Stevie-winner Trupanion is a leading medical insurance provider for cats and dogs in North America. With over 1,200 global employees, they help pet parents budget and care for their pet’s veterinary bills when they face unexpected sickness or injury.

Trupanion stands out for its simple, customizable plans, offering up to 90% reimbursement on eligible veterinary expenses and no annual or lifetime payout limits, making it a preferred choice for many pet owners.

In contrast to competitors, they feature a per-condition deductible rather than an annual one, meaning once a customer meets the deductible for a particular condition, they won’t have to pay it again for that condition's treatment during their pet's lifetime. Another key feature is the Vet Direct Pay system, which allows Trupanion to pay participating veterinarians directly at the time of treatment, minimizing the upfront costs for pet owners. This system is supported by their proprietary software, Trupanion Express, which streamlines the claims process and ensures fast payment.

Tactics for Telesales and Call Center Teams
With only 3% of cats and dogs having insurance in North America, they have consistently needed to scale their Telesales team to support Trupanion’s reach.

Pet parents are not required to insure their cats and dogs and often don’t realize that there are insurance options to help cover the cost of their veterinary bills. With that in mind, they have built a team of sales representatives who can explain how covering pets with Trupanion’s insurance is so impactful in extending the time families can have with their furry family members.

Trupanion has been operating since 1999, but the telesales team established itself within Trupanion’s contact center in 2011 due to the rapid growth of its member base. In 2021 the team was around 30 sales agents and has doubled in size to 60 agents.

Unique to other telesales teams, Trupanion’s only focus on warm leads. Converting leads to members in the discovery phase also ensures that members are enrolling their pets before any medical emergencies arise, contributing to the best experience they can have with any pet insurance product. 

Since 2021, Trupanion’s Inbound Sales team has been handling approximately 17,000 inbound leads per month with a consistent conversion rate of 45%. Year over year, Trupanion grows by at least 20% net new pets and the Inbound Sales team brings in over 90k of those new pets each year.

Their product covers Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Australia, with a 150-person customer service team providing 24/7/365 support for global members and over 937,000 pets.

Some may consider the call center at Trupanion as untraditional in that they don’t use scripts or have handle time goals. They believe that team members shine the best on every call without rigid guidelines and that they need the time and flexibility to take care of the customer in a manner that feels authentic to them.

Since the pandemic, their contact center has evolved to be a remote-first environment, with team members working from home across the United Stastes and Canada. If team members prefer to have an office experience, the Seattle headquarters is open to all, including team members’ cats and dogs.

Trupanion won two Silver Stevie^® Awards and a Bronze Stevie for Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year - Financial Services Industries; Contact Center of the Year (Over 100 Seats) - Financial Services Industries; and Inside or Telesales Team of the Year, respectively, in the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2025 awards program?

Stevie-winner Simply Contact is a customer support outsourcing company, originally founded in Dnipro, Ukraine, in 2013.

Over the past decade, the company has grown significantly, expanding its operations across Ukraine with offices in Kyiv, Lviv, and Poltava, as well as establishing a presence in Warsaw, Poland. With a team of over 600 employees, Simply Contact provides multilingual and multichannel customer support services to clients worldwide, handling operations in more than 18 languages.

The company's client roster includes a diverse array of organizations, from established brands like Wizz Air and government entities such as the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Digital Transformation to innovative startups like Bolt, Wheelshare, and Ditto Music. Simply Contact’s ability to serve such a broad range of clients is a testament to its versatility and commitment to delivering high-quality customer service solutions.

One of the key strengths of Simply Contact lies in its ability to adapt and scale its services efficiently, especially during periods of fluctuating demand. The company has implemented a blended support model, which allows for dynamic agent allocation based on immediate needs. This approach has proven particularly effective in reducing call center abandon rates and improving response times. For instance, on the Wizz Air project, Simply Contact managed to reduce the average handling time by 30%, while ensuring that 80% of calls are answered within 35 seconds and all emails are addressed within five days. This level of efficiency not only enhances customer satisfaction but also optimizes operational costs, saving clients up to 10% in total cost of ownership.

