MAKING THE CALL ST. LOUIS-BASED CALL CENTERS FIND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY. By C.B. Adams THE CUSTOMER CARE CENTER FOR GROWING FAMILY, the world's largest and most prolific baby photo company. Remember Ernestine, the dour phone operator played by Lily Tomlin on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In? With her “one ringy ding, two ringy dingy” and signature question, “Is this the party to whom I’m speaking?” Ernestine was certainly phone etiquette-challenged, especially compared to today’s call center representatives. St. Louis is home to a variety of centralized call centers that are staffed by a cadre of representatives, most of whom receive extensive training not only in effective phone manners but also in technical, industry-specific topics—all in an effort to respond to each call, answer questions, make a sale, resolve issues and basically leave each caller satisfied with the exchange. Some of the largest and best known companies in St. Louis and America have call center facilities here in St. Louis. Anheuser-Busch, CitiMortgage, Commerce Bank, Edward Jones, Mastercard and SBC, among many others, collectively employ thousands of St. Louisans in back office or call center operations. The region has been able to leverage this strength to score some significant economic development successes. For instance, Magellan Behavioral Health, a recent RCGA economic development success, announced plans in November 2001 to expand its National Technology Administrative and Customer Care Center in Maryland Heights. This facility will be more than just a call center when it is complete, providing both customer service and benefit management services to Magellan’s customers. Magellan’s new facility will eventually employ 1,900 people and have a total annual direct and indirect impact of $190 million. While call centers share the same basic characteristics, most are designed to meet the needs of the individual company and its market. For instance, Growing Family (formerly Hasco/First Foto), the world’s largest and most prolific baby photo company, handles more than two million calls annually at its call center in St. Charles and through a vendor assisting with the outbound calls, according to Kathi Weber, director of the customer care center. Those taking and making the calls are titled customer care representatives. This is an important distinction because of Growing Family’s focus on being a sensitive, family-oriented and value-driven company. “We call them customer care representatives because they do more than provide service, they provide care to the moms, most of whom are calling when they are sleep-deprived, and we are very sensitive to that,” Weber says. “We cross all demographics, but the one thing all moms have in common is they have a newborn baby. Service is really, really an important measure for us.” “We call them customer care representatives because they do more than provide service, they provide care to the moms, most of whom are calling when they are sleep-deprived, and we are very sensitive to that.” Kathi Weber director of customer care center Growing Family Growing Family’s staff of approximately 100 customer care representatives receives hundreds of hours of training to meet the needs of both its customers and its photographers and mom service representatives at hospitals throughout North America. Representatives are trained in the basics of the business, including how to introduce callers to the company’s exclusive network of partners, as well as in specialized areas, such as dealing with the mother of a child who died shortly after birth. “It is unfortunate, but we have to be prepared to deal with bereavement situations. We take care to train our representatives to deal with very sensitive situations, as well as the more basic customer service issues, such as helping a mom place an order,” Weber says. “This is an industry in which you have to be creative at times because it is not really one product. People have different viewing habits. If a customer needs 20 minutes, then our representative is trained to take the time that is needed.” Clare Huspeni division vice president of customer care, Charter Communications Charter Communications has a call center system that is staffed by approximately 225 representatives trained to respond to strikingly different types of phone calls. Staff members are located at two different locations in the St. Louis area. One group is dedicated to handling calls from cable customers. Another assists customers with the set-up and operation of the company’s high-speed data service. Combined, they receive 45,000 to 65,000 calls per month. “We put a premium on the quality of the interaction with the caller. This is an industry in which you have to be creative at times because it is not really one product. People have different viewing habits. If a customer needs 20 minutes, then our representative is trained to take the time that is needed. Some calls focus on short handle times, but we are more concerned with a quality interaction, which often takes more time,” says Clare Huspeni, division vice president of customer care for Charter Communications. Charter’s call center is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Approximately 35 percent of calls come in during non-business hours. One of the challenges is staffing the center in order to “kick into high gear on a very, very short turnaround,” according to Huspeni. “It is always a challenge to balance the load. In this industry, calls are not as predictable as in other industries. If a utility outage takes out a hub in a certain area of town, or somebody hits an amplifier box or a contractor accidentally cuts a fiber optic cable, we will receive a dramatic spike in calls, and we have to be prepared to handle them,” she says. Call spikes are also an issue for Steve Bartus, senior vice president for CitiMortgage, Inc., the St. Louis-based residential lending division of Citigroup. “If mortgage rates go down, the information is in the media, it’s on CNN and on the Internet. The calls start flooding in, then our manpower requirements suddenly go through the roof,” Bartus says. CitiMortgage employs 2,300 individuals locally, approximately 100 of whom work for the residential lending division. The firm also has two other call centers, one dedicated to customer service and the other to collections. Mortgage call representatives participate in a five-week training program that prepares them to meet the needs of callers who want information about obtaining a loan—not always a quick exchange. “They can get on and off the phone in 20 minutes. They can get a rate locked in, complete the entire phone application interview, have their credit reviewed, be qualified in terms of their income and pay the application fee. They can have an approval letter faxed to them. Our goal is that when callers hang up, they know exactly where they stand. It’s a pretty powerful experience,” Bartus says. C.B. Adams is a St. Louis-based writer and adjunct faculty member at University of Missouri–St. Louis and St. Charles Community College. CALL CENTER/BACK OFFICE OPERATIONS IN THE ST. LOUIS METROPOLITAN CENTER Company Employees A.G. Edwards & Sons 2,000 AAA 100-200 Ameren 700 Anheuser-Busch, Inc. 140 Available Communications 5 Bausch & Lomb 37 Blue Cross & Blue Shield 400 Business Response Inc. 600 Charter Communications 225 Cintax 20 CNA Insurance 100 CitiMortgage 2,300 Commerce Bank 100-200 Convergys Corp. 1,100 Convergys Corp. 1,350 Convergys Corp. 300 Drury Inns 35 Edward Jones 200 Enterprise Rent-A-Car 540 Energizer Battery Co. 75 Express Scripts 500 First Bank Inc. 37 First Star 100 GC Services 500-700 GenAmerican 250 Global Payments Inc. 175-200 Growing Family 100 IRS, Branch 3 686 Knights Limited 1,000 Laclede Group 200-300 Lucent Technologies N/A Manpower 4 Maritz 75 MasterCard International 1,500 May Dept. Stores 500 National General Insurance Comp. 200 ORC ProTel Marketing 230 SBC Telemarketing Center    Full Time 1,000    Part Time 900 Smith Kline Beecham 50-75 SBC Yellow Pages 500 Unigraphics Solutions Inc. 25 Unigroup, Inc. 21 Union Pacific 600 Watlow Electric 21 Western Union 200 World Omni Financial 400

February 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cover Story, JOE HASTEN, vice chairman of corporate banking, U.S. Bancorp Making the Call - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.stlrcga.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.technologygateway.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Great Scott! ANDY PUZDER president & CEO, CKE Restaurants, Inc./ Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc.