Pendula Retained 2023 - Event Roundup and Highlights

The second in the annual Pendula Retained Marketing and CX Leader event series has just wrapped and we couldn’t have been more pleased with how the day turned out.  We were blessed to have everything run exceptionally well - even the things we couldn’t plan for: a beautifully dry and sunny winter day, a low dropoff rate, and a smooth and seamless AV experience. (Well, we are a tech company!)

Guests arriving at this years’ venue, View by Sydney at Walsh Bay just before 2pm were greeted with drinks overlooking a spectacular view of one of Sydney’s most iconic landmarks, the Harbour Bridge, surrounded by azure waters sparkling in the reflecting sunlight. The stunning natural beauty of the water, contrast with the industrial feat of the Bridge set the tone for an afternoon of mind-expanding possibility and innovative thinking. 

Once the room was filled with Marketing and Customer Experience leaders from some of Sydney’s most influential and acclaimed businesses across the Telco, Utilities, Finance, Technology, Health and Education sectors, guests took their seats and our hosts kicked off the sessions. 

First up: a panel discussion with Customer Retention Experts Jessica Thompson, COO of 8Squad, Jane Power, Marketing & Digital Transformation Director of Genesis Care, Nick Cherrier from Cherrier Consulting, and Scott Heron, Managing Director at Sonar Group. Marianne Downs, Pendula’s own Senior Marketing Manager, moderated the panel discussion which covered the big ideas, as well as revealing plenty of bite-sized tips and low-hanging fruit for audience members to action as soon as the very next day. 

With such a diverse and unique set of viewpoints, across multiple sectors, our panel members covered valuable insights and thorny topics raised across Digital Transformation, Customer Retention vs Acquisition strategies, and of course, Data and AI. 

All panel members were in agreement that today’s challenging economy, along with its exacting customer, requires a fresh mindset, and new strategies when it comes to holding attention and driving business growth. 

As the MD of a digital consultancy working with huge brands including VicSuper, Luxottica and Officeworks, Scott has first-hand insight into the challenges facing marketers and CMOs in Australia today. He shared some of the results of a recent survey run by Sonar Group amongst their own senior marketing networks - describing some of the key business objectives for the coming financial year, where they’re at in their roadmaps and how they are approaching Customer Experience across their own business strategies. 

Heads nodded across the stage too as Ben Albrecht, Pendula’s own Head of Customer made the point that companies must be both proactive and reactive about retention at the same time. This enables them to both stay ahead of churn across the board, while also being able to act fast enough on events that are relevant and meaningful for individual customers in order to create those moments of surprise and delight that will keep customers  engaged. 

Jessica warned against the issue of siloed data within enterprise, and indeed all businesses today. With access to critical customer data across multiple departments, everyone in the business is empowered to drive impactful cross sell and upsell initiatives, not just the marketing or customer teams. 

Jane Power expertly handled a pressing question relating to the complexity of marketing within a sensitive industry, and the Q&A session allowed for audience members to probe the panellists on their experiences within each of their industries. Following the panel discussion, Pendula’s Enterprise Sales Director Tristan Ohlenrott hosted an intimate fireside chat with Daniel Gaut of AGL - one of Australia’s largest energy and telecommunications customer services. 

As a customer of Pendula and a veteran in the Utilities sector, Daniel and Tristan’s conversation was detailed and open, packed full of insights from behind the scenes at AGL - from key priorities and what the important metrics are within the AGL business… as well as some war stories of what has and has not worked for them!

Pendula’s Product team then took to the stage to launch an exciting new feature within the Pendula platform, and launched our latest project - the Retention Health Score. Open to all, not just customers of Pendula, look out for the public launch of this game-changing business benchmarking tool that can calculate a Retention Health Score for you on the spot. Book a session with one of our Retention Experts, for access to personalised recommendations tailored to your Retention Health score, helping to benchmark you against your competitors and empowering you to deliver improved business results.

Yann Burden, Chief Growth Officer at Pendula closed the day with a compelling perspective on the pervasive nature of Generative AI at the moment, and piqued the audience’s interest with an exclusive preview of the Pendula platform vision moving forward. 

After a full afternoon of robust and stimulating discussion, exciting presentations and thought-provoking points raised, we were all in need of some refreshment. Beverages and canapes were served, as the room quickly filled up with chatter and laughter as guests mingled and compared notes on the course of the day.

Finally as the skies burned amber and crimson, and the sun's rays left the harbour, the last guests took their leave with full bellies, full minds and goodie bags in hand. Being customer obsessed means that our own community of customers and partners are incredibly important to us. We always seek to spend more time with them. Listening to them, delivering value, creating opportunities for us to get together, share ideas and of course, enjoy and celebrate the amazing results we can achieve together. 

Pendula Retained 2023 was another example of the ways we do this. All that is left is to give, one final thanks to everyone who participated and attended Pendula Retained ‘23, and a reminder to keep an eye out for our upcoming events, webinars and opportunities to get to know us better!