Another notable achievement is the improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) for Bolt, one of Simply Contact's key clients. By retraining agents, developing a dynamic monitoring system, and implementing targeted strategies for specific scenarios, Simply Contact was able to elevate Bolt’s CSAT from 64% to over 80%, surpassing the industry standard. This significant improvement is indicative of the company’s systematic and thoughtful approach to customer service, which continues to drive positive results for its clients.

Simply Contact's ability to adapt to client needs and improve operational efficiency has made it a strong contender in the customer service outsourcing industry. Through innovative practices like the blended support model and a focus on reducing handling times and increasing customer satisfaction, the company has consistently delivered cost-effective solutions. These strategies have proven successful in enhancing the customer experience for clients across various sectors, from established brands to emerging startups.

As the company continues to evolve, it remains focused on delivering tailored, high-quality services that address the unique challenges of each client, reinforcing its position as a leader in multilingual and multichannel customer service.

Simply Contact won a Bronze Stevie^® Award for Contact Center or Customer Service Outsourcing Provider of the Year in the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2025 awards program?

Stevie-winner Accela provides a unified suite of cloud solutions trusted by governments across the globe to accelerate their digital transformation, deliver vital services, and build stronger communities. 

The company offers agile, purpose-built solutions and the power of a platform that provides users with a consumer-like experience, shares data across departments, and ensures world-class security. With over 600 jurisdictions worldwide, Accela’s products manage critical tasks efficiently and effectively.

The Challenge
Accela implemented a Salesforce-powered community where members sought fast, relevant information. However, there were some challenges. Customers and support representatives had to juggle between multiple content repositories to find all available information. At times, they ended up with irrelevant or missing results due to the many content silos. The team knew gaps existed in their published knowledge repositories but had no way to identify all of them or understand which ones were having the biggest impact on their customers. Consequently, their support team was flooded with customer support requests. The management team wanted to reduce the load by improving the self-service experience.

All things considered, Accela was looking for an overarching solution that could not only enable users to self-serve but also provide access to all documented information from a single search point.

The Solution
Enter SearchUnify, a unified cognitive search platform. Its out-of-the-box support for 60+ enterprise platforms helped Accela index all its disparate content repositories and integrate them seamlessly with its customer community. This created a unified discovery experience for their customers within the online community.

As a result, when customers searched for help, the engine scoured all of Accela's documented knowledge to find and return every relevant answer. Support reps received the same experience in their agent console. This eliminated the need to switch tabs or login to separate systems to access the right content.

SearchUnify's ML-fueled algorithms significantly improved search relevance in the online customer community. It factored in customer data such as their activity across all touchpoints and engagement patterns. This ensured every customer only saw content relevant to their profile. Its insights engine empowered knowledge teams to immediately identify and close content gaps, which further helped improve customer satisfaction scores while reducing the load on customer support teams.

Furthermore, SearchUnify’s platform bridged the gap between multiple systems to provide a real-time, end-to-end view of the customer's self-help journey. Accela teams could now follow individual customer paths starting with search terms, to search results, content clicks, and answers read to cases submitted. This provided powerful and actionable insights that allowed Accela to dramatically improve its customers’ experiences.

Accela won a Gold Stevie^® Award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service - Computer Industries in the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2025 awards program?

Stevie-winner Bigleaf Networks specializes in optimizing internet performance for businesses through a cloud-first SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) solution.

Their technology focuses on ensuring reliable internet connectivity by dynamically managing and prioritizing network traffic, which is crucial for businesses dependent on cloud-based applications. Bigleaf's solution detects and mitigates network issues automatically, providing consistent performance and reducing downtime for critical business operations.

The company serves various industries with a plug-and-play setup that requires minimal IT intervention, making it accessible to businesses without extensive technical expertise. Bigleaf's services include real-time traffic analysis, automated failover, and load balancing across multiple ISP connections. This approach ensures optimal internet performance and reliability, allowing businesses to maintain productivity and efficiency even during network disruptions or heavy usage periods.

Bigleaf has built a reputation for providing network optimization solutions. It offers dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) and intelligent internet traffic load balancing services designed to guarantee optimal performance for essential internet and cloud applications. Their commitment to innovation and excellence has led to the delivery of cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of modern businesses.

Founded on the goal of revolutionizing internet connectivity, Bigleaf has successfully optimized network performance for businesses of all sizes across various industries. Their dynamic QoS and intelligent traffic load balancing services ensure uninterrupted access to essential applications, enhancing productivity and driving business growth.

Since July 2021, Bigleaf has achieved significant milestones in customer service, evidenced by impressive G2 ratings and reviews. These ratings highlight the company's dedication to delivering exceptional customer service and satisfaction. Bigleaf boasts a 98% gross customer retention rate and an outstanding 114% net retention rate, demonstrating its success in retaining and expanding its customer base through effective service and support.

These achievements underscore Bigleaf's focus on prioritizing customer satisfaction and providing value-added solutions tailored to client needs. Through its proactive approach to customer service and commitment to excellence, Bigleaf Networks has solidified its reputation as a trusted partner and industry leader in delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Bigleaf Networks won a Bronze Stevie^® Award for Customer Service Success - Technology Industries in the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2025 awards program?

Stevie-winner GoCo is on a mission to automate manual human resources (HR) tasks and empower HR professionals to make work a better place.

GoCo.io is modernizing HR, benefits, and payroll with its modern, all-in-one, solutions for SMBs (small-to-medium-sized businesses). Unlike other HR platforms, GoCo is built to support existing processes, policies, and providers so that SMBs don’t have to change the way they work in order to adopt a modern HR system.

GoCo's Client Success (CS) Team provides exceptional service tailored to customers' evolving needs. The department has undergone strategic expansions and process changes over the years to introduce specialized roles for each aspect of the platform and foster a culture of dedicated support.

As the company has grown, the CS Team has expanded from eight team members to over 50 team members specialized in different areas of the process and product. The history of GoCo's CS Team reflects a dedication to innovation, client-centricity, and a consistent pursuit of excellence in delivering service to clients.

Unlike many players in the space, GoCo prioritizes a personalized approach. It assigns a dedicated team of named contacts to every client at each stage of the process and throughout their lifecycle as a client. This team, based 100% in the United States, offers a genuine human connection with a reachable phone number, eliminating the use of impersonal 800 numbers, offshoring, chatbots, or AI in client interactions.

Their commitment to customer success is further exemplified by having specialists dedicated to each facet of the platform, ensuring expertise in addressing specific client needs. Notably, they don't impose extra charges for any services, including group training, private one-on-one sessions, or training new client administrators, a stark departure from industry norms.

“There's never enough time for busy HR leaders to get everything done, but GoCo has an answer to that,” said Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer, Lighthouse Research & Advisory. “With a robust HR platform focused on small businesses and their unique needs, 100% of GoCo clients say the system saves them time each week, said Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer, Lighthouse Research & Advisory. "Most importantly, those employers are turning that newly freed up time toward creating workplaces that engage and support the workforce in a powerful way.”

They said these awards exemplify the company’s unwavering dedication to driving positive change in the HR technology landscape: "It's a tremendous honor to receive these accolades, which are a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire GoCo team," said Nir Leibovich, Co-Founder and CEO at GoCo. These awards reaffirm our commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions and unparalleled customer service to our clients."

Since winning its award, GoCo has made significant strides in enhancing its platform with cutting-edge features aimed at revolutionizing HR management for SMBs. Among the notable additions to its arsenal are expense management with an AI receipt scanner, a built-in AI knowledge base, attendance management and scheduling, and employee engagement and eNPS surveys.

Additionally, GoCo proudly announced the addition of Steve Allison as the new Vice President of Client Success. With over 30 years in the Benefits and HR industry, Steve brings a wealth of experience to the GoCo team. His appointment underscores GoCo's commitment to delivering unparalleled service and support to its growing client base.

GoCo won a Bronze Stevie^® Award for Customer Service Department of the Year – Computer Software - 100 or More Employees in the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Interested in entering the 2025 awards program?

