A Look Back: 2015 in Review
By Mandy Reed, Marketing Manager (Global)
I don’t know about you, but I feel like 2015 has flown by and I still have a million things I want to finish – I don’t know where the time has gone! (And yes, I know I sound like my mother when I say that!) Yet when I stop to take a look back at the year Creative Virtual has had, I realise that it’s been a busy, productive year full of accomplishments for us, our customers and our partners. So let’s take a look at some highlights of 2015.
One of the proudest moments for us as a company was being named a 2015 Cool Vendor in Smart Machines by Gartner! As Creative Virtual Founder & CEO, Chris Ezekiel said, “We believe this is a milestone for us and our technology, as well as a tribute to our dedicated team, customers and partners, to be designated a ‘Cool Vendor’ in an area that is poised to make such an important impact on new digital processes, including customer support and engagement, over the next few years.”
We are also very proud of the recognitions several of our customers received for their V-Person™ implementations in 2015. Our joint entry with TSB in the 2015 FStech Awards won us a ‘Highly Commended’ in the category of Online Technology Provider of the Year. Motability Operations took home the Innovation Award for Sustainable Culture at the 2015 Customer Contact Innovation Awards for their case study titled Ask Mo: how knowledge gives confidence with customers. Commercial Bank of Dubai’s virtual assistant Sara played a large role in their multiple wins in the Banker Middle East UAE Product Awards (Best Kiosk Interface, Best New Online Service, and Best Online Banking Services) and the International Business Excellence (IBX) Awards (E-Commerce and Digital Experience, Marketing Social Media and Brand, and Overall Discipline and People Specific Winner). Congratulations!
Creative Virtual was the winner of two 2015 Technology Innovator Awards: Best Virtual Assistant Technology “V-Person Web” and Best Customer Engagement Technology “V-Portal™”. Innovation is at the core of our company culture, so it was an honour to be recognised by this awards programme which is designed to highlight the organisations behind ground-breaking developments in technology.
Another highlight this year was the release of our 2015 Global Customer Support Outlook Survey results. Our thanks to everyone who took part in the survey and shared insights into their customer engagement goals, challenges and strategies! As with our first survey conducted in 2013, this follow-up provided an interesting look into customer experience programmes, priorities and budgets.
This was a busy year for events as we took part in a variety of conferences and summits around the world in India, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the United States and Australia. Some of these were events we attended with our partners, and several featured presentations and live demos from expert members of our team. We also participated in and hosted live webinars throughout the year which are now available to view on-demand.
In addition to the webinar recordings, we also added a number of other great resources to our website, including a whitepaper from Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan analyst, Jeff Cotrupe, titled Customers Want Fast Answers Online, Not Waiting on a Phone Line: Virtual Assistants Are Essential. With the assistance of our customers, we released two new Customer Success Stories as well to showcase the ways The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Commercial Bank of Dubai are using our Smart Help technology to provide an improved, consistent experience.
2015 saw a number of new implementations join our V-Person family, pilots evolve into full deployments and new features and integrations added to existing systems (including our recent announcement about our first Arabic V-Person). Our list of customers from around the world has grown this year along with our great network of partner companies. Founder & CEO Chris certainly wins the award for most travelling as this year saw him spending time all over the world – Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United States, France, Netherlands, India and (of course!) the United Kingdom – to attend events and meet with partners, customers and the Creative Virtual team.
As we did last year, we’ve complied a 2015 in Review photo album which you can find on the Creative Virtual Facebook and Google+ pages. It gives a nice look back at the variety of events, awards ceremonies and activities the team has been involved with throughout the year. We’ll be adding more photos as we have our Christmas and End of Year parties. Enjoy!
Image courtesy of Theeradech Sanin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
