The Belco timeline
Over the years, Belco has grown from a spontaneous idea of two colleagues into a complete customer service platform that is used by more than 250 companies. How did this go? We would like to take you on a journey through time.
August 2023
TaskAI release
TaskAI is your smart assistant that doesn't miss a single action. While going through conversations with your customers, TaskAI automatically picks up action points and puts them clearly on a to-do list. This way you never have to worry about an important task falling through the cracks again.
July 2023
RephraseAI release
RephraseAI is an advanced AI tool that helps rephrase customer queries to create clarity and better understanding between the customer and the customer service agent, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
June 2023
SummaryAI Release
SummaryAI is an innovative tool that provides concise summaries of customer interactions, empowering customer service agents to respond to customer needs faster and more efficiently.
February 2023
ChatGPT release
Belco will be the first company in the Netherlands to use ChatGPT to improve customer services. Featured in various media. Wolvega-based customer service software company Belco will use the AI language model ChatGPT to translate conversations within their digital customer service environment into other languages. In addition to the translation function, they want to link more smart functions of ChatGPT to their software in the future to further improve the quality and efficiency of customer services.
April 2022
Launch site
We have a new website that better reflects who we are and what we do. The website emphasizes the process, the people, and the bond between our customers and our product. We are very proud of our new website, and we hope it will help everyone understand what we do and what we stand for.
December 2021
Growth over 85%
In 2021, our company changed a lot for the better. We developed a lot of new ideas and did well. Our company grew by 85% in one year! This without spending much on marketing. We are autonomous and work towards what is best for our customers. We will continue to do this in 2022, by working together to achieve a 9+ customer service rating.
August 2021
Instagram and WhatsApp
We were finally allowed to connect on Instagram after a very long wait. Since August you can use Instagram to communicate with your customers via Belco. We have also expanded our WhatsApp portfolio by connecting WhatsApp to Belco via 360dialog. You can use WhatsApp with Belco for €29 per month.
August 2021
Axeos VoIP exchange
We entered into a partnership with Axeos, which specializes in VoIP environments. With this partnership we can offer our customers a high-quality VoIP solution that is linked to the Belco environment. Our customers still appreciate a VOIP solution in addition to the softphone solution in our application.
June 2021
Webshop Vakdagen Summer Edition
After an absence of two years, the Belco team was at the summer edition of the Webwinkel Vakdagen. In a beachy atmosphere we spoke to many potential customers and made nice contacts. It was nice to be at a fair again. Nadjib, Madelon, and Edwin had a great time for two days.
March 2020
Strong growth due to corona
When our country was hit by the corona crisis, a lot changed in a short time. Suddenly we were no longer allowed to go to the office and the doors of shops remained closed. Because many companies and retailers wanted to move their sales online as quickly as possible, the demand for Belco's software increased dramatically. “We have never been as busy as during the start of the corona crisis: everyone wanted to work from home and preferably the same day. We grew from 100 customers to 200 customers in just a few months. Fortunately, we were able to help everyone quickly – albeit with sweat on our foreheads.”
February 2020
Most customer-friendly organization in Northern Netherlands (9.5 rating)
In 2020, Belco was named the most customer-friendly organization in the Northern Netherlands with a score of 9.5. The special thing about this award was that there was no jury involved, but that it was the customers themselves who judged Belco. “For us it was a nice confirmation that we were on the right track and were setting a good example for our customers.”
June 2019
The milestone of 100 customers
“When we reached this milestone, we hung a large map in our office (which we already had) on which we marked all our customers with yellow pins. That secretly gave me quite a proud feeling.”
December 2018
Full focus on Belco
While Edwin and Eelco were still working part-time on other jobs, the time had now come to fully commit to Belco. This was a logical consequence of the growth and increasing number of customers.
August 2018
First 50 customers
Belco grew quickly and the first 50 customers were a fact. “As customers grew, expectations also increased: customers expected 100% uptime from us and counted on us to always be available for help and questions.”
December 2016
All-in-one inbox
Belco continued to grow and with it customer demand. After several customers indicated that they would also like to see email integrated into Belco, the all-in-one inbox was added. “To be honest, we thought email was a bit old-fashioned and we saw more of a future in telephony and live chat, but ultimately it is the customer who determines what his or her wishes are – especially within Belco.”
February 2016
First time at the Webwinkel Vakdagen
Belco grew quickly and the first 50 customers were a fact. “As customers grew, expectations also increased: customers expected 100% uptime from us and counted on us to always be available for help and questions.”
January 2016
First paying customer
After an extensive test phase, the time had come in January 2016: Belco could go live and Everlake from Sneek became the first paying customer. Nice detail: this very first customer is still a Belco customer.
2015
Call for web shops
There was no point in sitting down about the failure of the original plan, in fact it was quickly turned into a new plan. Edwin had run several web shops from 2008 to 2010 and discovered that with the growth of the web shop, customer service became an increasingly important part of business operations and that this was not always efficient. Couldn't that be easier? And why was it not possible to link customer data to a telephone conversation? The idea for Belco was born: an application where all calls to a webshop are received on one platform and are automatically linked to customer data.
end of 2014
Contextual telephone exchange
Edwin and Eelco, the founders of Belco, met each other through their work. Finding smart technical solutions for everyday problems turned out to be a shared interest. This quickly grew into their first business idea: the contextual telephone exchange. The idea – born from an annoyance with 'always having to be available' – was to develop a telephone application in which you could set your personal availability and thus determine when you did and did not want to be disturbed. The idea was technically developed, but proved difficult to market for several reasons.