Leistungen in den Bereichen Geschäftsentwicklung, Kundenservice und Vertrieb, sowie die Leistungen einzelner Personen in diesen Bereichen können jetzt bis zum 21. Februar eingereicht werden

Die Stevie® Awards, der Organisator der weltweit führenden Wirtschaftspreisprogramme, hat die Frist für die Einreichung von Bewerbungen für die (18. jährlichen) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service 2024 verlängert. Teilnahmeunterlagen und vollständige Informationen über den Wettbewerb finden Sie unter  http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Der ursprüngliche Einsendeschluss war der 24. Januar, aber auf vielfachen Wunsch haben die Teilnehmenden nun bis zum 21. Februar Zeit, ihre Nominierungen einzureichen. Die Finalisten werden am 5. März bekannt gegeben, und die Gewinner der Stevie Awards in Gold, Silber und Bronze werden im Rahmen einer Preisverleihung am 12. April in Las Vegas bekannt gegeben.

Nominiert werden können Abteilungen, Teams und Fachleute aus der ganzen Welt, die in den Bereichen Kundenservice, Kontaktzentren, Geschäftsentwicklung und Vertrieb tätig sind. Neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen sowie Lösungsanbieter, die von diesen Fachleuten genutzt werden, sind ebenfalls zugelassen. Mit den Auszeichnungen 2024 werden Leistungen seit dem 1. Juli 2021 gewürdigt.

Bei den Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service werden mehr als 150 Auszeichnungen in den Kategorien Vertrieb, Kundenservice, Geschäftsentwicklung, neue Produkte, Vordenker und Lösungsanbieter vergeben. Die Teilnehmer können eine beliebige Anzahl von Nominierungen für eine beliebige Anzahl von Kategorien einreichen, darunter:

• Kategorien für einzelne Vertriebsmitarbeiter:innen wie "Senior Sales Executive of the Year" und "Sales Representative of the Year”

• Kategorien für Vertriebsteams wie “Global Sales Team of the Year” und “Online Sales Team of the Year”

• Kategorien für Vertriebsleistungen wie "Sales Turnaround of the Year" und "Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year”

• Sales Distinction-Kategorien in 14 Branchengruppierungen

• Individuelle Kategorien für Kundenservice und Contact Center wie "Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year" und "Customer Service Leader of the Year”

• Kategorien für Kundenservice- und Contact Center-Teams wie "Contact Center of the Year" und "Back Office Customer Service Team of the Year”

• Kategorien für Kundenservice und Contact Center Leistungen wie “e-Commerce Customer Service Award” und “Award for Innovation in Customer Service”

• Kategorien für Kundendienstabteilungen in 12 Branchengruppierungen

• Kategorien für erfolgreichen Kundenservice in fünf Branchengruppen

• Kategorien für neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen wie Beste neue Business Intelligence-Lösung und Beste neue Marketing-Lösung

• Kategorien für Lösungsanbieter wie "Vertriebsberatungspraxis des Jahres" und "Anbieter von Anreizen, Belohnungen oder Anerkennungen des Jahres“

• Kategorien für Geschäftsentwicklung wie "Business Development Professional of the Year" und "Business Development Achievement of the Year - Hospitality & Leisure”

• Thought Leadership-Kategorien wie “Best Use of Thought Leadership in Sales”, “Best Use of Thought Leadership in Business Development”, und “Best Use of Thought Leadership in Customer Service”

Zu den Preisträgerinnen und Preisträgern der Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service aus Europa in 2023 zählen Bayer AG (Leverkusen, Deutschland), Cisco Systems (Diegem, Belgien), Conectys (Bucharest, Rumänien), DHL (Bonn, Deutschland), Jonckers Translation & Engineering (Brüssel, Belgien), Learning Pool (Londonderry, Vereinigtes Königreich), Lenzing Group (Lenzing, Österreich), Obilet.com (Istanbul, Türkei), Purpol Marketing Limited (Chippenham, Vereinigtes Königreich), SAP SE (Walldorf, Deutschland), Simply Contact (Lviv, Ukraine), Vodafone Turkey (Istanbul, Türkei) und viele mehr.

