LoanCatcher® Software Solution for Modern Mortgage Challenges

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 11:28 AM

22 spotlight Square-19-2Stevie-winner Black Knight, now part of ICE, is a leading provider of technology for the mortgage and real estate sectors. They offer a range of solutions that support the entire lifecycle of the mortgage loan process, including loan origination, servicing, and default management.

In September 2021, the company launched the LoanCatcher® loan origination system (LOS) to give independent mortgage brokers quality origination tools that could rival those used by even large financial institutions.

LoanCatcher Cloud-based Solution
To fully appreciate LoanCatcher, some context is needed. Mortgage brokers work with multiple wholesale lenders to help borrowers find the best loan products for their individual situations. As independent agents, mortgage brokers have the unique challenge of acting as an organization unto themselves—simultaneously juggling the responsibilities of loan advisor, customer service, marketing, operations and IT—with limited resources.

LoanCatcher solves mortgage brokers’ many challenges by folding multiple award-winning lending technologies into an all-in-one, easy-to-use LOS. Entirely cloud-based, LoanCatcher gives brokers affordable access to the same caliber of technology used by the nation’s largest and most successful lenders. In addition to a top-tier LOS, other core components of LoanCatcher include:

Point of sale
LoanCatcher’s white-labeled digital lending portal makes it easy for borrowers to complete their applications, uploading and eSigning documents from anywhere. The user-friendly interface is and helps create a positive consumer experience from the first step.

Customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing platform
LoanCatcher is integrated with SurefireSM, the mortgage industry’s most-used CRM and marketing automation platform. Adding Surefire to LoanCatcher’s origination workflow means brokers can automatically send borrowers reminders and milestone updates as the loan progresses. Surefire also contains a library of creative content, with automated marketing campaigns designed to nurture leads, educate borrowers about the financing process and maintain client relationships after their loans have closed to improve recapture efforts down the line.

Product pricing engine (PPE)
LoanCatcher saves brokers the hassle of combing through loan product pricing sheets with seamless integration of the Loansifter® PPE. With Loansifter, brokers can instantly compare rates and product pricing across 120 wholesale investors to execute competitive, profitable lending strategies.

Workflow and Document Management
Pre-defined and configurable workflows allow brokers to work smarter and create an end-to-end origination process. Its easy-to-use document repository and communication tools support effective collaboration across teams.

After a broker’s loans are originated, LoanCatcher will automatically transfer files to wholesale lenders with supported integrations. System-agnostic, standardized files can also be downloaded and delivered to any wholesale lender, no matter their platform.

LoanCatcher is a single, cost-effective platform that puts brokers back in charge of their business. It helps them turn loans faster, provide a better consumer experience and grow their customer base.

Since Winning a Stevie® Award
In the past 18 months, LoanCatcher has enhanced its borrower-facing point of sale with lead generation tools and automated marketing workflows designed to nurture leads, educate borrowers about the financing process, and maintain client relationships after close. Brokers now have access to interactive interest rate comparison tools and mortgage calculators to engage prospective homebuyers as they research financing a home.

Also new to LoanCatcher are plug-and-play automated marketing campaigns that let brokers elevate their brand and achieve major marketing impact with minimal hands-on effort. Multichannel workflows that include interactive video, graphic, and narrative content distributed over email, text, phone, and direct mail to drive borrower interest and engagement.

Black Knight won a Silver Stevie Award for Best FinTech Solution in The 2023 American Business Awards®.

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Topics: American business awards

BB Imaging's Telesonography® Solution for Remote High-Risk Obstetrical Care

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 10:49 AM

22 spotlight Square-21Stevie-winner BB Imaging is a large independent provider of high-risk obstetrical ultrasound.

BB Imaging was founded in 2005 to bring high-quality, compassionate, and complete ultrasound care to patients across a spectrum of needs. Through the development of working relationships with healthcare providers, BB Imaging services patients in a variety of settings and circumstances, including rural locations across Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida, Washington, Virginia, and Texas.

