Meet AlphaCX: A software company helping businesses improve customer engagement

Businesses are incubated with the mindset of providing a product or service for people. These people, known as customers, are arguably the backbone of any business.

Delivering an excellent customer experience to users is one of the key aspects of building a successful business. Hence, creating a customer-focused strategy is an important step for all businesses.

Industry leaders describe the perception customers hold of a business as Customer Experience (CX). In user-case scenarios, this perception could be positive or negative, going on to tell on a business.

Businesses, globally, invest in maintaining a good score on customer experience as it delivers customer loyalty, customer retention, and brand authority.

In Nigeria, most businesses are often wrought with complaints from customers ranging from delivery time to poor products and even unanswered queries. For their part, businesses try to integrate solutions but these are often expensive, complex, and not suitable for the local market.

Solutions targeted towards local businesses

The global customer engagement market is currently valued at $15B and is expected to reach $30B by the year 2026. The African market is reported to have done $1B in 2020 with the potential to hit $4B in three years.

AlphaCX is tapping into that market by providing software products that meet the needs of African businesses in terms of customer engagement. The CEO and founder, Dabo Owen Etela, is a solutions architect with years of experience delivering CRM and process automation systems for medium and large enterprises.

Speaking to Technext, Dabo posited that the high rate of failed software implementations was mostly because local cultures, purchasing power, regulations and processes differed from what worked in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. According to the CEO, this necessitated the launching of AlphaCX.

We realised that businesses purchased expensive software which required complex implementation, with a steep learning curve that leads to poor adoption by users. This negatively impacts the user’s ability to organise and resolve customer issues swiftly, eventually leading to a loss in customer loyalty and business revenue.

-CEO and founder, AlphaCX, Dabo Owen Etela

With AlphaCX, businesses are able to engage customers with a unified communication platform -efficient for teams to organise and respond to queries as well as complaints, with speed.

Using the AlphaCX platform, businesses can simultaneously relate with customers through live chat, email, and social media. There are also in-built feedback tools for businesses to understand what customers think about products and services. The self-service option enables customers to request services, find information, register, and resolve issues at their convenience.

A customer-centric world

The relationship between customers and businesses has gone from just being transactional as businesses try to be more customer-centric. For Dabo, the idea is to treat every customer like the only customer, ensuring the customer has a positive experience at every touchpoint.

“Businesses utilize customer support platforms to nurture their relationship with the
customer. You will find that meaningful communication is the heart of all relationships,
as well as the heart of customer experience.”

Businesses operate in different sectors, each with its own unique pinpoints. For a platform such as AlphaCX, the solutions they proffer have to be flexible enough to suit business and customer needs.

“At the end of the day, what matters is that customers want their issues resolved. Businesses profile their customers and log their issues according to their “needs”. A bank wants your account number before resolving your double deduction issue, while an electricity company wants your meter number before fixing the vending issue you have. The solution must be flexible enough to allow any organisation to profile their customers and structure data collection according to their business needs.”

CEO and founder, Dabo Owen Etela

Fast turnaround times create a better customer experience. Most organizations have service-level agreements which they follow, though, regulators may issue a standard turn-around time. AlphaCX provides SLA automation to ensure compliance. In terms of time to value, the startup boasts of 30% overall improvement in support agents responding to more customers in the shortest time.

Going up against global giants like Microsoft, Zendesk, and Intercom has not been easy for the startup as local businesses are comfortable with the big platforms.

The biggest challenge is trust, our local businesses are comfortable with the big platforms. We have to work harder to get a single account, this increases our customer acquisition cost.

CEO and founder, Dabo Owen Etela

In penetrating the market, AlphaCX educates local businesses by organising periodic webinars and distributing white papers. The powerful customer success strategy they have developed also ensures that businesses using its product get value in the shortest time possible.

Future of AlphaCX and Customer Support

AlphaCX operated in stealth from May 2021 before the soft launch in October 2021, with plans for a major launch soon. AlphaCX has free and paid plans for businesses looking to be intentional about customer satisfaction, retention, and business growth.

On funding, the startup bootstrapped, seeking funds from family and friends. However, there are plans for a possible funding raising.

Currently, we are talking to a few angel investors. Nevertheless, We are optimistic with our sales pipelines and the market opportunity.

CEO and founder, Dabo Owen Etela

Technology already plays a part in the field of customer support and it will continue to do so in more advanced ways, helping customer-facing professionals do their jobs more efficiently. For Dabo, the potentials are endless.

“More practical use of Artificial Intelligence including AI-Powered contact centers. Video
for face-to-face communication. There will be an expansion of Touchpoints with
Internet-of-Things. Customers will be able to send queries from refrigerators, television
and cars. Extended reality such as the Metaverse will enable multiple touchpoints as
channels for customers,” Debo submitted.