BUSINESS PROFILE

Tell us a bit more about your business and how it started .

Aircall is a phone and communication platform that believes in the power of conversation . We founded the company back in 2014 as we wanted to make it easier for businesses to manage and improve their customer experience . At the time , the kind of call centres and phone systems used by businesses were clunky and outdated and seemed to replicate tasks and heap admin on customer service agents . We knew a simplified phone solution that helped businesses move on from hard phones could overcome the issues they were facing and restore meaningful conversations to their day . We saw a gap in the market , went for it , and so Aircall was born .

How has the business grown since it started and how did you ensure growth ?

Aircall started with just four of us in 2014 and is now made up of 700 employees . We have offices in New York , Paris , Sydney , Madrid , Berlin and London and have gone from being a unicorn in 2021 to a centaur in 2022 ( over US $ 100 million annual recurring revenue ). Seeing and reacting to a gap in the market helped us ensure growth , but that ’ s not to say we didn ’ t have our challenges ! For example , we accrued tech debt when it came to call quality and decided to stop selling for a few months as a result . Ultimately , taking this time helped us realise the importance of sustainable growth and reminded us of our responsibility to customers .

What ’ s the business ’ approach to management ?

Four people worked for Aircall in 2014 . It is now a global company with 700 employees . It sells integrated business phone systems for sales and support teams . Olivier Pailhes , Co-founder and CEO , spoke to Intelligent CXO about how the company ’ s goal is to make sure every conversation a member of a customerfacing team has is a meaningful one . He talks about how the company has grown and how the company encourages employees to always have access to new skills and knowledge .

What we do , we do with our people . And it ’ s important that we create an environment in which people feel empowered to achieve . We want everyone at Aircall to be able to bring themselves to their role and to feel as though their individuality is their superpower . This doesn ’ t mean keeping them from ever leaving Aircall though . We understand that some of our employees might want to become entrepreneurs in their own right one day . Take for instance the Aircall Mafia ( ex-Aircallees who have started their own businesses ) – people such as Chalom Malka , Tania Kefs and Marc Delalonde . Incredible individuals we ’ re proud spent some of their careers at Aircall .

What is your company ’ s vision and goal ?

Our goal is that every conversation had by a member of a customer-facing team is a meaningful one . This might sound simplistic , but if you ’ ve ever worked in a sales or support team then you know how hard this can be ! A major part of this is tech democratisation , especially for small and medium businesses ( SMBs ), which make up the vast majority of our businesses

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