1. What is customer engagement?

While there are many definitions of customer engagement, the most widely recognized explanation is from Forrester Research, which defines engagement as the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence a person has with a brand over time. At ACCENT, we take this a step further and define it as a comprehensive strategy to maximize a brand’s ability to connect with consumers and influence their behavior whenever and wherever interactions occur.

2. Why should brands care about customer engagement?

According to recent research from PeopleMetrics, actively disengaged customers will tell, on average, three people to avoid a company and its services whereas a fully engaged customer will recommend a brand nearly four times more often. Additionally, customers who feel their problem was handled well are nearly as engaged as customers who never had a problem in the first place. Most importantly though, research from Adobe systems estimates that between 25% and 75% of a company’s sales are lost annually because its customers were not sufficiently engaged. This translates into millions of dollars of lost revenue every year simply because companies aren’t delivering an experience that engages consumers across the communications channels that matter most.

3. How is ACCENT different from other call center companies?

Unlike traditional call center outsourcing companies that are typically concerned with call deflection, lowest cost channel strategies and stemming the loss of customers, ACCENT believes that every time a customer interacts with a brand, it’s an opportunity. Our data-driven approach combines the right tools, strategies and resources to help clients engage with consumers in today’s digital, social, interactive and real-time world. Through our Continuous Engagement Improvement℠ process, we help brands get the most out of their customer relationships. During each phase, we provide a deep focus on the customer and their brand experience. In doing so, we help our clients transform their customer service touch points across phone, online and social media channels into powerful relationship and brand-building tools. By consistently delivering personalized and engaging customer experiences, ACCENT has turned clients like BJ’s Wholesale Club into a Forrester Top 10 Customer Experience firm and helped a leading telecommunications client move from worst to first in customer service.

4. What is ACCENT’s relationship to MDC Partners?

ACCENT is wholly-owned by MDC Partners Inc., a progressive marketing and communications network that champions the most innovative entrepreneurial talent and provides strategic and capital resources to accelerate growth. As an MDC Partners company, we’re part of a network of more than 40 marketing and communications agencies that deliver media-agnostic solutions to client business problems by leveraging industry-leading digital and analytical capabilities to drive increasing returns on marketing investment.

5. Is ACCENT publicly traded?

MDC Partners’ Class A shares are publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol “MDCA” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “MDZ.SV.A”.

6. What is ACCENT’s global footprint?

ACCENT employs more than 2,000 people across eleven locations across North America, the Caribbean and the Philippines. Each year, our engagement specialists engage in more than 80 million customer interactions across phone, mail, online and social media channels on behalf of brands that are passionate about keeping and growing customers.

7. What industry recognition has ACCENT received?

Recently, ACCENT was recognized as a Top 20 outsourcer by ContactCenterWorld.com and was ranked Number 11 on Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine’s 2010 Top 50 Teleservices Agencies List. Our Performance Marketing business unit was also honored for excellence in data analytics and modeling applications by the National Center for Data Management. And numerous employees have been recognized at local, national and world competitions for excellence and leadership in the contact center industry, including the induction of ACCENT’s CEO, Tim Searcy, into the Teleservices Hall of Fame.