Stevie® Awards verlängern den Einsendeschluss der 18. Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Posted by Catrin Beu on Mon, Jan 29, 2024 @ 04:48 AM

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.

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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.

Die 2024 Awards werden von mehr als 150 Fachleuten aus aller Welt bewertet.

Haben wir Ihre Neugier geweckt? 

Jetzt Nominierungen einreichen! 

 

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Final Entry Deadline Extended in the 18th Annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Jan 25, 2024 @ 09:15 AM

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.

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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?

Request the Entry Kit

 

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Judging Chairs Named in the 2024 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Tue, Dec 19, 2023 @ 03:05 PM

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

24 sascs csa chair Neil topfNeal 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

24 sascs csd chair sajediSarah 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

24 sascs csit chair hayesKimberley 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

24 sascs np chair renoDennis 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

24 sascs sasd char kartalOğuz 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

24 sascs sit chair martinez-whiteMario 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 YouTubeLinkedIn, 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

24 sascs spbd chair brackettRecognized as a subject-matter expert on virtual/work-at-home environments and leadership development, Vicki Brackett has written for and been interviewed by ForbesFast CompanyFortune MagazineCIO MagazineCEOWorld,  HR News, Training MagazineICMI, 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!”

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

ValueSelling Associates Marks 17th Consecutive Year Supporting Workplace Excellence as a Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service Sponsor

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Wed, Dec 13, 2023 @ 11:21 AM

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.

 

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

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

Request the Entry Kit

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

Request the Entry Kit

   

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?

Request the Entry Kit  

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Call for Entries Issued for 18th Annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Sep 14, 2023 @ 10:38 AM

Business Development, Customer Service, and Sales Achievements, Professionals, and More May Be Nominated

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world's premier business awards programs, has issued a call for entries 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.

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.

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The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is October 11, 2023. The final entry deadline is November 8, but late entries will be accepted through January 24, 2023, with payment of a late fee. Finalists will be announced on March 5, and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be revealed during an awards ceremony on April 12 in Las Vegas.

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

Two new Sales Achievement categories have been added to recognize accomplishments in sales automation and sales self-service. Explore all of the categories here.

2024 will see the return of the People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a popular feature of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service in which the public may vote for their favorite providers of customer service, from among all finalist nominations in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories.

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. Those interested in participating on one of the juries may apply at https://sales.stevieawards.com/sa-judge/register.

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

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Belkins Agency's Award-Winning Approach to Business Growth

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Fri, Sep 08, 2023 @ 10:20 AM

1080Stevie-winner Belkins Agency was forged on a common idea: predictable and scalable growth achieved through transparency, perseverance, experience, and creativity.

Belkins was founded by Vladyslav Podolyako and Michael Maximoff back in 2017. Shortly before, they worked together at a small product company. They both shared an extensive background in B2B sales that produced a compatible synergy and would later be transformed into an equivocal business partnership.

The start-up humbly began with Michael and Vlad generating leads for small businesses, committing 100% of their time and efforts to their "side hustle." Soon their creativity and passion paid off.

A startup blossomed into a full-scale digital marketing agency producing $10 million ARR and serving 1000 customers worldwide. In just five years, Belkins grew into the #1 ranked leading provider of lead generation and appointment-setting services despite their decision to forgo any outside investments.

Belkins has now helped 400+ clients transform their presales and sales processes. They have worked with clients from 30+ countries in 60+ niches to help them build and transform their sales workflow. The goal was not only to help companies define their ICP (ideal client profile), build a pipeline of qualified leads, and drive sales for the fastest possible ROI but to make it digital, scalable, and as predictable as possible.

Helping Business Scale Quickly
Belkins empowers businesses of any scale to grow fast through cutting-edge technologies and innovative marketing and sales solutions.

Their primary offering is lead generation and appointment-setting, but they offer much more. If they can’t find a worthy solution in the market, they create it. Since 2020 they have launched several products and a new service line. Now their clients can count on 99% inbox deliverability and a 60% increase in their email open rate using Folderly, streamline their cold outreach with Frostbite.ia, and acquire endless qualified leads using the Leadsforce service. Additionally, with Charge for Outlook, clients can seamlessly send bulk outreach, enhancing their email campaigns further. 

Over the last 12 months, their approach generated over $50 million in new sales for 200 of their clients. Furthermore, on average, the amount of new deals is $50,000 USD. From the kick-off meeting to the first email sent, they get the client’s campaign running in six days or less. The number of leads their team has generated by now is close to 5 million, and emails that reached prospects’ inboxes are about 3 million.

The technological products and services they create are tightly interconnected, creating a sort of MarTech ecosystem inside the company. This way, clients can satisfy all their needs in boosting their business growth with digital marketing and sales services from Belkins Group.

Some of the industries Belkins worked with were quite conservative prior to their partnership: solar & renewable energy, food catering, healthcare, agriculture, waste management, janitorial services, etc. As a result of partnering, clients now receive a faster-than-expected ROI, and a vault of best-kept "secrets" to generate leads by means of email outreach, LinkedIn, HubSpot, and by using dozens of data sources combined with their own proprietary software.

They say they are most proud of the cases where they’ve been able to completely transform a customer's sales process and cycle, showing their customers that digital and scalable solutions for business growth can be predictable.

Belkins won two Silvers and a Bronze Stevie® Award including the Sales Ethics Award, Achievement in the Digital Transformation of Sales Operations, and Sales Outsourcing Provider of the Year, respectively, in the 2023 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

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

Request the Entry Kit 

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service

Quantum Workplace: Empowering HR Excellence for Two Decades and Beyond

Posted by Amanda Del Signore on Fri, Sep 08, 2023 @ 10:05 AM

22 spotlight Square-9-Sep-08-2023-01-59-25-0450-PMStevie-winner Quantum Workplace, a human resources technology provider, equips workplaces with the smartest talent solutions so that they can grow and succeed.

Nearly 20 years ago, the company pioneered some of the earliest employee engagement and performance software and has since partnered with thousands of organizations to drive employee, team, and business success.

Today, human resources (HR) departments have more on their plate than ever before. Quantum Workplace aims to be the reliable partner HR needs to solve problems and guide them along the way.

The organization began as Quantum Market Research in 2002, conducting workplace surveys. By 2005, it  was the survey provider behind the Best Places to Work contest. In 2009, it collected its five-millionth survey. The company changed its name to Quantum Workplace in 2010 and transitioned into a software-led employee engagement company. Now the company partners with over 480 organizations to make work better.

Achieving Consistent Customer and Employee Success
Quantum Workplace has a legacy of providing awesome customer service with unmatched, quality support. The Customer Success Team developed a series of checkpoints that new hires complete before they start talking with customers, so each customer receives the best service and guidance.

A team of Insights Analysts helps customers dive deep into what their data says, how to interpret their results, and guide them in responses. The team has a 97% favorability on value provided to the board room.

Quantum Workplace’s NPS and CSAT scores are well above industry averages, and their six-month rolling average NPS score is 62.5, with industry averages around 40. Quantum Workplace’s August 2022 CSAT score was 86, with industry averages around 77.

The Quantum Workplace Customer Support Team is available to over 2 million users, not just admin users, unlike the competition and others in B2B software. This means more users to assist, which might mean more time per ticket. Not the case at Quantum Workplace. The Customer Support Team typically responds within an hour, faster than most SaaS companies and competitors.

Quantum Workplace employees, or "Qwirks," are used to a high-growth environment. They’re able to succeed because the organization practices what it preaches. It believes that employee success leads to business success. Its dedication to employees has led the Customer Facing Team to achieve levels of customer satisfaction few software companies can.

Quantam team Because of its unique culture aimed at engaging employees, Qwirks perform at high levels, outpacing its competition and setting new standards for the software industry.

Although it has been challenging, they have been able to maintain customer satisfaction and the employee experience with 30% employee growth in the past two years. Quantum Workplace’s strategy of concentrating on employee success has shown business success and led to a quality customer experience.

Quantum Workplace believes the workplace can be great when employees are given the opportunity and resources to be successful. Quantum Workplace’s 4.9 Glassdoor rating far exceeds the average company rating of 3.3, and 100% of Glassdoor reviewers reported they would recommend a friend to work for the organization.

Quantum Workplace created a culture that employees want to be a part of by giving them the tools to succeed and a unique work experience they enjoy. The organization is stronger because Qwirks are celebrated team members and united through the core values of Pursue, Team Over Self, Revel in Work, and Be You.

Qwirks are passionate about their work. The Customer Facing Team revels in providing excellent customer service and truly believes what they do matters. That experience helps Quantum Workplace separate itself from not only competitors but other workplaces.

Quantum Workplace won a Silver Stevie® Award for Customer Service Department of the Year - Computer Software - 100 or More Employees, and a Bronze Stevie for Customer Service Employer of the Year in the 2023 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

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


Request the Entry Kit

 

 

Topics: Steve Awards for Sales and Customer Service