The vibrant landscape of customer interaction, contact centre operations, and digital marketing strategies converges next week at All4Customer, the prominent French exposition evolved from the legacy of SeCa. As businesses navigate an increasingly complex digital terrain, this event promises a focal point for exploring the technologies and methodologies shaping how companies connect with, understand, and serve their clientele. The confluence of Customer Experience (CX), E-Commerce enablement, and the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) forms the bedrock of this year’s discussions, highlighting critical challenges and showcasing the innovative enterprises rising to meet them. Navigating the exhibition floor requires a keen eye for solutions that address the most pressing needs of modern commerce and customer service.
The Relentless Pursuit of Growth: Acquisition Strategies Under the Spotlight
In today’s hyper-competitive market, the imperative to acquire new customers efficiently and effectively remains paramount. Several exhibitors at All4Customer are poised to demonstrate cutting-edge approaches to this fundamental business challenge.
One notable presence is Brevo, the entity formerly known as Sendinblue. Standing out as one of the few dedicated acquisition marketing specialists at the show, Brevo represents a significant evolution in the CRM space. Originally carving a niche by serving very small businesses and SMEs with email and text messaging capabilities, the company has broadened its horizons, now actively targeting major corporate accounts. This strategic pivot is coupled with a significant embrace of Artificial Intelligence, signalling an ambition to infuse predictive insights and automation into its omnichannel CRM platform. Their stand (D35) offers an opportunity for those who missed the grand opening of their Parisian headquarters to engage directly with their expanded vision and AI-driven functionalities. The transition from a tool primarily for smaller operations to one courting enterprise clients underscores a broader trend: the democratization of sophisticated marketing technologies previously accessible only to the largest players.
Further enriching the acquisition theme are two companies offering specialized solutions: Greenbureau (stand D78) and hipto (stand D44). Customer acquisition is no longer solely about broad-stroke campaigns; precision and channel specificity are key. Greenbureau distinguishes itself as a rare French expert in Rich Communication Services (RCS) and the strategic integration of WhatsApp into acquisition funnels. These channels offer richer, more interactive engagement possibilities than traditional SMS or email, potentially yielding higher conversion rates when implemented correctly. Greenbureau’s expertise lies in navigating the technical and strategic nuances of these platforms.
Simultaneously, hipto addresses a critical aspect of lead generation: quality and compliance. They have revitalized the process of supplying ‘intentional leads’—prospects who have actively indicated interest, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion. Crucially, hipto emphasizes the legal compliance of the leads generated, a factor of non-negotiable importance in an era of stringent data privacy regulations like GDPR. Their approach tackles the common pain point of sales teams wasting resources on low-quality or improperly sourced leads.
The success of sophisticated email, RCS, or WhatsApp campaigns inevitably generates a wave of inbound inquiries and requests for information. This positive outcome, however, places increased demands on sales teams, who must efficiently contact and qualify these prospects, primarily via telephone. This is where Manifone (stand D30) enters the picture. As a specialized telecommunications operator, Manifone focuses explicitly on optimizing outbound calling processes for sales and follow-up. Understanding the pressures on sales teams to connect quickly and effectively, Lounis Goudjil and his team are set to showcase innovations designed to enhance productivity and insight. A key highlight is their new real-time speech analytics tool, promising immediate feedback and analysis of sales calls to drive performance improvements. Furthermore, Manifone offers a unique perspective with the launch of the first-ever book dedicated to the history of cold calling, ‘Ne quittez pas, un correspondant cherche à vous joindre,’ providing valuable context to a practice undergoing significant technological transformation.
Weaving the Seamless Web: The Omnichannel Imperative
The modern customer journey is rarely linear or confined to a single channel. Consumers expect fluidity and consistency whether they interact via web chat, email, phone, social media, or in person. Achieving a truly seamless omnichannel experience remains a significant technical and operational challenge. Within this highly competitive arena, several platform providers at All4Customer are making waves.