Haben wir Ihre Neugier geweckt? 

Business Development, Customer Service, and Sales Achievements, Professionals, and More May Now Be Nominated Through February 21

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world's premier business awards programs, has extended the final entry deadline for the 2024 (18th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Entry kits and complete details about the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

The original final entry deadline was January 24, but, by popular demand, entrants may now submit nominations through February 21. Finalists will be announced March 5, and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be revealed during an awards ceremony on April 12 in Las Vegas.

Eligible nominees include departments, teams, and professionals from around the world who work in customer service, contact centers, business development, and sales. New products and services and solution providers used by those professionals are also eligible. The 2024 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2021.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 150 sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, new product awards, thought leadership, and solution provider awards categories. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

• Sales Individual categories such as Senior Sales Executive of the Year and Sales Representative of the Year
  ● Sales Team categories like Global Sales Team of the Year and Online Sales Team of the Year
  ● Sales Achievement categories such as Sales Turnaround of the Year and Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year
  ● Sales Distinction categories in 14 industry groupings
  ● Customer Service and Contact Center Individual categories such as Front-Line Customer Service Professional of the Year and Customer Service Leader of the Year
  ● Customer Service and Contact Center Team categories like Contact Center of the Year and Back Office Customer Service Team of the Year
  ● Customer Service and Contact Center Achievement categories such as e-Commerce Customer Service Award and Award for Innovation in Customer Service
  ● Customer Service Department categories in 12 industry groupings
  ● Customer Service Success categories in five industry groupings
  ● New Product and Service categories like Best New Business Intelligence Solution and Best New Marketing Solution
  ● Solution Provider categories such as Sales Consulting Practice of the Year and Incentive, Rewards, or Recognition Provider of the Year
  ● Business Development categories such as Business Development Professional of the Year and Business Development Achievement of the Year - Hospitality & Leisure
  ● Thought Leadership categories such as Best Use of Thought Leadership in Sales, Best Use of Thought Leadership in Business Development, and Best Use of Thought Leadership in Customer Service

Winners of the 2023 edition of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service included AT&T, Banco Popular Dominicano, Care.com, Cisco Systems, Cvent Inc., DHL Express Worldwide, Dubai Airports, Easyship, Enerjisa Enerji, GoHealth, HP, IBM, Michael Kors, Modern Campus, Nasdaq Governance Solutions, Pan American Energy, PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, SAP, SoftPro, Splunk, Support Services Group, ValueSelling Associates, VIZIO Inc., Vodafone Turkey, and many more.

The 2024 competition will be judged by more than 150 professionals around the world. 

Interested in submitting 2024 nominations?

The Stevie® Awards are delighted to announce the seven distinguished professionals who will chair the judging committees of the 2024 (18th annual) Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service competition.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top sales awards, customer service awards, business development awards, contact center awards, and more.

Stevie Award finalists will be determined at the end of the judging period in February. Results of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards will be announced at the 18th annual awards ceremony in Las Vegas on April 12.  

The seven committee chairs were invited to chair based on their professional experience and expertise. Judging chairs helped to form their committees, each of which will be comprised of other professionals from around the globe. Learn more about the Stevie Awards judging process here. 

Here are this year's judging committee chairs:

Customer Service & Contact Center Achievement Awards
Chair: Neal Topf, President, Callzilla, Miramar, Florida, United States

Neal Topf is the President and Co-Founder of Callzilla, an outsourced contact center provider. Inspired by Annette Franz’s Built to Win tome on how to truly serve customers, Neal has learned the importance of shaping Callzilla to be Employee Centric, Customer Centric, and Client Centric. Neal’s passions are taking apart and solving modern Customer Experience puzzles through the lenses of the employee, customers, and clients, including how the intersection of humans and artificial intelligence can be leveraged to remove friction, to improve speed of response and resolution rates and truly place each of these at the center of the enterprise. 