BB Imaging’s mission is to improve health outcomes by making high-quality ultrasound services accessible to all women regardless of their zip code or economic status. To do this, they partner with physicians, clinics, and hospitals to provide full-service, turnkey ultrasound departments that provide the highest level of ultrasound care and diagnostic accuracy.

They also developed TeleScan®, a SaaS offering that brings expert sonography care to even the remotest of locations. Teleultrasound, or telesonography, refers to the use of telemedicine technology to perform and analyze ultrasounds remotely. A healthcare professional in one location performs the exam, and a telesonographer in another location provides diagnostics and a preliminary report. The report will be passed to a provider, who relays results to the patient.

TeleScan is focused on high-risk obstetrical care. While remote ultrasound solutions exist for cardiovascular care, the complexity of scanning a "body inside of a body" has garnered few competitors. Even fewer competitors have solved for the complexity of maternal-fetal ultrasound, the sonographer shortage, and the accessibility of equipment.

Both these care models connect underserved or understaffed areas with expert sonographers, flex to meet patient demand, and improve patient outcomes through early detection. Both models also rely on partnerships with physicians, clinics, and hospitals.

Seventeen years ago, their journey began with a single obstetrician. Starting services in Austin, Texas, in 2006, they have since expanded. In 2013, they ventured into the Indian Health System in Oklahoma, later adding Kansas and Missouri in 2019. Recently, New Mexico joined the list, and they then expanded into four new states: Florida, Washington, Oregon, and Virginia.

In July 2022, Sonoquick, a cardiac ultrasound service provider, partnered with BB Imaging. They have since added expert cardiac sonographers to the Texas team. This exponential growth positions BB Imaging as a prominent independent provider of high-risk obstetrical ultrasound services on a national scale.

BB Imaging won a Silver Stevie® Award for Minority-Owned Business of the Year in The 2023 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2024 American Business Awards®?

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Topics: American business awards

5WPR: DELIVERING PR Excellence with Innovation, Inclusion, and Leadership

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 10:37 AM

Stevie-winner 5W Public Relations (5WPR), based in New York City, is a full-service public relations (PR) agency renowned for its comprehensive and results-driven approach.

Specializing in strategic communications, the agency covers a wide spectrum of industries, including consumer goods, technology, healthcare, beauty, lifestyle, and more. With a commitment to delivering impactful campaigns, 5WPR leverages its expertise in media relations, influencer marketing, digital strategy, and event planning to craft compelling narratives that resonate with target audiences.

22 spotlight Square-19-1The agency prides itself on its ability to navigate the ever-evolving media landscape, securing placements in top-tier outlets and effectively managing crisis communications when needed.

Boasting a client-centric philosophy, 5WPR tailors its strategies to meet the unique needs and goals of each client, ensuring a customized and dynamic approach to PR that drives brand visibility, enhances reputation, and ultimately contributes to business success.

As an employer, 5W believes in the power of giving back to the communities in which we live and work. They encourage and support employees in their philanthropic efforts by providing PTO specifically to volunteer, as well as matching monetary donations to a variety of charities.

Through their 5W University training program, they also strive to ensure employees are always learning and growing, from enhancing PR skills to leadership development. Senior leaders guide employees at all levels through a range of training sessions.

Nurturing Tomorrow's Leaders
5WPR Co-CEO Matthew Caiola has been a driving force since joining the agency—especially since 2021—transforming 5WPR, alongside Co-CEO Dara Busch, into a company built for the future with significant strides in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in workplace culture, employee benefits, and career support.

Matthew quickly moved through the ranks, and after 13 years, was promoted to Co-CEO in February 2022, making him the youngest CEO of a Top 10 PR agency in the United States. Matthew has been a key leader of teams responsible for the reputation of some of the most sophisticated companies and visible public figures in the world, along with emerging brands and technologies.

