WebEngage, a full-stack Retention Operating System joined hands with Dubai-based full-funnel marketing consultancy Team Red Dot. The partnership will enable Team Red Dot to provide its clientele with retention-marketing services by leveraging WebEngage’s full-stack solutions suite, which has garnered a reputation for best-in-class customer engagement, data analysis, and personalization across the GCC region and beyond.

In an exclusive interview with Communicate, Luis Kashyap, Global Head of Partnerships at WebEngage and Prashant Lodaya, General Manager at Team Red Dot discuss the what, how, and why behind the collaboration.

Left to right: Prashant Lodaya, General Manager at Team Red Dot. Luis Kashyap, Global Head of Partnerships at WebEngage

How did the partnership come into play? Were there any valuable insights that the partnership will be catering to?

Luis Kashyap: The partnership aims to build a very strong ecosystem for customer acquisition and retention. In addition to that, we were looking to build a strong network within the Middle East by expanding our physical footprint and with an organization as experienced and flourishing as Team Red Dot – we are able to do both.

Prashant Lodaya:  I would say that for two partners with different skills and abilities to collaborate, the partnership must be mutually beneficial and complementary. With its extensive client reach and a focus on customer acquisition, Team Red Dot has been operating successfully in the GCC region for over 13 years. Web Engage provides marketers and brands with cutting-edge technology for efficient omnichannel strategies and customer retention. Together, our capabilities cover the entire customer journey, from acquisition to onboarding and retention. By combining our complementary product propositions, clients have a full-funnel solution across the media mix.

In what ways are both entities going to cater to clients collaboratively?

L.K: When it comes to result-oriented marketing efforts, we've seen the transition from third-party to real-time first-party data. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with this collaboration. Our solutions are aimed at empowering businesses with data. We are trying to get brands and businesses to shift their dependence wholly to data segments by giving them updates on a consumer’s profile and giving them recommendations on which channel is going to work best for them. Jointly, we’ll be offering brands market awareness and creative solutions such as content creation and campaign solutions.

P.L: From a client’s perspective, if you look at the overall customer journey, both capabilities are at play at different levels. First, at an acquisition level, Team Red Dot brings in the media expertise to drive acquisition. Once the customer is acquired, Web Engage has the operating stack to turn behavioral data into actionable insights that drives personalized engagement at scale. If a platform is already utilizing Web Engage, Team Red Dot can analyze consumer behavior and segment customers to identify various segments and improve retention. Additionally, Team Red Dot helps in planning & executing marketing campaigns which can re-engage customers who have lapsed or remained inactive, and create micro strategies based on customer behavior & data to increase sales and return on marketing investment for the brand.

How integral is it for clients to amalgamate creativity with expert technology while curating their CX journey? What tools does WebEngage offer to leverage that?

L.K: Every consumer out there has become so intelligent; they know what they want. With all the clutter out there. We’re working on personalizing experiences across various verticals. How Web Engage is able to do that is we’re able to identify all the shortcomings of a consumer’s engagement across a brand’s platforms. For example, if a well-being brand is planning a retreat for women who are interested in weight-loss –- they need to work with a partner that has a powerful AI engine that can help target the niched audience. That’s where we come in.

P.L: With digital driving a lot of business today, one of the crucial elements in a client's marketing mix must be customer experience. Great customer experience is proven to retain customers and help build customer life-time value over a period of time. With our integrated offering we’re targeting brands that have strong online presence or clients whose business depends largely on digital. We want to help them build great customer experience on the back of personalisation & data. For example, if your customer is struggling to make the payment, we can identify them in real-time and help solve those issues bringing delight to the customers. This is one of the many use cases we can solve to bring customer delight.

Can WebEngage’s solutions help marketers and brands drive ROI? What kind of solutions does the platform offer to enable this?

L.K: While the market dynamics aren’t so promising. Businesses aren’t giving up and are thriving to grow. Our partnership offerings are a must-have solution. Clients working with us have been able to drive a 5x increase in ROI. Besides customer acquisition and retention are a top priority for businesses across the spectrum in today’s heavily cluttered environment.

P.L: It’s a well-known fact that retaining customers is generally more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. With this partnership, we will emphasize identifying and addressing clients' pain points in retaining customers. For instance, we are currently in discussions with a skincare brand that is experiencing a high percentage of consumer dropouts during the payment process, with nearly 40% to 50% of people abandoning their purchases. Despite doing everything else right, there appears to be an issue between the payment and checkout pages. Our integrated solution can assist in identifying the cause of this increase in dropouts and potentially reduce the number significantly through personalized campaigns intelligently designed to reduce friction.