An Interview with Matt DiMaria, VHT CEO ‘We Have the Best Product and We Back it With the Best Service’

“We strive to deliver on our promise to redefine the customer experience by providing innovative solutions that transform customer relationships.”

Today, people use many devices and platforms along their paths to purchase.

It doesn’t matter what screen size they have, what social channels they prefer, what apps they use, or what touches with your brand they’ve had in the past. You need to make sure you do your part to help them feel good about your company along the way.

Your engagement solutions, therefore, need be consistent, helpful and vigilant across the board.

In view of the above-mentioned scenario, we’re thrilled to present VHT.

For over two decades, VHT has been the world’s #1 provider of callback software and services, enabling over 300 of the world’s leading companies to increase their Net Promoter Scores among tens of millions of consumers and generate millions of dollars in return on their investment.

Today they have extended their leadership in the customer experience (CX) market by providing contact centers solutions that optimize customer interactions across all their channels. VHT enables contact centers to intelligently begin, continue, and complete customer interactions across multiple channels and, when necessary, equip agents with the right information at the right time to ensure successful outcomes.

VHT serves a variety of industries including cable, financial, government, insurance, healthcare, retail, and travel.

The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.

DiMaria, VHT CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings since founding?

When our company began over 23 years ago, we established ourselves around the idea that customers should not have to experience the frustration of waiting on hold for an agent to become available. With the development of our first product, VHT Callback, we reshaped the contact center industry.

Now, in 2018, the industry has expanded, technology has advanced, and we have transformed from more than just a callback company into a company focused on optimizing the customer experience. In light of this, we also transformed Virtual Hold Technology into simply VHT.

We strive to deliver on our promise to redefine the customer experience by providing innovative solutions that transform customer relationships.

Q. What kind of responses have you received from your consumers over the years?

VHT is built around our customers; it’s what has made the company unique in the market we serve. Our NPS rating is over 60, which is unheard of in the enterprise software market. Above all, we work to make our customers a success and that in turn translates into success for our business.

Q. Customer service varies, but companies can still be successful. How do you maintain your customers’ trust and loyalty?

We invest in our customer relationships in every stage of our business. Many of our customers actually know our support staff by name; it has gone beyond a business relationship. Even when a customer expresses frustration with us, we listen and address concerns they raise. We also do regular “wellness” meetings with customers to ensure they are maximizing the business value of the products and services we offer. It’s our job to help them understand how we create value in their business.

Q. If you have to list factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

Our employees! There really is only one factor that stands us out from the competition, because behind every opportunity or challenge is an employee or group of employees that will make it happen. That begins with the CEO and extends to everybody in the company. Our investors and customers are of course our primary stakeholders, but it’s our team that needs to make it happen for our business.

Q. How do you and your company contribute to the global IT platform and society at large?

One of the great things about VHT is our core business actually improves the lives of hundreds of millions of consumers. In 2017 alone, our customers were saved from having to wait on hold a total of 2.2 billion minutes. That is literally time that millions of people would have been unproductive, waiting on hold to talk to an agent. To top it off, we make sure that when they do get connected – the agent is prepared to answer their question, which then delights them. It’s a great business with a major societal impact.

Q. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

We are an important part of the industry today and will work very hard to ensure the same is true tomorrow. Customers are beginning to realize that telephony-based customer service is not going away even as they embrace consumer self-service enabling technologies. As much as the robots and AI get a lot of attention these days, and we will help make those interactions amazing, when people run out of patience they want to talk to a knowledgeable agent. Our mission is to make those moments effortless and delightful.

Matt DiMaria: A Brief Background

Matt brings over 30 years of experience in the software, SaaS and Internet-of-Things (IoT) industry to VHT – having led teams that delivered market-leading products to thousands of companies and millions of consumers throughout the world. He started his career as a customer support engineer and progressed into leadership positions in product management and marketing, ultimately serving as a GM and CEO for both public and privately held technology companies for the past decade. Immediately prior to VHT, Matt served as a CEO-In-Residence with Alpine Investors, based in San Francisco, California.

At VHT, Matt is dedicated to championing a People First vision to propel the growth of the company and extend its leadership in the customer experience (CX) market. Under his direction, the company will continue to set the gold standard for customer service to its customers while investing to deliver contact centers solutions that optimize customer interactions across all channels – from voice to digital.

Matt earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland and completed graduate studies at the AEA/Stanford University Executive Institute.

“We believe that delivering an exceptional customer experience doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, every customer interaction, regardless of channel, should enrich the brand and deepen the customer relationship.”