A hallmark of Matthew’s career has been leading and scaling teams. As he progressed quickly through the staff ranks into leadership, Matt took over 5WPR’s emerging technology practice, leading that team to 50%+ growth each year, for three years. As a result, 5W attracted marquee brands like Amazon, Samsung, and VIZIO.

Matt has spearheaded numerous initiatives to enhance 5W's commitment to DE&I. These efforts include forging recruiting partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, establishing a DE&I staff committee to assess 5W's performance, revamping the approved-vendor list to include minority and women-owned businesses, elevating the charitable donation match for DE&I-focused causes, and introducing a new leadership role within the company for Head of People & Culture to drive further transformation.

5WPR won a Gold and Bronze Stevie Awards for Best Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing – Consumer Products; Public Relations Agency of the Year; and 5WPR's Matthew Caiola won a Silver Stevie Award for Best Communications, Investor Relations, or PR Executive of the Year in The 2023 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2024 American Business Awards®?

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Topics: American business awards

ESHORE: SET Maritime & Electrical’s Innovative Solution to Electrical Safety Hazards on Maritime Vessels

Posted by Zachary Myers on Fri, Nov 03, 2023 @ 09:26 AM

22 spotlight Square-3Stevie-winner SET Maritime and Electrical offers a simple solution to electric safety hazards within the marine industry with their new product, ESHORE.

ESHORE’s patented electrical design was created to ensure the safety of boat owners, meet regulatory standards, and save customers time and money on incorrect electrical connections.

Current State of Maritime Safety
Over the past six years, SET Maritime & Electrical has been involved in verifying electrical compliance for plan approvals and surveys of Domestic Commercial Vessels. During this time, a range of different shore connection installations have been inspected and checked against the required Standards.

SET Maritime & Electrical found that most vessels did not meet the required safety standards. The most pressing safety factor found in these vessels was Reverse Polarity, which presents a serious risk of electrocution.

Currently, all other shore connection products available on the market are based upon a Polarity Monitoring Device that detects reverse polarity with a simple circuit as the fundamental design. A certificate from an electrical contractor ensures that a boat's wiring is correct.

But when a boat connects to shore power, the polarity (direction of electricity flow) can be uncertain due to various factors like installation or maintenance issues. If the power's polarity is reversed, it can make the safety systems on the boat useless and put people on board in danger.

ESHORE’s Patented Design
To solve this problem, SET Maritime & Electrical owner Mark Smith designed a groundbreaking new “Plug and Play” shore connection device called ESHORE. His device meets the requirements of the Australian Standard for electrical installation safety for single-phase and three-phase systems, has a reverse polarity switch and momentary Polarity test with an interlocking device, and can be used anywhere in the world with minor modifications.ESHORE guy

In the development phase, the device was refined based on suggestions received from government and regulatory bodies, industry representatives, target markets, and peers, all of whom gave encouraging feedback on the necessity of the device in the marine industry. 

Since 2021, SET Maritime & Electrical has seen their hard work in pursuit of safety come to fruition as they reached the manufacturing phase and created a device that is robust and fit for purpose. The device was first installed in the Domestic Commercial Market, where it received positive feedback from all owners for its ease of installation and use.

In 2022, they officially launched ESHORE and are already on their third generation of the device that offers more flexibility for installation, remote operation capability, and can be easily concealed, making it more aesthetically pleasing. 

SET Maritime & Electrical won a Gold Stevie Award for Innovation in Consumer Products & Services and a Bronze Stevie Award for Achievement in Product Innovation in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards.

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Topics: Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards

Who's Coming to The International Business Awards® on Friday?

Posted by Michael Gallagher on Mon, Oct 09, 2023 @ 10:21 AM

This Friday, October 13 at the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Rome, Italy, we'll celebrate the presentation of The 20th Annual International Business Awards® with more than 340 executives from more than 20 nations.

