Callity, the french alternative to Qualtrics

Since 2022, the tech company Callity has become the first choice of the most efficient call-centers and BPO, in France. The directory of customer service and experience by En-Contact compiles over 800 services providers, software publishers and consultants specializing in everything that improves CX, UX and CRM, with or without AI !

My name is Manuel Jacquinet and, in 2000, I created a trade magazine on call centres, CRM and the customer experience - the one you're reading some of the content of, in digital form. Last night, Orange, of which I am a loyal customer, asked me to evaluate their customer experience. Just like Fnac-Darty recently. In both cases, the questionnaire was sent out thanks to Qualtrics, and that made me wonder. 

Especially as last week I tried to solve a problem with Avis car hire by chatting to one of the SNCF Connect bots. The site normally allows you to buy a ticket AND hire a car. Chat is a big word. Can we be or become customer-oriented, without it costing a fortune (because shareholders aren't always as patient as Amazon's) and, if possible, by working with agile, virtuous, French partners?

A directory, for whom, why, with who in it?
I haven't forgotten Qualtrics' role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal*. I wondered whether these two big companies had no memory, no time to identify a French alternative for doing basicsurveys, or were too afraid to work with SMEs, and if so, why? But I know that Fnac-Darty is also capable of bringing Mayday on board to optimise its after-sales service or Custplace, a small French company with 20 employees, for its long-term customer reviews, a real innovation. And to their satisfaction. The answer to my question probably lies in the silos that exist at Ivry sur Seine, at head office. I've worked in big companies and I've escaped from them. Can a good consultant help to break down silos? 

I don't know how SNCF managed to win the Customer Service of the Year award, or rather, I know too well.

Seven years ago, I decided to create a directory, the Bottin mentioned below, so that we could identify the good ‘tables’, sometimes little-known, in customer experience, hospitality, specialists in sending SMS or RCS, enriched with indications and recommendations from mystery visits, and up-and-coming chefs. If the Michelin guide is a recognised and trusted brand, it's thanks to its inspectors, who pay for their restaurant bills. And before becoming a world leader in its field - and doing remarkable things in Trust and Safety (moderation), for example - Teleperformance was an SME, based in rue Firmin-Gillot. Read some enlightening testimonials from those who worked there.

If there are fifteen categories in this Directory, some of them strange, it's because new or older tools are useful for simplifying the customer journey, acquisition and engagement: on 30 October last, some American citizens living in one of the swing states received 9 text messages in one day. The first at 8.30am, the last at 10pm. SMS and RCS, the platforms for sending them, are proving decisive in the customer, patient and visitor experience. At Chronopost or Doctolib, the person in charge of CPaaS purchasing occupies a strategic position.

*Read the account of Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower formerly employed by one of these companies, in The Guardian. 

Grow and become profitable? Be customer-focused. 
‘Stop saying you're Customer Centric when all you care about is end-of-year ebitda’. This little rant, uttered by T.C., an ex-director of customer experience who was a little too passionate, led to his departure from the company. There is some truth in it. It takes people to name things. Is it easy to identify these rare birds?

Cédric Mathé, a hard-hitter but more diplomat than TC and a Swiss Army knife of change, is one of the few very good consultants specialising in customer experience in France. He advocates a return to basics, such as really listening to the voice of the customer, ‘something every CEO should do’. He will feature prominently in the CX consultants category, one of the fifteen in the 5th edition of the Bottin En-Contact. To be published in December 2024. 

The next Bottin du service et de l'expérience client, a sort of ‘Michelin guide’ to these strategic professions.
The publisher has taken care to identify the rare birds, specialists in AI, call-blending and customer journeys. We are no longer obliged to work with large consultancies to get help in improving our customer journeys or reception,’ says the publisher.

Here are a few examples of our referenced specialists. 

CX consultant, Call-center. Cédric Mathé is all about tangible results and ROI. The list of projects he has undertaken recently and the conclusions he has reached speak for themselves. Find out more in issue 10 of Cahiers de l'Expérience Client.

Management of telesales platforms, knowledge of the omnichannel.  Sandrine Bodo, in Chambéry, who created and managed Pro Contact, was recruited by Jean Lain, a major car dealer in the Rhône-Alpes region, to manage its in-house contact centre. What do you expect? She's one of the few telemarketing entrepreneurs with thirty-five years in the business. In the same way that Flaubert used to mull over the sentences he came up with for his novels, Sandrine puts the finishing touches to scripts and sales pitches before having them tested by her colleagues. A remarkable attention to detail. What does she think of Diabolocom, recently brought on board?

Analysing the voice of the customer and conversations. Nicolas Panel, the founder of Callity? Read what the CEO of one of the subsidiaries of Santiane, a leading insurance broker, has to say: ‘they have developed the speech analytics and conversation analysis tool that we had dreamed of creating’.

Market place for AI applied to customer experience. To date, Comete.ai is the only French company to have been set up on the basis of this good idea that a broker of technological and BPO solutions could provide useful support for SMEs and large groups. Frédéric Donati and his colleagues know what they're talking about: they were the kingpins behind B2S, Comdata and Konecta. 

