Customer Engagement Platform Khoros Establishes Austin Hub

AUSTIN, TX — Khoros, a customer engagement platform, has created a new campus in Northwest Austin to applause from chamber officials who have scheduled a grand opening ceremony.

Officials at the Austin Chamber's Opportunity Austin lauded Khoros for its prominent role in sparking some of the city's most successful corporate startups. Created as a result of merger action between Austin-based Spredfast and Lithium Technologies, Khoros has 15 years of market leadership in its pursuit of helping companies create lifetime customers.

The company achieves its goal of customer loyalty by connecting companies with consumer insights across all department, yielding the ability to anticipate customers's needs in such areas as accelerating sales, cementing loyalty and pushing innovation.

A grand opening for the Khoros campus at 7300 Ranch Road 2222 is scheduled on Wednesday at 3 p.m. The campus comprises three buildings across 79,000 square feet housing 450 employees. “Khoros is proud to be in Austin, and we are excited to begin this next phase of our growth in our new and expanded space," Khoros CEO Jack Blaha said in a prepared statement. “As an Austinite for more than 10 years, I know that this is a great place to build and grow successful companies, and that’s why we continue to invest here. We look forward to many more years of success in Austin.”

Austin Chamber SVP of Economic Development, Charisse Bodisch lauded the company's local expansion: "Congratulations to Khoros on the creation of their beautiful new Austin campus, which is a terrific expression of their innovative and collaborative culture,” Bodisch said in a prepared statement. "As a pioneer in the field of digital customer engagement, Khoros and its success embodies all that makes our region attractive to job creators: a deep pool of dynamic talent, a rich history in tech, and a city that’s focused on growth and continued economic development. We look forward to seeing what's next for Khoros in Austin."

Chamber officials noted Khoros incorporated quintessentially Austin details into the design mix of its campus. The company commissioned two local artists to contribute unique artistry to the office design. Sophie Roach, an Austin-based artist who uses shapes, patterns and intuition to create abstract murals, is contributing a hand-drawn display that will extend across the first and second floors of the main Khoros building, officials noted. Additionally, Debbie Upton is contributing murals to two of the Khoros buildings on the campus using vibrant color and organic patterns through a variety of mixed media techniques.

Bright and joyful mural by Sophie Roach serves as welcoming sight in exiting the 11th floor elevators of the new SXSW headquarters building in downtown Austin. Roach was commissioned by Khoros to incorporate her designs into the Khoros office aesthetics. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.

The campus also was designed in a way to ensure employees' quality of life while at work. To wit: There's a fully-stocked kitchen at the site; catering service available four days a week; a 24-hour gym and yoga studio; a game room; bar; and indoor/outdoor collaboration areas.

Khoros last month staged its first and largest digital customer engagement conference, Engage, last month in Austin that was geared to its role in helping grow the local tech industry by emphasizing ways of connecting with customers. Closed to the media given the proprietary nature of companies' inner workings, the conference staged at The Fairmont hotel from Sept. 9-11 featured top brands, hands-on workshops and "inspirational thought leadership," Khoros told Patch in an interview ahead of the event.

"Attendees will walk away with techniques for becoming connected with their customers — knowing who they are, what they want and how they can meet them wherever and whenever they want to connect," a press advisory for last month's conference described. Attended by company representatives from across the country, the conference was staged following the merger of Spredfast and Lithium last year.

About Opportunity Austin

Opportunity Austin is the economic development initiative aimed at fostering job-creating investment in the five-county Central Texas region. Top priorities include boosting economic diversification to proactively strengthen the economy, deepening the talent pool through development and attraction, and keeping the Greater Austin region attractive to entrepreneurs, business leaders and site selectors through advocacy on issues such as a comprehensive regional transportation system and regional collaboration. Since 2004, Opportunity Austin has helped bring more than 400,000 total jobs to the Austin region.

About Khoros

Khoros, built from Spredfast + Lithium, is the leading customer engagement platform built to turn siloed knowledge into enterprise value, and customers into contributors. By connecting consumer insights across all departments, Khoros gives companies the ability to run their business with their customers, anticipating their needs and accelerating sales, loyalty, and innovation. With 2,000+ customers, including 52 of the Interbrand 100, and ten offices globally, Khoros powers approximately 500 million digital interactions every day. From social media to online communities and messaging to digital customer care, Khoros helps companies authentically connect with customers throughout their journey.