Company Profile
VIPdesk
Company Overview
VIPdesk is the innovative leader of outsourced virtual customer care solutions for companies who view their brand reputation as a significant asset, and for whom a quality customer experience is not a luxury, but a necessity. As a pioneer of the “homeshoring” business model, VIPdesk’s home-based customer service representatives are transforming the way business services are delivered.
Company History
In 1987, Mary Naylor, VIPdesk founder and CEO, established Capitol Concierge, a corporate concierge company, staffing office buildings in the Washington, D.C., market with onsite concierges. The concept proved enormously successful, attracting national media attention and sparking interest from international Fortune 1000 companies wishing to adapt the concept to their own customer bases.
In response to burgeoning demand, VIPdesk was spun-off in 1997 as a separate entity to focus on a virtual home-based model. With MasterCard and Citibank among its first clients, VIPdesk provided premium services through a toll-free number accessing a virtual team based in home offices throughout North America. This team provided the customers of VIPdesk's clients with high quality, personalized customer service.
Recognizing the need to capitalize on emerging Internet technologies, VIPdesk raised two rounds of institutional funding in 1999 and 2000. The additional funds enabled VIPdesk to expand its team and implement technology to ensure a scalable model with top notch talent that enhanced the customer experience while providing increased efficiencies for the team. As such, VIPdesk was the first to market with a fully integrated home-based Brand Ambassador model for high-end customer service applications.
Expanding upon VIPdesk’s foundation in the concierge industry, VIPdesk Connect™ was launched as an addition to VIPdesk’s extensive customer service offerings. VIPdesk Connect™ utilizes a vast network of dispersed Brand Ambassadors, primarily based in home offices across the United States and Canada, interconnected by a state-of-the-art technology network which enables them to deliver high-touch customer care more efficiently and more productively than agents in a traditional bricks-and-mortar call centers — at a considerably lower price point.
VIPdesk’s strong emphasis on experience, advanced education and subject matter expertise for its home-based agents sets it apart from other contact center providers. Approximately 95% of the company’s Brand Ambassadors are college educated, nearly 75% have 15 years or more of hospitality or customer service experience and approximately half are bilingual.
Today, VIPdesk sets the quality standard for customer service and lifestyle loyalty solution programs. The company is continually recognized as a progressive industry leader, evidenced through numerous awards including the 2003 and 2004 Inc. 500 award and Working Woman Magazine's National Award for Innovative Product and Service.