At Elevate, we are constantly gathering feedback to improve the customer experience. April Sealy, Vice President of Operations, notes that as the products become easier to use, customer satisfaction increases. The Operations team even created a Customer Effort Score that they use as a metric to monitor customer satisfaction. We work together to ensure that our customers are satisfied with their experiences.
Elevate is reinventing the non-prime lending industry by promoting inclusive access to credit for those underserved by traditional credit providers. We provide immediate financial relief today, and work to build a better financial future tomorrow. Elevate not only builds an inclusive environment for those we serve, but it is also an important part of our corporate culture.
Random Acts of Kindness Program
Elevate strives to help and work with our customers. The Random Acts of Kindness program allows high-performing call center team members to perform random acts of kindness on customers, such as forgiving a loan. The exchange is usually videotaped and shared with the team, helping all to connect with customers and stay engaged. Our Customer Service team also monitors natural disasters to see if any of our customers have been affected. During the recent California wildfires, we were able to forgive payments or whole loans to serve our customers during a difficult time.
Through these efforts, Elevate has seen our customer satisfaction increase. Customers have reported that they have felt respected and valued throughout their entire experience with our products. Many of our customers have needed to use our products because of an ongoing need, or an emergency situation, and they feel comfortable coming back to us because of our respectful and helpful customer service.
April Sealy, and the women of Elevate have been working to innovate areas of customer contact throughout our business. These creative solutions have come as a result of our diverse and inclusive culture.
Representation is a crucial part of promoting diversity and inclusion within any industry, but especially technology. An average tech company workforce includes less than 25% women. Elevate rises above this – 36% of our development and QA staff are women, and 35% of our risk management team is comprised of women. Our overall workforce is comprised of 41% women.
April Sealy is not alone in leading our organization. Four members of the executive team are women; Sharon Clarey, Chief Human Resources Officer; Kate Vanderkolk, Chief Risk Officer; Sarah Cutrona, Chief Counsel; and Joan Kuehl, Chief Information Officer. In addition, two of our largest departments are led by females, Ann Challis, SVP of Marketing and April Sealy, SVP of Operations. Not to mention, our Board of Directors is led by a female.
Promoting this inclusive environment can have a positive impact throughout the whole company, and to our customers, too. Research done by the Center for Creative Leadership, found that companies with more women report more job satisfaction, more organizational dedication, more meaningful work, and less burnout. There was also a direct positive correlation between having more women in the workplace and higher employee engagement and retention.
Championing Women in Technology
Elevate has a group, founded by our CIO, whose goal is to foster a strong community for the female technologists. This group mentors young women in the community to encourage more females to enter the STEM field. They perform community service in support of women and they also host networking events to foster a lively community.
One of our core values at Elevate is “Win Together” and Elevate is proud to have women leading the way to help create a culture that is supportive of each other and our community.
Jason Harvison has been with Elevate since 2003. He has held various senior roles prior to his appointment as COO in 2014. In 2019, he was named interim CEO. In this role, Jason is focused on operational and financial performance — including the development and implementation of the firm’s strategic priorities. He also oversees Elevate products, customer acquisition and servicing activities.
Prior to joining Elevate, Jason managed a $225 million loan portfolio and generated more than $400 million in new loans for Guaranty Bank, a $2 billion consumer and commercial bank.
