Last week, Enterprise Connect 2023 brought together thousands of the world’s biggest brands and industry players for four days of networking and collaboration in Orlando, Florida, USA. I, like many, had missed the ability to connect, listen and engage with colleagues, friends, customers and prospects in person. I flew over to the event with industry colleagues that I have known for the past 15 years but had not seen in recent years due to the pandemic.
What this event confirmed to me is that we all need face-to-face interaction, as ideas and solutions germinate and grow quicker when you can react to in person situations – there simply is no substitute for the energy and buzz of an industry, now worth $270.3 billion, coming together. We spoke about the old times but also how the world has changed from a customer engagement perspective.
For GMS, understanding our customers’ pain points is critical if we are to develop the appropriate solutions to help them provide a truly engaging experience for their customers. So Enterprise Connect was a fantastic opportunity to meet face-to-face with existing customers and potential new ones to really get a sense of what their challenges are and how we as a customer engagement foundation layer can be the heart beat of their communications strategy.
As you would expect the conference floor was buzzing with talk of AI, what it can and can’t do, and the opportunities it offers. Interestingly, there were also murmurs about the challenges AI could present as consumers tune in to its sophistication and what that means to them. I spent many hours talking about our recently launched GMS AI Chatbots solution and how it works at a global level to speed up response times for Customer Care, optimise HR & Recruitment processes and boost conversion and engagement for Sales and Marketing departments. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and I’m pleased to report that I have a very long list of follow-ups to do that I’m still working through.
Beyond the buzz of AI, there were a number of other top talking points and key take-aways from the conference.
- Multi-channel communication is critical to global enterprises as they look to offer choice to their customers to interact with the organisation through numerous preferred touch points.
- Global enterprises are looking for quality over price when it comes to messaging solutions as they want to mitigate risk and ensure longevity.
- Truly global messaging solutions are viewed as a key component to underpin the customer engagement lifecycle journey
It was fantastic to see and hear the industry discussing these topics, not least because at GMS we are able to address them, globally, with our award winning solutions. If you would like to discuss any of the topics covered here or your communication needs, please contact me: r.dass@gms-worldwide.com