Neal serves on the Executive Board of the Society of Consumer Professionals (SOCAP) where he enjoys the role of governance of a leading CX industry association. A graduate of the HEC Paris MBA program, Neal studied entrepreneurship and general management. Prior to his MBA studies in Paris, Neal worked for 4 years in the international division of MCI, the great telecom challenger of the 80’s and 90’s, which was a career changing opportunity. Neal now resides in South Florida where he tries to incrementally improve his golf game. And in his spare time, he wonders if the Washington Commanders, his lifelong favorite football team, will ever return to prominence? 

Customer Service Department & Customer Service Success Awards
Chair: Sarah Sajedi, CO-founder, CEO & CTO, ERA Environmental Management Solutions, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada

Sarah Sajedi is an award-winning environmental expert and one of the co-founders of ERA Environmental Management Solutions. Over the past 28 years as the company’s CTO and CEO, Sarah has had to carve out a place for herself in a competitive and largely male-dominated industry. Through her business acumen, degree in Chemistry/Biochemistry, and determination, Sarah has established herself as an authority on environmental performance and compliance solutions across the automotive, aerospace, chemicals, metal, and general manufacturing industries, among countless others.

Sarah’s leadership philosophy is simple: investing in the education and growth of employees promotes innovation and a stronger company. By fostering emerging talent from a diverse workforce, Sarah has grown ERA from a small firm into Canada’s most successful environmental management solution provider, successfully winning out Fortune 100 and 500 companies against multimillion-dollar U.S. competitors. Sarah is a passionate advocate for higher education. She believes education is empowering - that is why she currently sponsors three scholarships for higher education and is working toward establishing a foundation to provide financial aid and university access. She believes in helping others, particularly young female entrepreneurs, by providing a means to obtain higher education and independence, which is vital for their continued success.  Voluntarism is also an essential part of Sarah’s leadership. She works with Angels of Mercy to provide food, clothing, and a listening ear to Montreal’s homeless population, and through the Helping Hands organization she provides clothing and education to children in developing nations. It’s important for her to be able to work hands-on with those in need.

Under her leadership, ERA has been named one of the most admired companies to watch (2018), one of Canada’s top SMEs by the Globe and Mail (2019) and Corporate Vision (2021), one of the top 10 automotive solution providers (2021), the most innovative EHS&Q compliance platform (2022), the Canadian Sustainable Business of the Year (2022), and the Gold Stevie Award winner in the Customer Service (Technology Industries category) at the 2023 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Sarah herself has been named a Woman of Influence by RBC, the Silver Stevie Award winner at the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the recipient of the national Sara Kirke Award for Leadership in Technology.

Customer Service & Contact Center Individual & Team Awards
Chair: Kimberley Hayes, Global Chief Experience Officer, MONAT Global Corp, Doral, FL, United States

Kimberley Hayes is a distinguished professional with over 25 years of extensive experience in managing Customer Care operations on a global scale. Her leadership journey has taken her from the corporate landscapes of the USA, Canada, and the European Union to the bustling markets of Asia. Kimberley is renowned for her exceptional expertise in customer experience (CX) management and a distinguished career marked by remarkable achievements. Throughout her illustrious career, Kimberley has proven herself as a seasoned executive who consistently delivers exceptional results. Her unwavering commitment to success is a driving force that has set her apart in the industry. Kimberley is known for her strategic approach to customer care operations, making her a visionary leader who excels in crafting innovative and effective solutions to complex challenges.

In 2023, Kimberley Hayes received a prestigious Silver Stevie Award in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, a testament to her excellence in customer care where she was honored as "Women of the Year in Customer Service," underscoring her extraordinary contributions and leadership. Furthermore, Kimberley is no stranger to the dynamic world of start-ups. Her entrepreneurial spirit and adaptability have allowed her to excel in nurturing and growing early-stage companies. This experience has equipped her with a profound understanding of the fast-paced, ever-evolving nature of the business world.

