“As an SME we can offer an opportunity for personalisation,” said Ayman Al Awadhi, managing director of Dubai’s The Corporate Group.

Al Awadhi’s subsidiary, Corporate Business Solutions, had been nominated for the Gulf CX Awards, in Dubai on January 18, and he said smaller companies like his could offer something “out of the box”.

They were pleased to be competing with big corporations for the Professional Services/SME and Client Relationship Management categories.

Although they didn’t win - the awards went to RSA Logistics and Maersk Kanoo, respectively - Al Awadhi told Wamda that as a startup they were in a better position to not only offer closer involvement with a client but that companies like theirs often had more of an appetite to explore new customer services. “Corporates are more rigid in strategy and objectives,” he said.

Customer service is crucial to any business in the service sector. And whether you’re a corporation or a startup the need to be the best is still the same.

Break before announcing the next winners. Great to have @ijgolding as a speaker today talking about #CX customer experience at #gulfcxawards pic.twitter.com/9T4dEyDEiJ

— GulfCXAwards (@GulfCXAwards) January 18, 2017

 

User Vision, a customer experience consultancy that started in the UK and has been in Dubai for 11 years, were also among the nominees that fell into the SME category. They won three awards at the same event last year. CEO Chris Rourke saw the customer service industry as one that would grow in the coming years.

“As more companies look for user experience services, so the number of providers will increase,” he told Wamda.

Rakan Tashkandi, marketing manager at Dopravo, a Saudi-based branding and marketing company, concurs. He told Wamda that decision makers in Saudi were more aware of the importance of meeting customers’ expectations. “Especially due to the economic situation facing the Kingdom and also due to the change in customers behavior and expectations.”

They accepted an award on behalf of Saudi Post, for their in the Government Services category. Dopravo had partnered with them for the project. With more companies arriving on the scene he said that it was difficult to recruit the local talent needed.

Another startup from Saudi Arabia included in the nominations was digital agency Etree.

Previously startups have excelled at the awards - in 2016 User Vision took home three awards, while Careem won Professional Services / SME in 2015,

Corporates in the lineup included Etisalat, Rakbank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. The latter two took the most awards with five each.

You can view the full list of winners here.

Feature image via Gulf CX Awards.