Victoria Kerrisk is an Air Force veteran who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalised anxiety disorder. These conditions became a burden for her, preventing her from doing day-to-day tasks that she had no problems dealing with before.
One of the biggest challenges Victoria faced after her diagnosis was customer service interactions in retail, sport, recreation and tourism venues. “Firstly, not knowing what to expect can invoke nervousness and sometimes prevent me from participating,” she laments. “Secondly, having to constantly explain and repeat myself to service staff can be frustrating and awkward.”
After talking to a number of other people with disabilities, Victoria and her husband, Chris, were surprised to learn that these two barriers were consistent across a range of conditions and levels of ability. “We found there was a lack of information available to [help people] prepare before arriving at a venue and a lack of assurance of being treated with empathy once there,” she explains.
These conversations left Victoria resolved to develop a more inclusive and accessible customer service solution, bolstered by the fact that Chris is a renowned tech innovator. The couple worked on coming up with a mobile application that would help remove mental barriers and improve the customer-service experience across a range of activities. They launched their app, Cérge, in 2019.
Tech take-off; surviving COVID-19
In preventing inadvertent discrimination and ensuring empathetic experiences during everyday shopping, travelling and participation in sport and recreation, Cérge makes use of two technological platforms. One is the Content Management Platform for Access and Inclusion, a pioneer and market-leader that provides information on accessibility of partner venues with tools that include virtual tours, virtual stories, sensory guides, audio guides, and digital communication boards.
The other platform is the Companion App, a communications platform that allows customers with a disability, parents, carers and support workers to discreetly inform a venue’s service staff before their arrival of essential ‘about me’ information. The app sends the details directly to a point-of-sale terminal, tablet, or phone, thus preventing the unconscious bias or unawareness of disability that contributes to the negative experiences disabled customers go through with customer-service teams.
“Imagine having your own personal disability advocate in your pocket to help overcome any social barriers, fears and anxieties to improve outcomes and reduce NDIS budget pressures,” Chris avers. “That is the power of Cérge.”
The app had already established a position in the market when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge for the company.
“We sought to implement a technology that is all about improving participation and customer service in the real world, only for the sector to almost grind to a halt,” Victoria recalls.
Fortunately, Victoria and Chris were able to forge partnerships with businesses such as Belgravia Leisure, Belgravia Foundation and White’s IGA, which supported Cérge‘s vision and mission and saw the value for both their customers and the business.
The couple were also able to build an online community of people with lived experience with a disability, which has provided them with insights into their business strategy and product.
“Having such incredible support from both clients and customers has been invaluable, especially in the tough early days,” Victoria shares.
The company has successfully maintained an upward curve and last year achieved 341 per cent year-on-year growth and expanded its venue network from 29 to 128. This increase in venues all came via inbound enquiries. The company attributes its growth to the rise in awareness and genuine interest among the public, enterprises, NDIS, and local governments in improving inclusivity for people with a disability, which has brought about a shift in society towards a demand for improved experiences and inclusiveness on behalf of the disabled sector.
Growing to meet demand
Victoria and Chris found it difficult to keep up with the increased demand. So the couple decided to bring in additional help, most notably adding Matt Von der Muhll as Cérge’s chief operating officer in February 2024. Matt has previously led innovative technology firms as founder and overseen commercial activities and investments in various roles, including VP commercial and corporate development at Track160, director APAC at Respondology, co-founder and managing partner at Place Capital, and executive director at SpotXchange (now SpotX) and Adconion. Matt also worked with Chris at Unlockd, the start-up Chris co-founded; Matt served as chief operating and revenue officer.
“Matt’s experience and expertise scaling tech businesses globally is the perfect addition to the Cérge team at this intersection of our journey,” Chris enthuses.
With a foundational team in place with the leadership skills, expertise, and the lived experience needed in Cérge, the company is keen on addressing the increased demand for improved accessibility. A particular focus for the company is expanding its services to cater to airports and schools, while continuing to build on its services in the sport, retail, recreation and tourism sectors.
“Our greatest priority is to meet that demand and support our partner governments and enterprises with our innovative tech platforms and improve the lives of people with a disability at scale,” Chris says. “The next key hires will be paramount to our next phase of growth.”
Victoria and Chris are also keeping an eye out on the upcoming changes to the NDIS and the National Autism Strategy.
“With an increasing diagnosis across our population of both visible but mostly invisible disabilities, particularly certain types of autism and ADHD, it is increasingly urgent [that we have] a solution that enables individuals to feel comfortable and confident, to improve participation but with a downward pressure on disability budgets,” Chris says.
Looking abroad
There are also plans to expand internationally, especially into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, by 2025, leveraging the fact that more and more countries in those regions are placing accessibility and inclusion as top priorities for both government and business.
“We know our core product is profitable and converting the unmet enterprise and government demand into contracted commitments and delivery of our solution is key to scaling internationally,” Chris explains.
Ultimately, Victoria and Chris envision Cérge becoming the global standard for all access and inclusion solutions, and they believe Australia’s renown as an incubation market for tech start-ups and an early adopter of technology will play a key role in realising their goal.
“We are passionate about technology that is ethical, disruptive and sustainable,” Victoria says. “Hence, Cérge was born to improve the lives of up to 1.8 billion people living with a disability globally and to empower organisations to better support 1 in 5 of their customers. Cérge really is a win-win all round!”
This article first appeared in issue 45 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
