“The Customer Journey Plays a Decisive Role in Sustainable Customer Retention, and Requires the Use of Data.”
Hi Mark, please tell us about your role and the team / technology you handle at Majorel. How did you arrive at Majorel?
I am the EVP of Strategy and M&A at Majorel. Our company designs, delivers and differentiates end-to-end Customer Experience (CX) and BPO for some of the world’s most respected brands by combining talent and technology with deep industry knowledge to deliver total reliability. Our services span the entire customer lifecycle, including CX Interaction, BPS solutions with focus on BFSI and Hi-tech / Internet verticals, Trust & safety Services, Digital Consumer Engagement, CX Consulting and Analytics. Prior to joining Majorel, I have worked in several Corporate Development functions within Bertelsmann, always with a focus on their business services division. In this context I met our current CEO, Thomas Mackenbrock back in 2017 and had the chance to work on the formation of Majorel, which is a powerful venture between Bertelsmann and the Saham Group. I see that the CX and customer service industry is in the midst of a renaissance, with the potential to add to brand differentiation and create an impact on the clients’ top- and bottom-line. These are exciting times and I wanted to be part of a leading company that further drives this industry development.
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Tell us about the current developments in Marketing CX management and how it is influenced by customer intelligence and behavioral analytics.
What we’re seeing is that businesses are utilizing data to help them better understand the customer journey, the exact context and historical transactions and interactions that are of potential relevance. The customer journey plays a decisive role in sustainable customer retention, and requires the use of data. By utilizing customer intelligence and behavioral analytics, businesses are identifying, evaluating, and utilizing all approaches towards data collection and using it to build strong customer retention. Essentially, providing a sophisticated Customer Experience is one of the most important drivers of brand equity.
What is the idea behind your latest acquisition news? How would it benefit your customers and investors?
This acquisition is allowing us to begin the expansion to a leading Digital CX consultancy in EMEA. junokai combines first-class consulting expertise with solid operational experience and has an excellent reputation in the market. In collaboration with Majorel’s deep industry and technology expertise, we will be able to offer our clients innovative CX consulting that has never been done before. The idea is to leverage this consulting throughout Europe and Africa.
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Hear it from the pro: What are the biggest trends in the virtual CX Delivery industry that every business professional should watch out for in 2021-2022?
For me the most important trends are (1) connecting process chains cutting across front- and back-office and connecting insights and respective data in an underlying analytics platform that generates sophisticated consumer insights, (2) hybrid operating models delivering services form physical locations and in a virtualized environment; here the right technology, especially for onboarding teams in a virtual setup and getting them acquainted with the culture etc., becomes a crucial element and success factor, and (3) Crowdsourcing solutions for data annotation, training of machine learning algorithms are an important portfolio element for supporting High-Tech / Internet clients
Tell us more about the hiring challenges for Product / marketing teams of leading technology companies like Majorel? What advice do you have for the industry leaders in this regard?
I would say the biggest challenge is finding talent who can balance the human touch and technology and recognize how both can contribute to guiding and enhancing the customer journey. Technology should not be viewed as the be-all-end-all, because it is human connection that enables a positive customer experience. From my perspective, it’s important that martech professionals to embrace that mindset.
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Thank you, Mark! That was fun and we hope to see you back on itechnologyseries.com soon.
[To participate in our interview series, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]
Mark Maass earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Strategic Management from Rotterdam School of Management. He spent 10 years with German conglomerate Bertelsmann, mainly in corporate development & strategy functions for the business services division. Since January 2019 he led strategy and M&A for Majorel, a venture between Bertelsmann and Moroccan Saham Group focused on customer experience management.
Majorel designs, delivers and differentiates end-to-end Customer Experience (CX) and BPO for some of the world’s most respected brands. It does this by combining talent and technology with deep industry knowledge to deliver total reliability. Majorel is passionate about its clients and its people, exemplified by its company culture: ‘Driven to Go Further’. Its services span the entire customer lifecycle, front-to-back-office, including CX Interaction, BPS solutions, Content Services, Digital Consumer Engagement, CX Consulting and Analytics. Majorel’s global footprint currently comprises 60,000+ employees, 31 countries, 110+ locations (including 17 multilingual hubs and 6 Digital Labs), and 60+ languages supported with super-flexible and agile delivery capabilities including remote/WFH.
