Madlen Balatlian, CEO of e-satisfaction,talks to STARTUPPER MAG ( a greek mag that includes everything concerning the startup ecosystem in Greece, alongside startupper.gr, the site that provides information and insights into startups in Greece, Europe and worldwide), about the Award the company received, as Ad/Marketing Tech Startup of the Year, at the Startupper Awards 2023, (These Awards are given to startups and young entrepreneurs who have made significant progress in their field), while among other things she gives a review of everything that happened in 2023 and shares the Startup’s goals for 2024.
As Madlen Balatlian mentioned, e-satisfaction “belongs to the field of Customer Experience and specifically the Voice of Customer, the collection of the customer’s voice”, while clarifying that the company specializes in “providing real time customer feedback from all points of a buying journey, which indicatively can be a purchase from a physical or an online store, a transaction at the bank, renting a car or picking it up from the Service.”
Furthermore, regarding the award, the CEO of e-satisfaction stated: “The fact that we were selected as one of the companies that stood out last year, reassures that we are “heard” in the market, that our work makes a difference and this is not only apparent, but it is eventually translated into that award as well. It is also a recognition of the success of all the changes and efforts we have made over the last two years or so. This award fills us with confidence to continue even stronger in the realization of the 2024 strategy, with energy and passion for what we do.”
Finally, regarding e-satisfaction’s performance in 2023, Madlen Balatlian said: “2023 was an intense and successful year for e-satisfaction. Apart from the financial goals that we had to pursue, there were many structural changes in the teams and the way we work, so that we can cope with the commercial growth this year, but mainly to prepare for the even more ambitious goals we have for 2024. Apart from profitability, we aim at aggressive growth through expansion in foreign markets (in the Balkans and SE Europe).
STARTUPPER MAG: How was 2023 for e-satisfaction in terms of performance?
Madlen Balatlian: “2023 was an intense and successful year for e-satisfaction. Apart from the financial goals that we had to pursue, there were many structural changes in the teams and the way we work, so that we can cope with the commercial growth this year, but mainly to prepare for the even more ambitious goals we have for 2024. Apart from profitability, we aim at aggressive growth through expansion in foreign markets (in the Balkans and SE Europe).
This required corporate reorganization, strengthening of commercial teams, strengthening of the Product & Data team and different operations overall. A “Project” which started in June 2022 and is now being completed successfully, since the goals we had for the year, commercial or not, were achieved.
The team has exceeded its performance, we are, as I usually say, a flexible and miraculous team, and this is reflected in our growth rate, which has increased compared to the last 2 years.
STARTUPPER MAG: What are your feelings about winning at the STARTUPPER AWARDS?
Madlen Balatlian: The STARTUPPER AWARDS due to their nature are very important for the team, as these awards were not nominated by the companies, but were selected based on certain criteria as the top ones in their industry. The fact that we were selected as one of the companies that stood out last year, reassures that we are “heard” in the market, that our work makes a difference and this is not only apparent, but it is eventually translated into that award as well. It is also a recognition of the success of all the changes and efforts we have made over the last two years or so. This award fills us with confidence to continue even stronger in the realization of the 2024 strategy, with energy and passion for what we do.
STARTUPPER MAG: How exactly is the feedback collection automated?
Madlen Balatlian: E-satisfaction is a technology company, so by definition the automation part is considered given. First of all, let me mention that our company belongs to the field of Customer Experience and specifically the Voice of Customer, ie the collection of the customer’s voice.
More specifically, we specialize in providing real time customer feedback from all points of a buying journey, which indicatively may be a purchase from a physical or an online store, a transaction at the bank, the rental of a car or its receipt from the Service. For example, in a large Retailer in the Consumer Electronics industry, we monitor customer satisfaction from the moment of browsing the site and / or buying in the store (online / offline), to the return or collection process from Lockers, everything that concerns last mile.
Similarly at Toyota, we have adapted feedback acquisition to the company’s customer journey and collect and analyze feedback from points such as a new car offer or service pickup.
Practically we implement a complete feedback program from the end customers of businesses with the aim of increasing satisfaction, optimization of operations and recovery of dissatisfied customers! We are not a research company, we want our partners to treat each individual customer as an equally important customer and when an experience was not as expected, they immediately do something about it.
An important prerequisite here is automation, which is done by interconnecting e-satisfaction with business systems such as ERP, CRM, websites, reservation/booking platforms or wherever there is relevant information. Here our Tech team has done everything necessary to make this interface as simple as possible and require few resources on the part of our customers. Apart from the initial integration, however, we do not ask businesses for anything else to start sharing and collecting feedback, as we are already interconnected with the most well-known messaging providers, Viber, WhatsApp, SMS and / or email.
However, because we are flexible, as I mentioned at the beginning, we have also created semi-automatic ways of interconnecting and receiving the appropriate information, so that we can serve smaller companies that do not have the resources to integrate from the beginning.
STARTUPPER MAG: Are you planning to find “teammates” to make bigger openings?
Madlen Balatlian: As part of the 2024 strategy, we will enter into strategic partnerships with companies from the broader field of technology, such as CRM or Multichannel Marketing solutions, but also from the field of consulting, in order to be able to provide a more comprehensive offer to businesses and open up different markets. There are already discussions, but I cannot yet share them. In the first quarter of 2024, something will definitely be announced, which is in the sphere of strategic partnerships.
STARTUPPER MAG: How do you see the Startup scene in Greece?
Madlen Balatlian: In recent years the ecosystem of startups and technology companies has started to take off, I think. We have seen Greek companies engage in international media, receiving funding from foreign venture capital with major deals.
The upskilling of the people employed in these companies, will play an important role in the further evolution of the ecosystem, because usually in small schemes people are called upon to do many different things, for which they may not be trained. Similarly, Marketing & Employer Branding should continue, if I may use the term, for Startup companies as a whole, so that they do not have difficulty attracting human resources, as unfortunately there is still the fear of working in a newly established or smaller company, although this fear seems to be diminished.
Several Greek funds, an active network of entrepreneurs and investors, journalistic initiatives such as STARTUPPER MAG or the TV program UNICORN ( concerning the startup ecosystem), have already helped the ecosystem and will play a crucial role in helping the startup ecosystem in Greece flourish even more.