Bespoke International Group, renowned specialists in outsourced customer service, have introduced a tailor-made employee engagement app that is making waves in improving staff retention rates and enhancing employee performance across the company.

Dubbed ‘The Bespoke App,’ this unique tool has been meticulously crafted by the in-house development team of one of South Africa’s fastest-growing companies. It enables employees to connect with their colleagues in a secure, safe, and convenient manner.

Donovan Soobramoney, Director of Shared Services, expressed his insights: “We wanted to develop a unique technology solution that would enhance employee inclusivity, engagement, KPI performance, and drive staff retention. We believe that it’s the very first of its kind within the industry, and the benefits it has brought has exceeded our expectations.”

He further explained, “The development process involved cross departmental collaboration, to effectively realise a meaningful two-way communication tool that delivers performance benchmarking, motivational content sharing and engagement between team members and senior staff.”

“Much more than a traditional intranet, we think of it as an “Employee Relationship Management” (ERM) tool, crafted via a user-friendly application that consolidates multiple features. The task was undoubtedly challenging, but we successfully transformed our vision into reality.”

“We’ve long believed that employee engagement is vital to foster a positive working culture and encourage the behaviours that we know create an outstanding business. The ‘Bespoke App’ is just one example of our investment in employees and is helping us create a happier working environment, reducing attrition rates and encouraging staff to develop their careers with us. Continuity and experience feed through to our clients by way of outstanding customer service.”

Established in 2018, Bespoke International Group operates from a cutting-edge contact centre in Durban and has emerged as a preferred supplier to the energy and retail sectors.

For more information about Bespoke International Group and the services it offers, please visit www.bespokeinternationalgroup.com or contact Keith Shanks, Sales Director, at [email protected].

As email inboxes become inundated with spam, traditional methods of communication are experiencing a resurgence, according to direct mail supplier Stannp.com.

Healthy food delivery firms and fashion businesses are among the types of companies turning to direct mail to entice customers to return to their online stores and complete their purchases. In addition, businesses in the estate agency and utilities sectors are sending letters and postcards featuring QR codes for easy digital access.

Some retailers are even sending physical letters to remind customers of items left abandoned in their digital shopping baskets, complete with images of these neglected items.

Data from Statista reveals that as of 2023, Britons receive a staggering 6.9 billion spam emails each day.

Sam Heaton, CEO at Stannp.com, commented on the shift, stating, “The number of people opening marketing emails has gone off a cliff – essentially we have reached spam overload, so firms are reverting to more traditional methods again.”

He added, “We have so many options to communicate now. Our devices are constantly pinging with notifications from email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and social media channels, and an increasing number of people actively try to ‘switch off’ from digital communications, with the rise of ad blockers and spam filters.”

“Around 45 per cent of emails are now considered spam and consumers are becoming more selective over which emails they stay subscribed to” Heaton continued.

He noted, “It’s almost too much effort to be constantly deleting emails, let alone reading and then taking action.”

Stannp.com offers business-to-business direct mail services, assisting over 40,000 customers in boosting revenue, retaining customers, providing updates, and garnering reviews.

Sam Heaton emphasised, ““Junk mail is now email with Gen Z. They rarely get a real letter sent to them and they react differently to older generations who remember a world before email.”

““Advertising mail has grown by 42 per cent in the last five years and on average advertising mail is kept in a household for 17 days,” he added.

“Conversely, 57 per cent of email addresses are being abandoned as there is simply too much junk email. People are creating email addresses solely for marketing emails and never have any intention to even login to these accounts.”

Established in June 2014, Stannp.com was founded with the aim of providing a Software-as-a-Service SaaS solution for direct mail, offering companies a fully digital, integrated solution for their direct mail requirements.

The company promotes the use of QR codes on letters, which serve multiple purposes. Besides directing recipients to specific webpages, these codes enable tracking features that generate insightful reports on direct mail campaigns by monitoring how many recipients have scanned the code.

Sam Heaton concluded, “Whilst it might be harder to track the ‘open’ rate of direct mail, the Stannp.com platform allows you track the mail you send from production, through the postal system and shows when it has been delivered to the recipient. On average, Stannp.com can see our customers experience an average QR Code scan rate of over 15 per cent. We find that the call-to-action on the QR code is as impactful as the subject line on an email.”

For more information about Stannp.com, please visit their website at https://www.stannp.com.