What is the definition of modern Customer Service? How has the digital transformation affected businesses? How can corporations be informed and adopt new ways of serving customers?
Experts
Ioannis Bratakos, President, Athens Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI)
Dimitris Gotzaridis, Vice Chairman, Hellenic Institute of Customer Service (HICS)
Stathis Loverdos, Director of Services, Kaizen Gaming
Moderator
Elena Papadimitriou, Journalist
The contemporary digital world has already placed the customer at the core of the philosophy of businesses and corporations with a dynamic and anthropocentric orientation. In this context, Customer Service is no longer just a part of the business or just another unit in a corporate organizational chart. It is a basic element of a corporation, an assured and necessary navigation strategy.
What is the definition of modern Customer Service? How has the digital transformation affected businesses? How can corporations be informed and adopt new ways of serving customers?
Is Customer Service limited exclusively to the way customers are served by employees or does it also concern intangible services (shops / parking / time management / User Xperience / call center)? How are Customer Service employees trained? Is politeness alone enough?
What are the biggest challenges in the field of Customer Service in the digital age? What are the specifications for a holistic and complete customer service in online services? How do digital customer requirements differ? What are the long-term requirements of the customers regarding Customer Service? What is the role of technology and innovation in the optimal digital Customer Service?
Elena Papadimitriou was born and raised in Thessaloniki. She studied Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, including a semester of studies in The Hague under the European Erasmus program. She completed her postgraduate studies in Political Science and Sociology at the University of Athens. She has been working in the press and electronic media since her student years. From 2003 to 2006 she worked as an editor of free and cultural reporting in the newspaper CITYPRESS. During the period 2006 - 2014 she was a member of the journalism team of the morning news program of MEGA, writing at the same time as contributor for five years in protagon.gr. In July 2014, she started working in SKAI television and radio, covering international reporting in the main newscast and presenting news bulletins and shows. She has covered important events of European and international affairs in recent years, sometimes with long television broadcasts, in journalistic missions to places like Moscow, Turkey, Italy and Belgium. Maintaining to this day the longing for major festivals and concerts, she has traveled to dozens of European cities for cultural events, writing articles in a number of media. She speaks English, French and Italian.
Ioannis Bratakos has been the CEO and founding member of the IT company DDSYNERGY since 1999. He has been active in the field of IT and especially in the services for SAP software since 1995 as an IT Consultant at SAPHellas. In 1997 he worked for the Norwegian company HYDRO at its headquarters in Brussels. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the company GRIGORIS MIKROGEVMATA and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the consulting company CAPECONSULTING.
Since 2006 he has been continuously elected a member of the Board of Directors of the ATHENS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY, initially in the Commercial department and since 2012 in the Services department. In December 2017, he was elected 2nd Vice President of ACCI and deals mainly with issues of innovation, new technologies, start-ups, investments and in general with the Greek entrepreneurship system.
He served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Development & Progress Company (ETAP) of ACCI, as a member of the monitoring committee of the National Reform Program to achieve the objectives of the revised Lisbon Strategy and a representative of ACCI in the Information Technology & Communication Committee of EUROECOM. He was also a representative of ACCI in the Monitoring Committee of the Regional Operational Program of Attica 2007-2013, as well as a representative of ACCI in Boards of Development Partnerships funded by the community initiative EQUAL.
Ioannis Bratakos studied Production & Management and did a postgraduate course in Political Economy at the London School of Economics & Political Science. He has written numerous articles on entrepreneurship, development and the IT market in newspapers and specialized magazines.
Dimitris Gotzaridis holds the position of Vice Chairman at the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service (www.customerservice.gr) which aims to promote, develop and consolidate quality in the service of customers, citizens and consumers, in the private and the public sector and to develop a customer service culture in Greece.
Regarding his professional activity, he holds the position of Head of Operations in Cosmote e-Value. He joined the company as Operations Manager in 2009. From 2015 to 2017, he held the position of Head of Operations at e-Value International Romania in 5 different cities in Romania. Prior to Cosmote e-Value, he worked for more than 20 years in sales, service and B2C and B2B marketing for companies such as MRM (McCann Ericsson Group), Amstrad and JVC, where he worked on client projects such as Cosmote, Vodafone, Wind, Pepsico etc.
He holds an MBA with a specialization in Sales Management, a BA with a specialization in Marketing from the Athens University of Economics and Business and the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and a postgraduate degree in Information Systems Management with a specialization in Business Data Analysis with Artificial Intelligence.
After a long career in tourism, Stathis Loverdos started his career at Kaizen Gaming in 2012, in the service department as a CS agent. In 2013 he took the position of CS manager and was invited to create a new service department, which aimed at supporting the betting product. In 2015 and as the company was growing, there was a need to create other specialised departments (KYC, PAY, RISK, QC etc) which would belong to the wider Services Division. The Services Division now employs 400 people in 6 different locations (Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Bucharest, Prague and Lisbon).