Kimberley's track record extends beyond accolades, as she has successfully built and managed organizations of over 500 seats, showcasing her remarkable ability to scale operations while maintaining a focus on quality and excellence. Her wealth of experience, exceptional results, and relentless determination position Kimberley Hayes as a leading figure in the customer care and CX industry. Her commitment to delivering unparalleled customer experiences, combined with her extensive global experience and expertise in start-ups, make her a true luminary in the field. With a career that epitomizes excellence, Kimberley continues to be a driving force in shaping the future of customer care and CX management.  

New Product & Service Awards
Chair: Dennis Reno, Chief Customer Officer, Cyara, Almeda, California, United States

Dennis Reno joined Cyara in 2020 and most recently has been a member of the executive leadership team as Chief Customer Officer and is focused on delivering world-class customer experiences for a global customer base.  Dennis has a rich background managing Customer Experience and Customer Success functions among leading tech firms in Silicon Valley and at companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Proofpoint, BEA Systems, and Continental Airlines.

On being appointed Chair, Dennis commented: “I have had the honor of being a judge for the Stevie Awards for many years and each time I participate I have the pleasure of making new friends and contacts among my fellow judges and gain the unique ability to learn so much about other businesses and industries that deliver world-class service and support.”  

Sales Achievements & Sales Distinction Awards
Chair: Oğuz Kartal, Chief Transformation Officer, Karaca Zuccaciye A.S., Sisli, Istanbul, Turkey

Oğuz is a Chief Digital Transformation Officer with more than 15 years of experience working alongside Telecom, Retail, Finance, and Technology industries. During this time, Oguz has worked with top companies in Turkey, Dubai, Qatar, and Kuwait. Having worked for top telecom and finance companies, Oguz has a unique set of capabilities for leading the strategic vision and business development for companies to leverage digital capabilities and digital channels as well as to build and differentiate the brand through a better digital experience for everyone.

Sales Individual & Sales Team Awards
Chair:  Mario Martinez Jr., Founder & CEO, Vengreso, Inc., Walnut Creek, California, United States

Mario is the CEO and Co-founder of Vengreso - the creators of FlyMSG, the AI All-inOne Productivity Assistant helping professionals save 1-hour a day in lost productivity by storing, organizing, typing, and writing for you. He spent 106 consecutive quarters in B2B Sales, Marketing, and Executive Leadership roles, growing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually. 

In 2023, he was named Most Influential CEO in the Software Solutions category by CEO Monthly, and he was also named to the #1 spot in the Top 10 Most Influential Business Leaders by Beyond Magazine in 2021. Most notably, he was one of 20 sales influencers invited to appear in the Salesforce.com documentary film “The Story of Sales”. He was named one of the Top 10 Sales Influencers by The Modern Sales Magazine, Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals, Selling Power Magazine’s Top Sales Training and Coaching Consultant, and was recognized as one of the top Social Media Leaders by The Social Shake Up. 

As a renowned sales influencer, Mario teaches marketing and sales professionals how to develop an engaging personal brand to attract today’s modern buyers using the digital sales ecosystem.  Mario is the host of the popular The Modern Selling Podcast. He’s been featured in Forbes, INC., Entrepreneur,  and was formerly a contributor to the Huffington Post. He’s a highly sought-after Keynote Speaker with brands such as LinkedIn, Cisco, and many more. He is also known to open a speech with a Salsa dance.  Follow him on YouTube, LinkedIn, on Twitter, or view his website at https://vengreso.com.

Solution Provider, Business Development & Thought Leadership Awards 
Chair: Vicki Brackett, Chief Knowledge Office, Knowledgely, Hollister, California, United States

Recognized as a subject-matter expert on virtual/work-at-home environments and leadership development, Vicki Brackett has written for and been interviewed by Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune Magazine, CIO Magazine, CEOWorld,  HR News, Training Magazine, ICMI, Contact Center Pipeline, The Justin Brady Show,and a host of other publications and podcasts, on creative work-at-home, leadership development, and employee engagement strategies. Vicki has led customer service, technical support, and sales teams in a contact center environment for over two decades. She and her teams have helped organizations achieve exceptional operational excellence, increased sales, higher employee engagement, productivity, and retention with strong customer satisfaction - driving both top line revenue and bottom-line contribution.

