Scaling Customer Experience Across the PEP Brand Ecosystem

Overview

CXG supports the retail brands for PEPKOR, which today contributes to 86% operating profit and operates a retail network spanning thousands of stores across Southern Africa. PEP fulfils its purpose of helping customers look and feel good by offering affordable products and services across clothing, homeware, cellular, financial services, and digital channels.

The Ecosystem: PEP | PEP Home | PEP Cell | PAXI | PEP Care | PEP Social Media

Executive Summary

At CXG Customer Experience Group, we are deliberately shaping a future-ready customer experience ecosystem, built on trust, accreditation, AI, and measurable delivery.

Our long-standing partnership across the PEP brand ecosystem demonstrates how disciplined CX governance, intelligent automation, and accredited delivery can support one of South Africa's most recognised retail brands. Today, CXG supports PEP brands with 100 dedicated CX professionals, delivering millions of customer interactions annually, achieving:

• 250,000+ five-star CSAT ratings
• 70% self-service productivity through WhatsApp and IVR automation
• Consistent, high-quality CX across retail, telecoms, financial services and digital channels

The Challenge

As customer expectations accelerate and retail ecosystems become more complex, the PEP brands faced the challenge of delivering seamless CX across:

• High-volume retail support
• Digital parcel logistics (PAXI)
• Mobile and device support (PEP Cell)
• Assisted care and customer enablement (PEP Care)
• eCommerce enablement (PEP eCommerce launched September 2025)
• Always-on digital engagement via social and messaging channels

The central question: "How do you deliver consistent, trusted CX at scale, without increasing operational risk and cost?"

CXG's Approach

1. Strengthening CX Foundations

CXG embedded global CX standards, governance, and quality frameworks to ensure consistency across all PEP brands and channels — providing the operational bedrock for sustainable scaling.

2. AI That Delivers Beyond the Hype

CXG deployed production-grade AI, including:

• Language translation across all 11 official South African languages
• Agentic AI for guided resolution and workflow optimisation
• Real-time sentiment and conversation analysis
• Automated Quality Assurance (Auto QA) at scale

This ensures measurable outcomes — not experimental technology.

3. Intelligent Self-Service at Scale

Through WhatsApp and IVR bots, CXG enables:

• 70%+ self-service containment
• Faster resolution for routine queries
• Reduced agent load without sacrificing CX quality

Automation enhances — and does not replace — the human experience.

4. Operational Scale and Delivery

CXG supports millions of interactions across voice, digital, messaging and automation channels. This scale is a result of: disciplined execution, accredited operational governance, robust disaster recovery and technology resilience, and a relentless commitment to quality and continuous improvement.

Accreditation as a Strategic Advantage

Accreditation sits at the centre of CXG's delivery model. By aligning to recognised global CX, quality, technology and operational standards, CXG ensures clients benefit from:

• CX underpinned by AI that delivers real value
• Measurable performance and quality outcomes
• Reduced operational, technology, disaster-recovery and reputational risk
• Scalable support models that grow with the business

Why This Matters

This case study demonstrates how CXG enables enterprise-grade CX delivery, combining:

• Governance before scale
• AI with accountability
• Measurable outcomes
• Reduced risk
• Sustainable people practices

Together with PEP and the broader PEPKOR ecosystem, we believe business and CX design must be reinvented over and over again in order to remain customer-obsessed, experience-driven, growth-enabling, and value-creating.