Newcastle based voice and data experts, Complete Voice & Data, are in a significant phase of growth, and have recruited some familiar faces to build on their impressive early years success.

Formed in late 2019, Complete Voice & Data was established by business communications stalwart, Mike Ridgway, previously founder and Managing Director of Qualitel Voice & Data. Qualitel were based in Newcastle-under-Lyme for nearly 20 years, having been created from a seed business to producing a turnover in excess of £5 million, and employing 24 staff prior to sale.

Mike sold the business in 2014, but continued to lead his division for elite group until finally exiting mid- 2019. The desire and drive to create a service lead business within the B2B voice & data sector led Mike to form Complete Voice & Data, which would not only focus on the traditional elements of business mobile and traditional telephony, but also deliver innovative communication solutions  such as cloud-based IP and ‘work from anywhere’ unified communication platforms.

Mike worked closely with former Qualitel director and ex-Vodafone main board member, Andy Smith, to formulate a long term plan to emulate and ultimately surpass the success of Qualitel. Andy joins once more, as Non-Executive Chairman and Operations Director, responsible for all CRM, data management, and GDPR compliance matters, along with strategic growth planning.

Mike said: “We believed that there was clearly a need in the market for a truly customer-focused, service driven business communications company. Many of our peers promise a lot initially but ultimately fall down on service. Our business is built on our service offering and we pledge to deliver on our promises, so as to retain our client value”

Mike firstly recruited former Qualitel sales support executive Lauren Fallows as his trusted Head of Service, closely followed by Amy McCulloch as Head of Mobile, also an experienced and highly accomplished former colleague.

Since then, Complete Voice & Data have further recruited David Robinson as Head of UC & Cloud, and Karen Lloyd-Weston as Corporate Accounts Director. This month, James Sheldon has joined as Desk Based Account Manager, working predominantly with SME businesses and most recently, Matt Nutter has also now joined as dedicated UC Tech Support and Delivery – all recruits having vital quality, experience, and Qualitel credentials on their CV’s.

The Complete Voice & Data team is now ten – 8 full time team members and 2 additional members on a retained consultancy basis.

Mike added: “Having worked in the communications industry for over 20 years, I have found that it’s important to work with people that you can trust. The team I have assembled is formed around familiar faces, but they are people that I know and can trust to deliver for our customers. We have built a team that has the perfect combination of experience, knowledge and work ethic and I know that we have the right people in place to make our business a success, and serve our clients excellently.

We have not only managed to acquire the business of many of our previous clients but with additional focus on modern forms of communication such as unified communications and cloud-based solutions, we are also tapping into new markets and industries. We believe that our will to go the extra mile for our customers has served as a strong driver, and many clients have welcomed back our old school ‘customer first’ mantra.

We are continuing to expand our CRM to ensure that our service levels consistently deliver on  our promises, and that all our accounts are managed effectively, pro-actively and treated with equal importance.”

Complete Voice & Data are already looking at larger offices to house their expanding team and will be looking to recruit further over the forthcoming year. In the meantime, Mike and his team are excited about what the future holds: “We started the business right at the point of the first UK lockdown, but we did not let that deter us from our goals. We established a strong platform in difficult times, and as life returns to the new normal, we feel more enthused than ever to provide the solutions and levels of service and efficiency with which we have become synonymous”.