Today, Vicki is the Chief Knowledge Officer, at Knowledgely, an organization that helps contact centers understand how their knowledge maturity is adding operational costs and increased mental stress to agents who are looking for the right answer to help a customer.  With a proven methodology, Knowledgely can help companies drive reduced new hire training times, increased agent productivity and employee/gig worker job satisfaction. Their systematic approach can offer new strategies to achieve better knowledge maturity behind self-service technologies that exceed customer expectations and drive down operational costs.

Vicki is also the author of ‘The Leadership Toolbox - Manage Less Achieve More,’ a book about her experience leading virtual/work-at-home and brick & mortar contact center organizations across industries ranging from consumer technology, education, automotive, cosmetics, nutrition and other consumer products and services. Her book showcases a set of leadership tools that have been vetted by thousands of employees and a systematic approach that can transform organizations into top performing business units, where employees and gig workers love coming to work, are highly engaged, and exceed customer expectations.

On being appointed a 2024 Chair, Vicki commented: “It’s an honor and privilege to be a Stevie Award Chairperson and Judge. The Stevie Awards recognize top performers in an industry that continues to respond to the changing business climate. We can learn from these award winners and take best practices back to teams across the globe. Congratulations to all the winners!”

Premier awards competition for sales and service professionals accepting nominations from organizations around the globe.

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has announced that ValueSelling Associates will sponsor the 2024 (18th annual) Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service for the 17th consecutive year.

ValueSelling has been a sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service since 2008. ValueSelling Associates are again sponsoring the Sales Individual Categories, which include Woman of the Year in Sales, Senior Sales Executive of the Year, Virtual and Pre-Sales Professional of the Year, Sales Representative of the Year, and Sales Training or Education Professional of the Year, among others.

Entry kits and complete details on the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are available at StevieAwards.com/Sales. The final entry deadline for the 2024 competition is January 24.

Eligible nominees for this competition include departments, teams, and professionals from around the world who work in customer service, contact centers, business development, and sales. New products and services and solution providers used by those professionals are also eligible. The 2024 awards will recognize achievements since July 1, 2021. Explore the full list of categories.

ValueSelling Associates is the creator of the ValueSelling Framework®, the sales methodology, training and toolset that aligns your revenue engine with a common language to enable sales professionals to compete on value, not price, and saves time in all selling scenarios. Since 1991, ValueSelling Associates has helped thousands of sales professionals realize immediate revenue growth and achieve results they never thought possible. They offer bespoke training to FORTUNE 1000, mid-sized, and start-up companies to drive sales results.

Maggie Miller, President of the Stevie Awards, expressed, "ValueSelling has been a steadfast sponsor of the competition from its early days, contributing to the program’s remarkable growth. Partnering once more with ValueSelling is a source of great excitement as we continue to highlight outstanding sales professionals and organizations globally. The Stevie Awards relies on dedicated partners such as ValueSelling, who recognize the importance of acknowledging excellence in the workplace."

President and Chief Executive Officer of ValueSelling Associates, Julie Thomas, said, “The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is an excellent platform for recognizing the accomplishments of our customers and business partners. We look forward to celebrating those sales professionals who found ways to connect, secure new business, and propel their companies forward in this tough selling environment.”

Finalists will be announced on January 24, and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be revealed during an awards banquet on April 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

View full details for the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service at StevieAwards.com/Sales.

About ValueSelling Associates
ValueSelling Associates, a leading global sales training company, offers a practical methodology for selling on value, not price. The ValueSelling Framework® is a proven formula that simplifies complex B2B sales, and the Vortex Prospecting™ program provides a repeatable process that increases connections and conversions to the revenue pipeline. Once trained on the ValueSelling method, organizations grow revenue and increase productivity. Since 1991, thousands of professionals around the world have chosen ValueSelling Associates for customized training, reinforcement, and coaching to drive sales results. Learn more at ValueSelling Associates, Inc.

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.

LivePerson’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.

2022 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?