Call Center Management Featured Article
Global Response Call Center Moves to Social Media for Improved Customer Service Management
Herman Shooster’s advisors tried to talk him into not purchasing Ding-a-Ling, an answering service consisting of a dozen employees plugging into calls on a manual switchboard and handwriting messages, but he bought it anyway for $150,000.
Now, according to a recent Miami Herald article, 40 years and $30 million in annual revenue later, Shooster and his family run Global Response, a Margate call center with 1,500 employees and clients including National Geographic, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Crate & Barrel, J.M. Family, Think Geek, David’s Bridal, Charming Shops and Lord & Taylor.
Shooster would not have envisioned the evolution of telecommunications or the globalization that would mold his local phone service to into a multi-channel customer service center. His challenges ranged from making the leap to computers to battling low-cost competitors worldwide. These days, Global Response operates online in e-commerce and chats and in phone-based answering service, ordering and customer service. The next step for the Global Response is Social Media.
Global Response joins 22 percent of call centers throughout the country that plan to add social media channels to customer care this year, and 17 percent who are already using social media, according to a National Association of Call Centers survey. Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter and others are added communications channels, like chat or email, that present customer service opportunities, according to Steve Majeski, Global Response marketing director.
“Social media is reputation management,” said Shooster. “We need to know what the customers are talking about. We need to monitor it, to protect the brand.”
A decade ago, Global Response was investigating jumping into another worldwide trend: U.S. businesses outsourcing to call centers abroad. One of Herman’s sons and the chief technology officer at the time went to Ghana, India, Thailand and the Philippines to explore the options to open foreign centers.
“When outsourcing began to move overseas we thought we would have to be there – we even had identified a potential partner in India,” said Shooster. “We came to the conclusion that we didn’t need to be out of the country – we didn’t feel that pressure to be overseas. So if we didn’t need to be there, we didn’t want to be there. There was no demand from our customers, so we chose not to.”
Despite industry changes, some things have remained the same at Global Response: It has continued as a family-owned private company. Shooster’s four children are now in control as owners and co-CEOs. Wendy is also chief marketing officer; her brother Frank is chief legal officer; Stephen, chief technology officer; and Michael, chief financial officer.
It’s been longer for Shooster, who was born into an entrepreneurial family. His father owned the landmark Shooster’s restaurant in Chester, Pa. His brother Harry started Festival Flea Market Mall in Pompano Beach. Herman Shooster actually purchased Ding-a-Ling after he built and took public Cherry Hill Foods.
Global Response’s Margate headquarters has a family feel to it, starting in the lobby with a greeting on a video screen and 17-year employee, receptionist Renata Salandy. Global Response celebrates its customers there, even holding festivities including a wedding for David’s Bridal.
Global Response client Diana Golden previously worked for 15 years in call centers and said the difference in the atmosphere at Global Response is “night and day” compared to many. The center, with walls full of family and employee photos is segmented by client signs hanging from the ceiling and products on nearby shelves.
The trick for Global Response is beyond meeting the needs of its customers, said Max Leuchter. “We become our customers.”
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Edited by Braden Becker