Business Spotlight: Answering the Call

For many, telemarketing is a dirty word. Springfield-based business-to-consumer and business-to-business communication services provider Communication Solutions LLC is working around that perception.

Among the communications services the company provides, staff members manage inbound and outbound calls for companies that often want to reach their customers with a new deal or special offer but may not have the resources or expertise to get the most bang for their buck.

Director of Business Development Bryan Williams, who has been with the company since Day 1, says Communication Solutions has never received a fine from a state or federal agency for violating laws designed to protect consumers.

“I’m also the company’s compliance officer, so that is something I’m very proud of,” Williams says.

The company, which was founded in 1996 with eight employees, broke ground July 12 for a $5 million call center at the northwest corner of Sunshine Street and Scenic Avenue. With 850 employees across three sites, the firm plans to hire another 100 employees to staff the new center.

Jim Morris founded Communication Solutions, aka CommSol, with a core group of sales professionals as a way to take advantage of the call center opportunities he saw in the market.

“We started as an SBC telephone agent and just continued to grow the business from there,” Morris says. “We started small, and due to satisfying our clients, they referred us to other folks who brought us new opportunities.”

Today, the business boasts a client list that includes some of the largest telecommunications companies in Missouri and 2011 revenues of $20 million. Company officials declined to disclose client names, citing confidentiality agreements.

CommSol services include inbound and outbound calling, customer service, lead generation, win-back programs, up-selling, Web-site help services and appointment setting.

With headquarters at 310 S. Ingram Mill Road, Morris says the company expanded with a second office 10 years ago in Joplin.

Morris says plans to tackle the 30,000-square-foot west Springfield project were put off as long as possible through the recession, but a desire to grow and design a space that could handle the technology requirements of its customers won out.

“We’ve been dragging our feet for three years,” Morris says, adding the cost of providing health care coverage and the demands of the federal health care reforms are prohibitive to growth. “Hopefully, the election will bring some certainty to the issue.”

Morris says the company could hire another 500 employees if health care reform was repealed.

While construction presses on, CommSol is leasing a temporary office at 2406 S. Campbell Ave., Ste. 116, to handle, among other things, the rush of political business it expects this year.

Morris says political calling has helped shape his 2012 revenue projection to climb by 18 percent. With the calling center slated to open in the first quarter of next year, Morris expects 2013 revenue to increase 15 percent.

The West Sunshine office also is intended to allow the company to design its computer network from scratch and be able to meet certain security standards when accepting credit card payments.

“We do some banking work, and we do some government work and they all require (Payment Card Industry) compliance,” Morris says, adding the company has 10 clients it routinely serves and about five others it works for as needed.

CommSol is a member of the Direct Marketing Association and the Professional Association for Customer Engagement, where it finds support for legislative advocacy and opportunities to learn from industry colleagues.

PACE represents more than 4,000 call centers, which combined employ 1.8 million professionals worldwide. Its members’ call centers, or contact centers, offer services that often support customer service for some of the nation’s largest companies – such as AT&T, General Electric, American Express and Disney – and will generate sales of $23 billion in the U.S. this year, according to Chris Haerich, vice president of member relations for PACE.

Haerich says member services are so diverse that the organization had to change its name. At its national convention in May, administrators voted to change the association’s name from the American Teleservices Association to be more inclusive.

“We’re not just call centers anymore. We’re doing chat or e-mail marketing, social medial, outbound and inbound,” Haerich says. “From major credit cards to major energy companies, it really runs the gamut.”

She says key industry challenges include stereotypes about telemarketing, outsourcing to businesses in foreign countries and federal and state regulations, such as Missouri’s No Call List, which now has 1.8 million phone lines registered.

“One of the most common misconceptions in our industry is that these are boiler-room operations,” Haerich says. “This industry has some very well-educated people doing great work.”

Williams, who says he has held virtually every position in the company and worked in telephone sales since he was 15, is today focused on growing CommSol’s client base and expanding services to existing customers.

“We’re a good alternative for customers who aren’t wanting to do something in-house or are looking to cut costs and be more efficient. For those companies, we are the answer,” Williams says.[[In-content Ad]]