Want to book a table at Mokonuts? American Express and Zenchef won't be able to help you.

Neither American Express nor Zenchef allow you to book a table at Mokonuts. Waiting time: four weeks. In the evening, restaurateurs Moko Hirayama and Omar Koreitem take care of their children.

Tomorrow, ECTFF will bring together a few iconoclasts and champions of product, UX, AI, CX and NPS at the foot of Montmartre. There can be no customer, patient or visitor experience without radical choices, courage and technology. Can UMAI, founded by Alexander Small, do as good a job as Zenchef in developing restaurant customer loyalty? 

The popular Parisian restaurant Mokonuts can only serve 22 guests and is closed in the evenings. Umai can help you book a table there, but Zenchef and American Express cannot, at least not initially. The wait to get a table at this small establishment in the 11th arrondissement, which is closed in the evenings to allow the couple to look after their young children, is around four to five weeks. Fortunately, unlike other restaurants, the owners have made it possible to book online. They have installed Umai software on their website, not Zenchef. Is Zenchef too expensive or inflexible? No, it's simply that the digitisation and simplification of customer journeys increasingly relies on technical tools, SaaS tools and now conversational agents. And competition is fierce in these areas. 

Good tools don't make a bad table a good table, and lots of Instagram posts don't make an average bakery a popular business. That's the belief of Kamel Saci, the 007 agent of neighbourhood bakeries in Paris. Each of the six bakeries under the Leonie Bakery brand generates on average three times the average turnover of a bakery in France. Every day, the former judoka visits all his shops twice a day. ‘Investment funds are chasing me and offering to buy into the business. We'll see,’ says the entrepreneur, who has an eye for detail and margins. There are no power sockets in the café areas of the bakeries. ‘Otherwise, people would sit there for hours charging their smartphones.’ Saci is no fool. 

While bankruptcies are on the rise, a few retailers and DNVBs are coming out on top, as are consultants:

Marie Bellicha, former director of a Chanel flagship store in Paris and former Guerlain employee, helps companies devise new customer service and experience strategies. She also trains their sales advisors. "When I worked for large companies, we sometimes used studies from BCG or other major consulting firms. Now, more specialised, agile and less expensive players can help review customer journeys or brand promises. I have no shortage of requests, especially since I am part of a collective of specialists: RMS. Founded by Axelle Paitre, RMS is able to mobilise HR, tech and training experts in retail experience (Retail Management Services). 

When we met Marie Bellicha last week at The Peninsula, where the big luxury brands were gently reminded to toe the line, she was all smiles. During a busy morning, the CXG consultancy advised that the luxury industry should not invest everything in VICs (Very Important Clients) and should pay attention to the core segment. These are indeed the kinds of questions that are currently on the minds of its clients: which customer segments should be prioritised, and how should trade-offs be made?

Talent does not wait for the passing of years. It does not depend on the number of Instagram posts.
The patient, visitor and customer experience is sometimes enhanced by tools and technologies that require thinking outside the box. Or thanks to discreet disruptors. Some of them have a meeting tomorrow in Montmartre. 

— Jonas Fellous, whom major networks are keen to recruit to develop their business in France. He has left the Verlaine Group, but his iPhone is buzzing.

— Amélie Newsom-Davies (Orange), the princess of RCS (Orange)

— Jean-Louis Mochamps, who is putting smiles back on the faces of affiliated retailers thanks to ArcaneMag, a software programme he created

RCS, Orange, Link Mobility, Greenbureau
RCS: remember these three letters. This tool is actually an enhanced SMS, with text and video. You can reply to it. The message is not limited to 140 characters. MAIF already uses it to notify its policyholders that their green card has arrived. MAIF, insurer, activist AND techno.

The deployment of RCS at Maif was carried out by one of the few telecom operators specialising in this type of campaign: Link Mobility.

Manuel Jacquinet.