The directory will be launched in December 2024 and will list more than 800 professionals in uniform categories: telephone reception, employee experience measurement, CPaaS platform publishers, AI, mystery shopping and RCS specialists. Some people will smile when they hear talk of AI-powered callbots. Read more about the reasons behind the collaboration between Concentrix and Phone Régie (Armonia group).

2. Who is Cédric Mathé?
Cédric Mathé, consultant, experienced, independent, cultured. Le Prytanée trains rigorous minds. He believes in an operational customer experience, tailored to the business challenges of the companies he has been working with for the past ten years. Cédric Mathé admits to having had two opportunities: working in retail and rubbing shoulders with innovative, even out-of-the-box, bosses and entrepreneurs. He has been able to turn them to his advantage and, above all, retain an independence that is very rare in the world of consultants.

Where do you come from, and what were the major stages that were instructive and enabled you to become an expert consultant on customer relations and customer experience?
Cédric Mathé: On the one hand, I have a very broad knowledge of customer experience and sales, because I don't come from a call centre background! I started out with responsibilities in sales and marketing before moving into customer relations and distance selling. Thinking only in terms of contact centres is already restricting vision and action. On the other hand, I've been lucky enough to be able to sell and lead networks of self-employed people without having any hierarchical leverage. My natural flair for customer relations and sales has been honed in the field, where diplomas count for little. I learnt to manage without a hierarchy, without variable bonuses, and so on. I then took on roles focusing on customer satisfaction as well as marketing and sales performance. I very quickly came up against the silos within companies, but I was able to lead some great cross-functional innovations!

Once I'd satisfied my appetite as a ‘star manager’, working as a consultant allowed me to tackle a wider range of issues in different sectors. I've worked in sectors as diverse as retail and e-commerce with Rue du Commerce, Blancheporte and Office Depot, as well as in education with Kosmos, healthcare with Pharmadyne, photovoltaics with Sunvie and renewable energy with Everwatt. I've been involved in selection projects, the implementation of customer relationship management tools, the co-construction of key customer experience methods, and the reorganisation of customer and sales departments. On the other hand, as a consultant, I'm often frustrated not to be able to go further!

What encounters have marked you professionally and why?
CM: I've been lucky enough to be managed by some exceptional bosses in the retail sector, but also in banking and insurance. I was also lucky enough to be an early adopter of tools like Salesforce, Vocalcom, iAdvize and the late Télémétris (now BVA) when they were just starting out in France. Meeting captains of industry or visionaries - like Anthony Dinis - has also enabled me to evolve and think outside the box. Last but not least, professional associations and forums play an essential role in my approach. I've also been lucky enough to participate in a number of professional magazines. For a long time, I actively co-chaired the AGORA of Customer Experience Directors, alongside visionaries such as Philippe Laulanie of BNP, Fabrice André of Orange, Agnès Rosoor of TF1, and Aude de Laval of Conforama. For nearly ten years now, I've been a regular attendee at ECTFF, the French Forum in La Baule, which gives us a chance to explore new perspectives and innovations, while making some great encounters that often unblock situations or brainstorming sessions! And above all, I've been lucky enough to have some great, demanding clients, both internal and external, who have put their trust in me. I'd like to thank them all. As always, people are the only source of wealth!

What is your job now, and what are the advantages and limitations of being a small company or freelancer? Can you be a good consultant without getting any fees from publishers? How independent are you really?
CM: My job is still to help a company improve its customer and commercial experience! That's a huge programme and it's an advantage. It means that you can quickly accumulate experience and experiment. Even if the temptation to seek recurring income is great - it's the Achilles' heel of consultancy - being independent gives you more freedom, both in practice and in your mind! Working in a small structure is a challenge, especially when you come from large groups where you held management positions. When the printer doesn't work, it's up to you to sort it out. But administration is still a punishment for me!

What do you observe and what surprises you in your work, and more generally in terms of customer experience, in the companies you know or in which you work?
CM: First of all, the famous ‘centricity’ that everyone boasts about isn't all that present and developed! In fact, I think that the notion of service is not sufficiently ‘anchored’ in French companies in general. In the French mind, the words service, servitude and serf are too close together! I prefer the Spanish term ‘atención al cliente’ or ‘customer care’. For example, while we are overflowing with quantitative and qualitative customer feedback data (surveys, NPS, CES, etc.), how many managers have the capacity to listen to a customer interaction or complaint themselves, every week? I'm also always surprised by the French ability to ‘silo’ issues and responsibilities, and the customer experience often suffers as a result.
I'm convinced that the secret of successful companies lies in their ability to constantly align their sales organisation, marketing, customer service and IT department with commercial performance, focused on the customer and the prospect. The customer is our lifeblood! Keeping customer satisfaction and sales performance on track requires a complex exercise in introspection for companies!

Here's an example of an assignment we carried out. For a white goods appliance maintenance company, plan for spare parts that will be useful to the technician, avoid bias (a technician who has a spare part available tends to use it, because it pleases the customer, who rates the work higher). Evaluate the customer journey, processes including diagnosis by telephone, visit planning, etc. In particular, by adjusting the predictive model on the basis of the overall cost rather than the error rate, 1 million euros were saved. Detailed study on page 28 of CEC issue 10.

Top photo: ©Edouard Jacquinet. Yann Bermond and Nicolas Panel, Callity co-founders. 

Manuel Jacquinet.