Ino CX (stand E14) emerges as a player demonstrating considerable momentum. Recent successes, including securing major deals in the South American market and winning a substantial tender from a prominent insurance company, underscore its growing influence and capability. These achievements suggest a platform robust enough to handle complex, large-scale deployments in demanding sectors like finance and insurance, where reliability, security, and regulatory compliance are paramount. Their presence offers insight into solutions designed for complex, high-stakes customer interaction environments.
In contrast, Kiamo (stand D40) plans to articulate the specific advantages of on-premise deployment models. While cloud solutions dominate much of the conversation, certain industries or organizations retain valid reasons for preferring on-premise infrastructure, often related to data control, security policies, or integration with legacy systems. Kiamo’s focus caters to this specific market segment, highlighting that the optimal solution architecture is not one-size-fits-all and depends heavily on individual business requirements and constraints.
Meanwhile, anticipation surrounds Vocalcom (stand D20), which is expected to make a significant announcement during the event. For a company with a long history and a substantial installed base in the contact centre technology space, any major news is likely to resonate throughout the industry. Whether it involves new features, strategic partnerships, or technological breakthroughs, the announcement holds potential interest for current Vocalcom customers and the broader market evaluating omnichannel platform options. The competitive dynamic ensures that innovation from established players like Vocalcom continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in integrated customer communications.
The Rise of Intelligent Automation: Simplification, AI, and Strategic Outsourcing
The relentless drive for operational efficiency, cost optimization, and enhanced service quality has propelled automation and Artificial Intelligence to the forefront of customer experience strategies. Exhibitors are showcasing diverse approaches to leveraging these technologies, from simplifying internal processes to deploying sophisticated AI agents.
Conversational AI is undeniably a central theme. Comete.ai (stand F51) introduces an intriguing model by establishing what it calls the first AI marketplace. Functioning as a broker, Comete.ai aims to help businesses navigate the often bewildering landscape of AI tools and platforms by identifying and recommending the most suitable solutions for specific needs. This approach addresses the challenge many organizations face in evaluating and selecting the right AI technology from a rapidly expanding array of options.
DialOnce, already recognized for its effective visual Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that streamline call routing and self-service, is strategically expanding into AI-powered agents. A significant advantage for DialOnce is its established base of satisfied enterprise clients, including major names like RATP, Enedis, Les Menuires, and Vattenfall. This existing trust and infrastructure provide a solid foundation for introducing AI-driven automation, potentially offering enhanced self-service capabilities and more intelligent interaction handling to their current and future customers.
Another key player in the automation space is Mayday (stand E35). Mayday has earned a strong reputation by focusing on a critical element of effective automation and agent support: the knowledge base. Their expertise lies in creating and managing dynamic, easily accessible knowledge bases that empower both AI-driven self-service tools and human agents to find accurate information quickly. By ensuring the underlying information is robust and well-organized, Mayday helps automate customer service functions effectively and improves the efficiency of telephone advisors. The reference to N26 underscores the real-world pain point of inconsistent or inaccurate information delivery in customer service, a problem Mayday aims to solve.
Targeting the specific needs of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Mid-Market companies (ETIs), Volubile.ai (stand C78), under the leadership of Stéphanie Delestre, specializes in deploying practical AI agents. Their success stems from delivering solutions that demonstrably work and, crucially, are scalable – a common hurdle in AI implementation. For smaller organizations often lacking extensive internal AI expertise, Volubile.ai offers a pathway to leverage advanced automation effectively, focusing on tangible results and ease of integration.
Beyond pure technology platforms, the role of strategic outsourcing in achieving simplification and accessing specialized capabilities remains vital. Vipp (stand E26) represents a prominent and innovative force in the African outsourcing landscape. Notably, the company recently appointed Corinne Schamber, formerly of Teleperformance, as its new CEO, signalling potential new strategic directions. Vipp, a pioneer in establishing BPO operations in Benin, is known for its forward-thinking approach and is planning three distinct technological innovation launches at its stand. This highlights how outsourcing partners are increasingly becoming hubs of technological advancement, offering clients access to cutting-edge tools and processes alongside skilled human resources. Their presence underscores the global nature of customer service delivery and the innovative potential found in diverse markets. A unifying thread among many of these French innovators (eleven out of the twelve highlighted) is the continued presence and active involvement of their founders or co-founders, suggesting a persistent entrepreneurial spirit driving these companies forward.