Winners in the 2023 IBAs were announced in August.

IBA23 in Rome style=The International Business Awards are the world's premier business awards program, recognizing outstanding achievements in the workplace in a wide range of categories.  This year's competition attracted more than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all types and sizes in 61 nations.  Those nominations were judged over the summer by more than 230 professionals on 11 juries.

Entries for the 2024 edition of The International Business Awards will open in February.  Visit www.StevieAwards.com/IBA to add your name to the mailing list for the complete entry kit.

Grand, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and People's Choice Stevie Award trophies and medallions will be presented to winners on stage this Friday in Rome.  Here is the list of organizations that will be represented at the event:

8X8
A.S. Watson Group
Abu Dhabi Ports Group
ACEN RES
Aires
Ajman Municipality & Planning Department
Akbank
Al Jazeera Media Institute
Asasoft International Trading Company
ATREVIA COMUNICACIÓN S.L.U.
Banco do Brasil S.A.
BANCO POPULAR DOMINICANO
Bases Conversion and Development Authority
BELBİM AŞ
Better2Know
Beyaz Kağıt San. ve Tic. A.Ş.
Borusan
Canapii
CARBO
Celonis
Condé Nast
CPM India Sales & Marketing Pvt Ltd
Cree-Con Construction Inc
DeFacto Perakende Tic. A.Ş.
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe SE
DHL Express (Switzerland) Ltd.
Diyarbakir
Droxic
Dubai Airports
Dubai Digital Authority
Empire Eagle Food Co., Ltd.
Ernst & Young
EYGS LLP
Filinvest Land Inc
Gates Corporation and LAW Creative
Gelecek Varlık Yönetim A.Ş.
General Administration of Customs, Abu Dhabi
Geotab Inc.
Golden Hour
Halkbank
HASE & IGEL GmbH
HCL Software
Health Focus Manufacturers
HELLENiQ ENERGY Holdings SA
Helpware
HeyMo The Experience Design Company
Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund)
Horatio
Hugo Boss
Icertis
ICON plc
Keegor
Keyless
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center
Koçfinans
Kyndryl
Lee Andrews Group
Llorente y Cuenca
Maersk
Makati Central Estate Association, Inc.
Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council
Maynilad Water Services, Inc.
MCE Systems
MERALCO
Metrobank
MicroHealth, LLC
MOLPED
MONAT Global Corp.
MONLOVE
Newday Media JSC
Nicole Schmitz Leadership Coaching
NJMPF
NN Romania
Noguchi & Peters Ltd.
NTT Data Inc
nupco
NXP Semiconductors Germany GmbH
Octopus Energy
ONE Beyond Success Pty Ltd
One Meralco Foundation
PAGEONE
Partner.co
PPWD Consulting Ltd
Pru Life UK
PT Permata Graha Nusantara
PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk
PT PGN LNG Indonesia
Public Works Authority "Ashghal"
Purpol Marketing
QNET
Red Education
Red Havas
Regen Power Pty Ltd
Resolute Software
Revomed (Thailand) Co.
Rudaw Media Network
Rural Policy Group
SABC Pension Fund & SABC Medical Scheme
Safaniya Offshore Producing Department
Saudi Aramco
SAUDI ARAMCO - NA Well Completion Operations Department
Saudi Telecom Company
SET Maritime & Electrical
Sharjah Media City
SOCAR
SOCAR TURKIYE
SOCAR Türkiye Enerji A.Ş.
Strategic Public Relations Group
SweetScience
Synoptek
TalkLife
Telecom Italia
TELUS Smart Security & Automation
Tepe Savunma ve Güvenlik Sistemleri
The City of Calgary
Trahum
TUPRAS
Turkish Airlines
USPA Global Licensing/U.S. Polo Assn.
ValueLabs LLP
Viettel Group
XBuild GmbH
Ziraat Participation Bank

