Medallia acquires Mindful – Contact Center

Medallia, a global leader in customer and employee experience, has just signed an agreement to acquire Mindful, a leader in callback automation, from Alpine Investors, a people-focused private equity firm. Mindful, formerly known as VHT, builds on Medallia’s ability to turn customer signals into action, transforming the contact center experience and turning naysayers into promoters. Interactions in contact centers are fundamental to the customer experience. Consumer satisfaction has declined as wait times for calls to these centers skyrocket. According to the latest Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI) study, 72% of respondents say phone calls are still their preferred method of contacting customer service, and 27% of consumers say that contact centers use more than ever. If we add to this the traditionally high rate of employee turnover, which is now approaching 40%, contact centers face a very big challenge. “Consumers often want or need to talk to a person, but they don’t want to be put on hold,” said Leslie Stretch, CEO of Medallia. “Mindful, combined with Medallia’s signals-to-action platform, will enable organizations to deliver a modern customer experience while reducing the high cost and friction of the contact center approach. At the same time, they will be able to use their staff much more efficiently, shifting call volumes to the most appropriate times, routing calls to the most appropriate lines, and solving problems without wasting time, either for customers or the agents”. Mindful’s proprietary technology enables customers to schedule a call at their convenience, intelligently automate callbacks to turn hold time into free time, seamlessly route customers to other channels when needed, and provide call initiation automated based on signals. The use of direct and indirect feedback from the Medallia Experience Cloud provides specific personalization that does not exist in most contact center interactions. “We are thrilled to join forces with the leader in customer experience,” said Matt DiMaria, CEO of Mindful. “Our focus on customer interactions will be greatly enhanced, thanks to the integration of Medallia’s award-winning Experience Cloud and category-leading Text Analytics engine. Our customers know what a good customer journey should be, and making customer interactions easier and more productive is a success.” Companies have a wide variety of contact centers, partners and technology providers, so Mindful will enable the most important organizations of the Fortune 500 list to offer more efficient call return experiences. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of this fiscal year. Item Images: Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash