The Journal, April 2013
A software company that helps call centres to provide better customer service by improving the way staff handle inquiries, has secured £250,000 of investment.
SocialRel8 has received £100,000 from the Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept Fund with a further £150,000 coming from a number of angel investors.
The company provides a range of modules in a “software as a service” product it calls EvaluAgent. These are designed to enable call centre managers not just to monitor and evaluate the activities of their staff, but to support them with coaching, e-learning and customer feedback.
Founder Jaime Scott established SocialRel8 in May last year and, along with fellow directors Alex Richards and Michelle Dinsmore, had a previous career working in some of the industry’s largest contact centres including Vertex, Orange and Barclays Bank.
“Having worked for a number of different companies in the sector, we had a clear view of the management issues – and the challenges they faced in empowering their telephone agents to deliver the best possible customer experience,” he said.
“Where we score over our competitors is that the EvaluAgent package brings everything together in a single system, and we have worked hard to create software that gives managers and team members all the tools they need in one place.
“Yes, they can monitor individual calls – but it’s not just about how long it takes to process a call, so much as how it’s handled. As well as being able to listen to calls, they can have a survey at the end of a call that not only feeds information back to management but also helps to show the agent how their actions can affect the view of the company.”
The company, based in Teesside University’s Victoria Building, is working across the UK with clients including call centre providers such as Atos working on behalf of National Savings & Investments. This new funding will create jobs and help SocialRel8 to develop complementary products.
The fund is managed by Northstar. Investment manager Richard Exley added: “This is just the kind of software as a service product the call centre sector is looking for – and with more than 20 years in the business it’s an area Jaime truly understands. It’s a high pressure business environment with a high staff turnover rate – so products like this can succeed if they help to develop and retain good staff as well as improving efficiency.”