Topics: IBAs, The International Business Awards

LivePerson's Conversational Cloud Makes AI the Digital "Front Door"

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Thu, Oct 05, 2023 @ 09:56 AM

Headquartered in New York, NY, Stevie Award-winner LivePerson is a global technology company that develops conversational commerce and AI software. Their software enables businesses to engage with their customers in real time through various channels such as messaging, chat, and voice. Customers can easily reach out to companies through these channels, and businesses can respond to them in real time.

live person workingLivePerson’s Conversational Cloud helps brands of all kinds make Conversational AI the digital “front door”: their first point of contact with customers, setting the tone for their entire relationship. Essentially replacing in-store greeters, these virtual assistants and automation not only welcome and start customers down the path to what they need but often solve problems outright or even convince them to purchase more. And just as the best salespeople know when to go to managers, they seamlessly escalate to human counterparts as needed.

LivePerson makes life easier for people and brands everywhere through this Conversational AI. Its products empower consumers to stop wasting time on hold or on websites and, instead, message their favorite brands just as they do with friends and family. LivePerson has 1,200 employees globally and serves over 18,000 customers, including leading brands like HSBC, Orange, and The Home Depot.

Making AI More Than a Buzzword
In 1995, the company invented online chat for brands, disrupting communication by removing the need for 1-800 numbers, hold times, and endlessly scanning websites. Later, the company made it easy for consumers to connect with brands on their own time on their favorite messaging platforms, then introduced Conversational AI to automate these conversations, making massive scale possible while still providing outstanding experiences.

Enterprise brands across the globe now use LivePerson’s AI-powered customer engagement solutions to have conversations with millions of consumers as personally as they would with one. With LivePerson, brands have reduced customer care costs by up to 50% and increased annual sales by hundreds of millions of dollars.

2-Oct-05-2023-01-52-21-3965-PM2022 was a year of massive AI hype and customer experience (CX) failures. Consumers saw both the chaos that ensues when brands don’t keep up (e.g., Southwest Airlines’ holiday debacle) and the promise of AI to make better experiences (e.g., ChatGPT’s mind-blowing text generation). But between the CX fails and overblown prognostications about AI taking over, LivePerson delivered actual business outcomes that improved real life for brands, agents, and customers.

To keep on the bleeding edge, LivePerson’s team pioneered new AI capabilities that deliver and automate even more meaningful, natural-feeling conversations. These innovations drive the state-of-the-art in Conversational AI forward by improving bot and agent performance, boosting customer engagement, and accelerating time to value — all while cutting costs.

For example, Repeat Intent Rate better measures modern ways of delivering CX, replacing outdated metrics built around human-to-human interactions on legacy channels. This is a leap forward in measuring how brands use AI, like the leap from measuring a newspaper's print circulation to measuring digital performance.

Significant 2022 enhancements and integrations making their platform more potent than ever included:

  • AI Search: immediately answers questions without escalating to humans, right out of the box
  • On-Demand Recommendations: helps human agents quickly find better answers and bots
  • "Small Talk": brings more human feeling to automated conversations
  • Repeat Intent Rate: analyzes customer inquiries to identify opportunities for automation and optimization
  • Integration Hub: a central place to discover, activate, and optimize thousands of LivePerson integrations through a self-service, no-code interface
  • Sales Attribution: credits cross-channel sales to agents or bots who participated in conversations
  • Integrations with Afiniti, Cisco, and Celonis to better match agents to customers, extend LivePerson’s CRM integrations into new channels, and combine process and conversational data.

Generating these business results is only possible with deep partnerships with brands, proper integration into their back-end systems, and the data and expertise underpinning outcomes-oriented AI.

Unlike simple chatbot providers that handle superficial cases and language generators like ChatGPT, which pull information from the public internet, LivePerson’s AI is laser-focused on improving conversations between brands and consumers. It is built upon a historical record of billions of CX conversations, with an additional ~1 billion conversational interactions added monthly.