Echoes in the Hall: Notable Absences and Unaddressed Frontiers
While All4Customer showcases a wealth of solutions, a critical examination reveals potential gaps in its coverage, particularly concerning the human elements that underpin customer and employee satisfaction. Now in its 29th iteration (including its history as the European call centre show), certain crucial themes seem less prominent than their real-world importance warrants.
First, the Employee Experience (EX) appears significantly underrepresented. Discussions around nurturing, measuring, and improving the experience of customer-facing employees seem sparse. This is a critical oversight. The ability to attract, retain, and motivate skilled and engaged employees is inextricably linked to delivering superior customer experiences and fostering long-term loyalty. High turnover, burnout, and lack of empowerment among front-line staff inevitably impact service quality. A comprehensive view of customer engagement must encompass the well-being and effectiveness of the people delivering it. The relative silence on EX suggests a potentially missed opportunity to address the holistic ecosystem of service delivery.
Second, the crucial area of Voice of the Customer (VoC), particularly the deep analysis of conversations, lacks the prominence it deserves. Technologies that allow businesses to systematically listen to, analyze, interpret, and act upon customer interactions (calls, chats, emails) represent a major breakthrough. These tools move beyond simple satisfaction surveys to uncover nuanced insights about customer needs, pain points, product feedback, and process inefficiencies. Automatically summarizing interactions and feeding structured insights into CRM systems can transform performance management, agent coaching, and strategic decision-making. While the broader field of data analysis is present, the specific, powerful application of conversation intelligence seems less visible. The mention of governmental use of interception technologies (Chapsvision, Thalès) highlights the power of conversation analysis, yet leading commercial providers specialized in CX applications are noted. While global leader Nice serves a specific segment, and others like MyQM and Feedae are evolving or emerging, the absence of established French specialists like Cross CX and Callity for another year running points to a gap in showcasing readily available, potent VoC solutions tailored for the French market.
Third, and perhaps most strikingly, there’s a palpable lack of direct representation from the front-line employees themselves. The call centre agents, counter staff, salespeople, and field technicians – the very individuals who embody the customer experience daily, solve problems in real-time, and build rapport – are largely absent from the discourse. They are the subjects of discussion, the targets of new technologies and processes, but rarely the active participants in the conversation at such industry events. While artistic representations capture their reality (as noted through filmmakers Ken Loach and Boris Lojkine), their direct voices, experiences, and insights are missing from the professional forum. Are their perspectives not valued, or do they perceive these events as disconnected from their daily realities? Even sessions ostensibly focused on their empowerment, like the Teleperformance/Majorel conference on ‘more coaching, less reporting’ powered by AI, raise questions. While moderated by an innovation director, the true measure of success lies in the lived experience of the agents and supervisors. Hearing directly from them about whether AI has genuinely simplified their work and unleashed their potential would offer far more authentic insight than a top-down presentation. Their absence leaves a void in understanding the practical impact of the strategies and technologies being discussed.
Reflections on the Experience Itself
Paradoxically, an event dedicated to optimizing the customer experience sometimes struggles with the attendee experience. Like many large trade shows, All4Customer operates within a framework where basic necessities for exhibitors – electricity, internet connectivity – come at a significant additional cost on top of the stand rental fees. Logistical friction points, such as the predictable lunchtime queues forming daily before limited food vendors offering the same fare year after year, also detract from the overall experience. Implementing more modern, customer-centric solutions, perhaps even a simple application-based ordering system for diverse food options featuring local produce, seems like a natural fit for an event championing CX innovation. Yet, such improvements appear persistently challenging to implement.
Despite these minor frictions, the event undoubtedly serves its core purpose. It draws significant crowds, providing a fertile ground for networking and lead generation. Sales departments will diligently gather contact information, feeding their CRMs with prospects gleaned from booth visits and conversations. The real work, of course, begins after the event closes – the meticulous follow-up required to convert these leads into tangible business outcomes. The cycle of showcasing innovation, generating interest, and pursuing connections continues, reflecting the ongoing dynamism of the customer engagement industry.