Over the past five years, we’ve made it our mission to stay ahead by adapting quickly to change and seizing new opportunities. Despite the challenges—like the global pandemic—we kept growing by staying flexible and making smart decisions. In this final blog celebrating 25 years of CM.com, we look back at a time when we showed, again and again, how we could offer innovative solutions and strengthen our organisation.
CM.com started as an SMS provider, yet today, we offer an integrated customer engagement platform to drive meaningful business interactions. Over the past 25 years, we have been assembling this platform piece by piece, with each innovation, product and acquisition adding to the bigger picture. Let’s explore how these puzzle pieces have come together to build the CM.com of today.
By 2010, CM.com knew it was time to expand beyond its roots. What began in nightclubs had grown into a broader client base across various industries. It was time to push boundaries—both literally and figuratively. Here’s the story of our international journey, filled with challenges, triumphs and lessons.
What started as ClubMessage — focused on SMS marketing for nightclubs — quickly evolved into an organisation capable of handling millions of messages. Within just five years, the company had not only built a vast reach among young people but also developed its own technology to manage high volumes of SMS traffic. This rapid growth saw CM.com become the Netherlands' largest SMS buyer, with its technology branching out into new sectors like television and banking. Let’s take a closer look at this journey.
Picture this: you're leaving a bustling club, but all around you, people are tossing aside paper flyers meant to draw them back for the next big night. Jeroen and Gilbert watched countless flyers hit the floor, when they thought, "There’s got to be a better way!". Gilbert sent a simple text to Jeroen: "Will you join me at Highstreet?" That message changed everything.
Meeting customers' expectations remains the biggest challenge in service. Speed, convenience, and accurate responses are critical to achieving this. With the power of Generative AI, customer questions can be identified, categorised, and resolved more quickly. Plus, your organisation is continuously fed with data to improve the entire customer journey.
In the real world, people use different environments to achieve different goals. They’ll go to brick-and-mortar shops to compare prices and competitors. Visit a showroom to experience products up close. Or schedule a meeting to see a live demo. But is that how it works in the digital world? Yes, it is. The digital world has various environments, too, from websites to messaging channels, social platforms and more.
Every channel where customers interact with a brand offers a different experience. Among the most distinctive is Instagram. Unlike other social media apps, Instagram users scrolling through posts often feel a deeply personal connection with the sources they follow: celebrities, favourite products, and subjects they’re passionate about. It’s a community built on trusting influential people.
Facebook. Instagram. TikTok. There’s a rainbow of social media channels available to customers today. Some are visual; some are about connecting with friends; others are more business-like. But if there’s a single channel that spans communication in all its varieties, it’s Meta-owned WhatsApp.
Chatbots spent a decade-plus as a technological sideline: nestling at the corner of websites, roaming the odd FAQ, inviting people to click with a hopeful link. They weren’t a big part of the customer experience. But now – suddenly – they’re everywhere.
In today's digital age, businesses always seek ways to connect with their customers quickly and efficiently. One of the most popular communication tools that have emerged in recent years is WhatsApp, widely used worldwide. The WhatsApp Business Platform provides businesses with an easy way to manage their customer communication, automate responses, and provide better customer service. In this blog, we will explore how retail and eCommerce businesses can use the WhatsApp Business Platform to enhance customer engagement, drive sales, and build a loyal customer base.
If you want to update your contact details, perhaps your address, at a particular company, you'll often send a message and wait for a reply. And you wait. And wait some more. You may feel annoyed. Or perhaps you'll try to get the job done via another channel. Annoying right? Have you considered your customers may face this situation when contacting your business? Or thought how easy it is for your customers to reach you via their preferred channel?
What makes sport so great is that it connects all kinds of people. On the other hand, knowing no two sports fans are alike makes it challenging for sports organisations to address different fan segments. The organisation behind the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix acknowledged this challenge and realised they needed to create individual experiences for fans at CM.com Circuit Zandvoort. With this ethos, they've built world-beating fan experiences for the first F1 event at Circuit Zandvoort in 35 years. But the team isn't finished. They're working to improve fan engagement year on year. Want to know more? Here we share five insider tips on how the Dutch Grand Prix built fan engagement before, during, and after the race.
In the run-up to any event, attendees will have numerous questions, such as "how do I get there," "where can I find my tickets," and "Is there somewhere to stay nearby." F1 fans often ask these types of questions before the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix.
The market for generative AI has experienced significant growth, with over $14.8 billion of venture capital invested in startups building their products on Large Language Models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. The space is booming, evident from the high number of website domain registrations in the field every week. The key challenge for most companies is to find out what will propel their businesses moving forward.
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