Among the Global Fortune 500, LivePerson now counts 55% of telcos, 25% of retailers, 50% of airlines, 31% of banks, and 40% of technology companies as customers. While Gartner predicts chatbots will become the primary customer service for ~25% of organizations by 2027, LivePerson clients are well ahead, with many already running 40%+ of contact center volume through its platform. This puts LivePerson at Tier 1 partner status.

Since its inception, pioneering the invention of web chat for brands, LivePerson has continually pushed the limits of human and computer connection. Its AI innovations have been recognized by the world's leading awards and recognition programs for customer care, sales, marketing, and technology.

LivePerson won two Gold Stevie Awards for Sales or Customer Service Solutions Technology Partner of the Year and Best New Version of a Contact Center Solution in the 2023 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2024 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

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Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Legal Resources' Development Strategy to Empower Partners, Clients, and Employees

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Thu, Oct 05, 2023 @ 09:43 AM

22 spotlight Square-9-Oct-05-2023-01-41-09-5587-PMStevie-winner Legal Resources is a legal services provider in the employee benefits space. Legal Resources offers an exclusive network of local primary care law firms to assist employees with all life's legal matters. Legal Resources has been the leading provider and administrator of group legal services for almost 30 years.

Their Business Development team is comprised of Executives, Sales, and Marketing leaders. As a joint effort, these team members collaborate, develop, and deploy strategies that are essential to continual growth in the market. Since the legal services industry remains a niche in nature, unique and effective approaches to product and service creation and marketing are a must; therefore, their marketing and sales strategies are generated in-house.

The Business Development team targets partners like employee benefits consultants, and plan administrators (typically Human Resources professionals) at mid- to large-sized organizations. For growth, the Business Development team markets to multiple channels: benefit consultants to recommend them to their clients, Human Resource professionals to offer their benefit to their workforce, and, eventually, employees to enroll in the plan via payroll deduction.

Increased Growth and Rates of Retention
In response to COVID-19, the Legal Resources Business Development team created and deployed multiple strategies that yielded incredibly favorable growth and retention results. For example, in June 2020 Legal Resources created and launched a Guidance and Assistance program that was open to all of their clients’ employee populations, not just members.

This program offered unlimited guidance and assistance with their Certified Paralegals regarding lifestyle matters; for example, dealing with identity theft, how to file a consumer complaint with the Attorney General’s office, getting in touch with a law firm to get essential documents executed, etc.

Additional projects deployed were centered on education to provide a value add for all growth channels. For example, they created mini seminars that were held virtually and touched on COVID-19-related challenges and how to address them; like consumer issues, COVID-19 scams (like vaccine and employment scams), and information on essential legal documents (like medical directives and power of attorneys).

The Business Development team also executed valuable forecasting on COVID-19 impacts and compiled those forecasts in a COVID-19 Impact newsletter that was sent out to broker partners and clients to be deployed to their workforces. For instance, their team forecasted that the courts being shut down for a period would result in a tremendous backlog in non-emergency hearings and would significantly delay resolutions for open family law cases.

Results
Through collaboration, research, and strategizing as a team, the Legal Resources Business Development team was able to position its products and services strategically; that is, in lieu of being viewed as an expense during an uncertain time, Legal Resources instead positioned itself as a necessary tool that provided peace of mind. The approach was well received.

Providing broker partners and clients with invaluable resources during the thick of the pandemic not only reinforced Legal Resources’ value as an existing partner and vendor but also yielded an 8.6% increase in net membership, which was double the increase from the prior year.

Brokers were happy to be able to forward forecasting information to their clients, helping them reinforce their value and perception of being plugged in. The increase in proposal requests from broker partners soared compared to years prior, validating that their business development efforts were successful with existing and prospective broker partners. Another benefit to their business development response to COVID-19 was clients’ renewed interest in educating their workforces about Legal Resources' plans and services.

