The importance human connection in an increasingly digitalised economy is the focus of this edition of Business Day Spotlight.
Host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Amanda Reekie, founding director at ovatoyou.
According to the SA Customer Experience Report: as more business functions — from data collection and analysis to everyday operations — are performed digitally, the more customers seek to balance their services and customer experiences with humanness, personal empathy and real-life connections with trained, knowledgeable staff, in a physical environment.
The report was co-authored by Reekie; Charlie Stewart, CEO of Rogerwilco; and Julia Ahlfeldt from Julia Ahlfeldt Consulting.
Reekie says they found this consistent insight across data procured from surveying 2,000 online SA consumers and over 50 business leaders during in the second quarter of 2025.
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As such, she advises that brands need to be trusted, empathetic and be more human while simultaneously offering digitally “always-on” channels.
The authors coined the term “bothism” to describe the phenomenon.
“Bothism reiterates the notion that a really good customer experience requires a balance between seemingly opposing forces — technology and humanity, efficiency and empathy, digital and physical,” says Reekie.
Brands that understand and embrace this blending of emotional intelligence with operational excellence while innovating across channels, will naturally stay deeply human at the core”.
Through the discussion, the entrepreneurs outlines the findings of their new report; the balance that businesses need to strike between online and offline channels; the impact of AI on commerce broadly; and advice for business owners.
Business Day Spotlight is an Arena Podcasts Production.
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