ModSquad
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Business Process Outsourcing |
| Founded | 2007[1] |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Amy Pritchard (CEO) Mike Pinkerton (COO)[1] |
| Products | Digital engagement strategy Customer support Content moderation Social media Community management Crisis management |
Number of employees | c. 10,000 |
| Website | modsquad |
ModSquad is a global digital company providing engagement services based in the United States.[3][4] The company currently has over 10,000 moderators in its network.[3][4] ModSquad provides managed, on-demand customer service, content moderation, social media, and community management services and teams across online, e-commerce, in-game, in-app, and social media channels.[1]
History[edit]
The company was founded by attorney Amy Pritchard in 2007,[1] to provide brands with a way to give the members of their online communities a more relevant, personalized experience. Looking at the step change that today's brands could make in managing their online communities as akin to the London Mods youth culture,[2] Pritchard – along with COO Mike Pinkerton – created a services based company around remote community managers and moderators (Mods), to staff virtual sites.[3][5] The firm originally specialized in providing avatar staffing,[5] but soon expanded to supplying forum moderation and customer service across a wide range of brands.[3][4] By 2010, the company had 500 experienced Mods working on more than 100 clients' sites.[3] In 2015, ModSquad was awarded a Silver Stevie Award in the Company of the Year (Internet/New Media) category of the 13th Annual American Business Awards.[6] Also that year, the company was recognized as Customer Service Team of the Year in the Golden Bridge Awards.[7]
Present[edit]
Presently the company has over 10,000 "Mods," or moderators, in its network, a 24/7 operations center in Sacramento, California established in 2010,[2] 24/7 operations centers in Austin, Texas,[8] and Derry, Northern Ireland,[9] and offices in Brooklyn, New York[7] and London. In November 2015, the company, formerly known as Metaverse Mod Squad, changed its name to ModSquad. Clients include Warner Bros. (including Gossip Girl and Harry Potter),[5] HarperCollins, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, the National Football League, Reel FX (parent firm of Webosaurs), Electronic Arts, enVie Interactive, Kimpton Hotels, Vimeo, and the United States Department of State.[2][4][10][11]
Operations[edit]
The company operates by providing services via 10,000+ multilingual Mods from 70 countries in its network via a series of outsource-provision contracts. Operating under a predefined customer service brief, vetted and oriented Mods augment or replace in-house teams by managing a variety of online community activities and specializing in digital engagement from customer service[2] and maintenance tickets to social and forum moderation and quality assurance.[12] Mods help to maintain and shape clients’ unique online communities by assisting with community events, aiding users with technical and social issues, orienting new arrivals, and channeling community concerns and feedback to corporate clients.[13]
Mods take both an active position in forums by acting as the corporate client to provide services, as well as passively looking through the end user experience to monitor social media and quality assurance testing. In active mode, Mods[5] moderate content, chat with customers, manage communities, protect child safety (approved by Safe Kids USA),[14][15] monitor game experience, provide customer support, check for bugs, and manage social media accounts. Using a variety of Customer Relations Management systems,[16] Mods work from anywhere in the world with secure internet access, enabling native-language services to be provided in 50+ languages and dialects during peak traffic and activity hours.[13]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d "Who We Are". ModSquad. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
- ^ a b c d e Anderson, Mark (2012-09-21). "Web moderation firm expands into customer support: Metaverse Mod Squad's clients include NFL, U.S. State Department". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ a b c d e Larson, Christine (2011-02-26). "A Patrol for the Web's Playgrounds". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
- ^ a b c d "Metaverse Mod Squad". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ a b c d Bracken, Janey (2008-12-12). "Metaverse Mod Squad in Big Demand". CNN. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ "Welcome Home, Silver Stevie Award!". ModSquad. 2015-09-16. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
- ^ "ModSquad Customer Support Takes Home the Gold". ModSquad. 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
- ^ "ModSquad Selects Austin, Texas for New Operations Center: Company Expansion is the Result of Increasing Demand for Its Digital Customer Service and Moderation Expertise". MarketWired. 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
- ^ "Londonderry gets 100 new jobs in Metaverse Mod Squad expansion". BBC. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
- ^ "Angel Selected by Metaverse Mod Squad to Enhance Customer Call Center Experience". MarketWire via Yahoo News. 2011-02-23. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
- ^ "FunGoPlay partners with online kids safety experts Metaverse Mod Squad for launch of online sports theme park". Develop. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ Onistsuk, Dimitri. "Meet the partner: Metaverse Mod Squad". Shipwire. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ a b Scheetz, Starratt (2013-09-09). "Metaverse: Mod Squad". The Work From Home Reporter. Archived from the original on 2014-03-31.
- ^ "Safety Vendors and Tools: Metaverse Mod Squad". KidSafe. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ "Izzy Neis, Director of Digital Engagement Strategy, Metaverse Mod Squad". Engage Digital. 2013-09-18. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
- ^ Janakiraman, Shamila (2008-09-19). "Parature and Metaverse Mod Squad Enter Integration Partnership". Contact Center Solutions. Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-15.