Legal Resources won a Gold Stevie Award for Most Valuable Response by a Business Development Team in the 2023 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2024 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

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Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Pronto Marketing: Accelerating Online Success for Ambitious Businesses

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Thu, Oct 05, 2023 @ 09:18 AM

22 spotlight Square-9-Oct-05-2023-01-10-47-2242-PMStevie-winner Pronto Marketing is a WordPress management agency for ambitious businesses around the world. From WordPress builds, maintenance, and support, to SEO and Google Ads services, Pronto offers a full-service approach to getting clients' websites and online marketing presence into high gear.

Founded in 2008, American-owned, and based in Thailand and the Philippines, they have a team of over 100 developers, designers, copywriters, SEO, advertising, and customer support specialists.

Pronto Website Support Team
Pronto provides a variety of website and marketing services to small businesses throughout the world, but their core offering is their Website Support service. In this service, clients pay a monthly fee to receive unlimited access to Website Support team of project managers, support specialists, developers, designers, and copywriters.

They currently manage over 1,200 websites and the Support Team handles between 1,500 to 2,000 support requests per month. These requests range from small tasks such as replacing an image on a client's homepage to very large tasks like writing, designing, and developing a new landing page from scratch.

Despite handling such a large volume and variety of requests, the Support Team has historically been able to send a first response to clients in less than eight business hours, and the team and their work is well-liked by customers, with an average ticket satisfaction rating of 98% and an NPS that typically hovers in the mid-40s.

In the summer of 2020, their Support Team was overwhelmed by incoming tickets. Unfortunately, this resulted in their response time to growing exponentially. Clients were sometimes waiting multiple days to get an initial response, which, of course, also led to a decrease in client satisfaction.

Throughout the remainder of 2020 as well as 2021, the Support Team worked through a series of improvements which included restructuring the team, creating new standard operating procedures for common requests, and perhaps most importantly, adding a night shift to handle requests 24x7.

Today, their average first-response time is under five hours, and first-response time for requests marked as "urgent" is typically less than 20 minutes.

There are two aspects to this improvement that make it significant. First is the magnitude of change. Reducing their first-reply time on all tickets by 80% and by 98% on urgent tickets is an absolutely massive improvement. Over the past six months, they have regularly gotten messages from clients on the improvement and how happy they are. 

Second is the consistency of the improvement. This wasn't a one-time project to improve response time during an emergency, but rather an ongoing series of projects to improve the ability to support clients in the long run. Faster response times have been sustained over the past several months.

Pronto Marketing won a Bronze Stevie® Award for Customer Service Team of the Year - Recovery Situation - Business Services Industries in the 2023 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?

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Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Winners of 2023 People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies Announced

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Sep 21, 2023 @ 10:00 AM

Winners were announced today in the 2023 People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies, an annual feature of The International Business Awards®, the world's only international, all-encompassing business awards program, now in its 20th year.

The worldwide, public vote was conducted from mid-August through 15 September, with the highest number of votes deciding the People's Choice winners in a variety of industries. More than 96,000 votes were cast. All Stevie Award winners in the Company/Organization of the Year categories in this year's International Business Awards (IBA) were eligible to be included in the vote.

Winners Announced in 2023 People’s Choice Stevie Awards For Favorite Companies

Winners of the crystal People's Choice Stevie Awards will be honored during the IBAs' awards banquet on Friday, 13 October at the Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Rome, Italy. Tickets for the event are now on sale. The winners of peer-adjudicated Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards - selected from more than 3,700 nominations received from organizations in more than 61 nations - will also be recognized during the ceremony.

