With pride and joy, we announce that our Joshua has successfully defended the European Customer Champion (EUROCC) 2024 title. This once again demonstrates that at DPD we are always at the forefront of technology and continuously develop innovative solutions for our customers. This year, the event focused entirely on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, and Joshua managed to impress both the jury and the audience with the presentation of his project "Introduction of Typewise." We are proud of Joshua's dedication and passion and look forward to continuing to work with him and the latest technologies to continuously improve our service.

We wanted to learn more about the project, its implementation, the award, and Joshua himself, so we took the opportunity to conduct a truly insightful interview with him.

A very personal insight

DPD: ‘What prompted the “Introduction of Typewise” project and how did it come to you?’
Joshua: ‘It was brought about by the fact that written communication is a key success factor in good customer service. There were several challenges in the CX that we wanted to solve with Typewise (our intelligent communication assistant). I joined the project a little later, and then took over following changes in the course of the project, so now I take care of its further development, which I personally was very pleased about.’

DPD: ‘What was the biggest challenge for you when planning and implementing the project?’
Joshua: ‘Fundamentally, the pilot had already gone well. The only points of improvement during implementation and planning were end user acceptance, multilingualism in Switzerland and the performance of one feature of Typewise – the predictions. We have been able to significantly improve all of these points in the meantime.’

DPD: ‘Is there a personal highlight for you when you look back at the entire project? And if so, please explain it in a few words.’
Joshua: ‘For me, the highlight is not one specific moment, but rather every time I hear employees giving good feedback and look at the analytics. We were able to successfully combine people and technology, and the feedback from employees and the figures speak for themselves.’

DPD: ‘How do you deal with nervousness or butterflies in your stomach? Do you have any specific hacks or routines to calm you down?’
Joshua: ‘I deal with nervousness or butterflies in the stomach quite poorly, I’d say. Presentations are very difficult for me and it takes a lot of effort. One small ritual could be to quickly focus on myself shortly before a presentation, take a deep breath and then simply try to deliver without worrying too much.’

DPD: ‘How did you prepare for your presentation/pitch and what strategies did you use to impress the judges and audience?’
Joshua: ‘I treated myself to a personal coaching session from our pitch master. Marco gave me a lot of support as well as lots of good input for my pitch. I am very grateful to him for that. Then I went through the pitch again and again in my head and presented it to different people. The main strategy was to present a consistent and exciting storyline and how we were able to create a sense of achievement for DPD out of a difficult situation.’

DPD: ‘How did you manage to present complex technical aspects of the project in an understandable and convincing way?’
Joshua: ‘Practice makes perfect. It is challenging to make people who have never heard of Typewise understand what it is capable of and why it is such a success for our company. In addition, I wasn’t allowed to show a video, so all the features were explained as comprehensibly as possible, with a step-by-step guide through a mock-up.’

DPD: ‘How did you find the reactions of the judges and audience to your project at the EUROCC award ceremony?’
Joshua: ‘Very positive. A lot of people were very interested and thought it was an exciting project.’

DPD: ‘What does it mean to you to win the EUROCC Award 2024 and how has this success affected you personally?’
Joshua: ‘I don’t think “I” won, but rather WE as the project team with our Typewise@DPD project. Many people were involved and an achievement like this belongs to everyone involved and not just me. I am very grateful to these people. For me personally, it was cool that I was able to overcome this challenge and represent DPD Switzerland in front of so many people.’

DPD: ‘Do you have any other pitches in the pipeline? And if so, which ones?’
Joshua: ‘There is nothing solid in the pipeline at the moment. Next year, however, I will be able to take part in the EUROCC again. This time, however, as a member of the jury to help judge other applicants. I’m really looking forward to it.’

We are delighted for Joshua and about winning the EUROCC Award 2024, and would like to thank every member of DPD Switzerland who has contributed to this success.