, the conference itself becomes a veritable treasure trove of customer experience best practices (with over 30 hours’ worth of video content), stories, and ideas. During the finals, where all the video presentations are exhibited, an independent panel of judges score the finalists’ entries, picking the best of the best in customer-centricity.

With over 400 participants from well over 100 organizations, the conference presents an incredible opportunity to share knowledge and learn from peers from a multitude of industries.

Of course, due to COVID-19, the Awards have been forced into virtual space since last year, but that didn’t take away from the luster of the event. If anything, it made it possible for even more interested CX enthusiasts from across the globe to join the conference and learn. ARCET also brought an award-winning production house on board, who will be directing and producing the Awards Ceremony of both events this year. Furthermore, every video presentation will be accumulated on an online portal and made available for free to attendees for up to 7 days after the event. 

As for us, we will attend both the European as well as the North American Customer Centricity Awards, with a bit more focus on getting ready for the European CC Awards which is coming this September. Last year, the Awards boasted 32 countries from all over Europe, which meant that all European countries were represented. And that is actually not a big surprise, given that the European CC Awards is known as THE CX Awards conference in the continent.

ARCET is expecting the same number of countries, organizations, and participants this year as well from industries such as telecom, utilities, finance, insurance companies, retail, and even hospitality.

And what does the CEO hope from this year’s Customer Centricity Awards series?

Mark explained that education is the driving principle behind the Awards. They are aiming to provide as many opportunities for knowledge-sharing as possible in order to help all participants and organizations level up their CX and gain the recognition they deserve. The idea is to sit down and learn best practices in CX, which they then can use to achieve their business goals. And all the while, the entire conference is meant to be a pleasant, enjoyable, and captivating experience (could it be any other way from grandmaster CX teachers?) where participants can build new business connections.

The World Series Awards

 

That’s the gist of the Customer Centricity Awards that we’re helping to promote to our clients and partners. But what about the World Series event?

It’s the World Cup in customer-centricity.

The World Series Awards hosts winners from the two regional awards in spring each year – this means that the winners of the European and North American Awards in 2021 will have the chance to face off at the World Series event come spring 2022. However, you can also tune in to this year’s World Series Awards next month, on 18 and 19 May.

If you’re interested in any of the CC Awards, make sure to add these dates to your calendar!

 

European Customer Centricity Awards

North American Customer Centricity Awards

World Series Customer Centricity Awards

Registration / Entry Deadline

6 May 2021

3 June 2021

 

Finalists Announced

3 June 2021

1 July 2021

 

Virtual Conference

15 September 2021

27 October 2021

18 May 2021

Virtual Awards Ceremony

16 September 2021

28 October 2021

19 May 2021

Naturally, we are more than excited about the coming months and what they mean for us as well the world of Customer Experience. The scope of these CC Awards is breathtaking; they truly showcase the world’s most customer-centric companies as well as the practices that elevate them above all others in providing amazing CX.

In the meantime, we will be preparing and making sure our own CX-driven solutions continue to meet the high standards of these events.

Visit ARCET’s website to see how they can help you perfect your CX in order to bring in and retain customers!

Download your free guide for development process in UX driven projects

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email