The One-Stop, Week-in-Review for BPO & Call Center News – from a People Perspective – Only at CallMe! IQ.
Pacesetters
Promotions, Awards and other Advancement
- Two call center leaders – Marnie Thuecks and Jodi Johnson – with Mutal life insurer Guardian Life have been honored with International Service Excellece Awards from the Customer Service Institute of America.
Change Agents
Openings, Hirings, Closings &…Layoffs
– Openings and Hirings –
- Las Vegas research firm Precision Opinion will be doubling the size of its workforce and adding 300 to 400 call center positions in the coming months.
- ServiceMaster will be hiring 6,700 new and part-time employees – many of which will be working at one of their several call centers around the country. This announcement includes the 700 mentioned last week.
- Livingshield, an insurance service contract company, is establishing a new call center in Bluefield, West Virginia in a move that looks to bring new 150 sales positions to the town.
– Closings and Layoffs –
- BPO The Connection has reversed an earlier announcement to lay off much of its call center in Olean, New York.
- Diabetic supply company AmMed Direct announced that it is laying off 223 employees upon completion of its sale to Arriva Medical. However, Arriva will look to hire 90 at a Nashville call center based at the former company’s headquarters.
- Time Warner Cable will be closing its Garden Grove call center in southern California, the company announced. Affected employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other of the company’s locations in either Culver City, Palm Desert, or Van Nuys.
- Bank of America will be laying off 450 workers at its Concord location, most of which were in the customer service center and fraud and claims units.
- Auto and home insurance provider Unitrin Direct is relocating a call center from Chattanooga to Scranton, in a move that will result in the layoff of 30 employees.
M&A &More
Mergers, Acquisitions, Partnerships & Corporate Reports
- Convergys announced 4th Quarter earnings on Tuesday, with revenue up 3% over the same period last year. The transcript of that call is here.
- Cobb EMC announced that it will be selling ProCore Solutions, which it helped create, to current ProCore management.
- Microsoft has acquired a stake in contact center solutions provider 24/7. The company is based in California with delivery centers in the Philippines, India, China, Guatemala, Nicaragua.
Industry Insight
Trends Macro & Micro, International & Domestic
- Interesting article: ”What Can Tim Tebow Teach Us in Contact Center Operations?”
- Zappos’ Rob Siefker delivers Part 3 of his 4 part interview on customer service.
- Interactive Intelligence recently held a webinar reviewing the top trends in the contact center world. They are listed in this overview.
- Here is an interesting piece on what motivates call center professionals, comparing perspectives from both the management and the managed.
- Mutual of Omaha is pioneering the use of mini-treadmills at the desks of its call center employees. For more on this interesting story, check out the video in this link.
Did we miss anyone or anything? If so, let us know! Email us at info@callme.io, and we’ll be sure to include them in next week’s “Call It a Week!”
