Stockton-based AGNE won the award for its Contact Toolkit, which is an automated marketing package that responds to customer queries with a series of personalised emails, SMS, direct mail and personalised URLs.

Stephen Jones commercial director of AGNE said the award meant a lot to him and his staff. "Recognition like this helps you broaden your horizons and to realise how good you are," he said.

"There were already automated systems that sent out promotional material but nothing that combined all of the channels that the Contact Toolkit manages."

When a customer first contacts AGNE the Contact Toolkit alerts a sales representative who then chooses a reply from a selection of template emails. The system personalises the email with the customer’s name and the relevant information to their query.

"It works like a call to action so we can make sure we give customers a quick response," said Jones.

It also creates a microsite that has personalised graphics and highlights relevant services. AGNE then prints a 12 page brochure, which is sent to the customer the next day. In the following two weeks it sends two postcards with the sales representative’s contact details and further information about the client’s area of interest.
 
AGNE has received interest from 11 UK companies and one in North America, that would like to use the system. Jones said the firm was currently working on Contact Toolkits for two UK companies and the first would be ready at the beginning of next year.

Jones said the system would be integrated into companies’ customer relationship management (CRM) systems. The development process for each company takes from one to two and a half weeks and the company is proposing a one-off fee for setting it up and then a monthly fee for updates and further development.

The company has a staff of 80 and Jones worked with a group of designers and web developers on the Contact Toolkit over nine months.

Jones said the award had boosted AGNE’s confidence and encouraged his team to innovate in the future. "We have two or three systems we are developing at the moment and we want to keep coming up with more," he said.

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