The winners of the 2023 People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies are:

Advertising, Marketing & PR: Otter PR
Apparel, Fashion & Beauty: Desiderate
Banking: Ziraat Participation Bank
Business or Professional Services: TaskUs
Computer Hardware & Services: AGM Infra Solutions - USA
Computer Software: MYBUSYBEE INC
Consumer Products & Services: Jasmine Norris Photography
Diversified Services: Purpol Marketing
Electronics: Dr. Phone Fix
Energy & Utilities: YEDAŞ
Financial Services: NJMPF
Food & Beverage: Empire Eagle Food Co., Ltd.
Health Products & Services: Golden Hour
Insurance: Thai Life Insurance Plc.
Manufacturing: Health Focus Manufacturers
Materials & Construction: ACE Consulting Company
Media & Entertainment: The Biz Dojo Inc.
Non-Profit or Government: Megaworld Foundation
Other Industries: ContractPodAI
Real Estate: AyalaLand Logistics Holdings Corp.
Telecommunications: Ooredoo Group
Transportation: Angkasa Pura Logistic

Entries for The 21st (2024) International Business Awards will be accepted starting in February. More information is available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

Topics: International business awards

Finalists in 20th Stevie® Awards for Women in Business Announced

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Sep 21, 2023 @ 09:00 AM

World's Top Honors for Women Professionals to Be Presented in New York City on November 10

Finalists were announced today in the 20th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.

Visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women for a complete list of Finalists by category.

SAWIB23 Winners Announced - Rectangle

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards® and International Business Awards®, among other business awards programs. The Stevies are widely considered to be the world's premier honors for achievement in the workplace.

This year's Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists will be revealed during an awards banquet at the Marriott Marquis in New York City on Friday, November 10. More than 400 women and their guests from around the world are expected to attend the presentations, which will be broadcast via Livestream.

More than 1,600 nominations were submitted this year by organizations and individuals for consideration in more than 100 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women, and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.

Nominations were submitted by organizations in 26 nations including Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United States.

Among the many extraordinary organizations and women who have been recognized as Finalists, the following stand out as those with three or more Finalist nominations:

IBM, various cities (18), Green Door Co, Sydney, Australia (11), Purpol Marketing Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire, United Kingdom (9), Everise, Plantation, FL USA (7), Personalised Support Systems, Australia (7), Annie Gibbins of Women's Biz Global, Australia (6), Ocean Rescue Alliance International, Apollo Beach, FL USA (5), Tavuun Welfare Association, Lahore, Pakistan (5), The Mach 1 Group, Austin, TX USA (5), Sarah Rusbatch, Grey Area Drinking Specialist, Australia (5), Lisa Watts of The Conversation Media Group, Australia (3), Be a Legend, Inc., Gilbert, AZ USA (4), BODEN Agency, Miami, FL USA (4), BookSmarts Accounting & Bookkeeping, Brooklyn, NY USA (4), DHL Global Forwarding, Freight, Bonn, Germany (4), How Many Elephants, Alresford, Hampshire, UK (4), Microsoft, Redmond, WA USA (4), Sleepm Global, Inc., Markham, ON Canada (4), Symplr, Boston, MA USA (4), The Alpha Enterprise, Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines (4), Women Talk Tech, Ontario, Canada (4), Anjani Amriit, Sydney, Australia (3), Bug Bite Thing, Port St. Lucie, FL USA (3), C-Strategies Inc., Chicago IL USA (3), EngageSmart, Boston, MA USA (3), Everything Podcasts, Vancouver, Canada (3), Fix My Books Inc., Toronto, Canada (3), Katrina Wurm of Stress Free Super Mum, Australia (3), Lantern Partners, Sydney, Australia (3), Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures, Washington DC, USA (3), Pearl Interactive Network, Inc., Columbus, OH USA (3), Salesforce, San Francisco, CA USA (3), TELUS, Victoria, BC Canada (3), The Flora May Foundation, San Clemente, CA USA (3), SAP, various cities (3), and The Stardust Food Company, Bethesda, MD (3).

Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 200 professionals around the world, organized in six juries. Their scores will also determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie placements from among the Finalists, to be announced on November 10.

Topics: stevie awards for women in business