PACE Association Announces Hiring of CEO
Company’s tradition of community support aids tsunami victims
Phoenix, Ariz. (January 24, 2005). Giving back to the community is nothing new for Synergy Solutions, an inbound and outbound teleservices firm located in Phoenix. They volunteer many hours, donate and support local and global charities year-round, including holiday donations to Notmykid.org in lieu of holiday gifts for clients. But as members of the Synovation volunteerism team watched in horror the images of the tsunami destruction in Southeast Asia, they knew something extra had to be done. Only a few days after the disaster, the team had launched an aggressive fund raising campaign within the company, and they called on everyone from the top down. “When the team came up with this plan, I was thrilled,” commented Lori Fentem, president of Synergy Solutions. “We agreed that the company would match dollar for dollar all donations made by our employees nationwide.”
In just a few short weeks, from December 30 to January 14, the employees and company had raised over $5500, which was donated to MercyCorps and Doctors Without Borders, both charities with a strong presence where the tsunami hit hardest. “I’m very proud of what we were able to do in such a short amount of time,” added Fentem, “It’s amazing what a small group can do if we all pull together, and that’s what Synovation is all about.”
The Synovation team at Synergy Solutions consists of eleven volunteer representatives from every area of the company – operations, account management, IT, accounting and sales – who come together to create Synovation which is defined as combining Synergy (The Power of Team) and Innovation. The team’s mission is to foster the Synovation Culture by developing community service projects, volunteer opportunities, as well as building team spirit and camaraderie within the company. Another of the great ideas that has come out of the Synovation team is the “Synovation Weekly,” a brief newsletter that is sent to every employee every Monday morning. The newsletter focuses on the good news happening within the company and their community service. Recent issues included kudos for jobs well done, quotes from delighted clients, funds raised to support an employee’s ill daughter, a chili for charity event, and news of the company’s 5th birthday celebration. “This is the very first thing I look at on Monday mornings, and it starts my whole week off right,” commented Corey Conklin, Chief Operating Officer. “It’s one more way of staying focused on the positive and keeping our entire staff connected to one another as a team,” he added.
Synergy Solutions expands New York center
Phoenix, AZ – March 1, 2005. Synergy Solutions, Inc., a premier provider of outsourced customer contact solutions, recently relocated, expanded and renovated a new call center facility in Johnson City, New York, just outside Binghamton, communicating their on-going commitment to the community and people of the area. Synergy has operated in the area since acquiring the Harris Interactive Center in Vestal in 2000. As Synergy’s client base showed continued growth, the firm decided to upgrade to a larger facility and relocate to nearby Johnson City.
The Johnson City Center is approximately 8500 square feet, virtually double the size of the original center. 20 new seats were also added, taking the total to 72 seats. In addition, the new site includes a larger training facility, more efficient call floor layout, new furniture, computers and an expanded break room to better support employees. “The new site allows us to work more closely with our agents, build the team camaraderie and educate and train our agents more effectively,” commented Center Manager, Ron Gruss, “It’s also a more professional atmosphere, which makes it a better place for all of us to work.” The new center specializes in inbound and outbound teleservices and customer care programs on behalf of Synergy Solutions’ Fortune 1000 clients.
The center currently employs approximately 120 professionals, most of whom are full time customer contact representatives. Synergy Solutions plans to expand the site’s workforce to as many as 140 within the next 12 to 18 months.
Synergy Solutions’ president, Lori Fentem, said the company chose to remain in the area for many reasons. “The people of the area have demonstrated superior performance and a commitment to ethical Teleservices over the past four years. We are thrilled to be able to grow our operations in the area and increase our employee base and provide more jobs in this community,” Fentem remarked.
When synergy and innovation came together ‘SPOT’ was born
Phoenix, Ariz. – May 1, 2005.Synergy Solutions, a Phoenix-based inbound and outbound teleservices firm, recently launched the enhanced version of their web-based proprietary contact management system, under the new name SPOT – Synovative Power of Technology. Synergy’s mission is based on their culture of Synovation which is defined as combining Synergy (The Power of Team) and Innovation. The SPOT name truly reflects this commitment to Synovation. “With the new upgrades, additional features and enhancements made to the system, we wanted to develop a new name that better reflected the power of this technology and our excitement for the future,” commented Synergy Solutions president, Lori Fentem.
The SPOT proprietary technology was initially developed by a group of highly talented founding members of the Synergy Solutions team. They developed the web based application that is written in JAVA and runs on Oracle and today gives Synergy Solutions a unique competitive advantage. Because the system and technology was developed in-house, additional features and enhancements can be continuously developed and added.
SPOT was launched amidst much excitement company wide. Throughout the launch week, employees in all five locations were treated to black and white balloons, Dalmatian pencils, stuffed animals, beach balls, black & white M&M’s, cakes and each center manager across the country was dressed in Dalmatian ears, whiskers and tail. “The capabilities afforded to us through SPOT has been one of the cornerstones of our success, so we wanted to celebrate the new version in a fun, exciting and creative way,” added Fentem.
The objectives that SPOT was built on include: empowering the front end account managers, speed to market and increased flexibility. SPOT enables an account manager to set up a client program, run ad hoc queries on the database, provide customized client reports, and load and manipulate data for maximum performance enterprise wide. Tasks that were historically reliant on Information Technology experts are now automated for maximum efficiency and profitability. Call center operations also benefit by having access to a myriad of database driven tools and reports to provide real-time analysis of call activity and performance, which are key pieces of information for clients, and because the system is web-based, can be accessed from anywhere. This proprietary system also houses a fully robust incident tracking and change management system, a workforce management module, a human resources information module and interfaces with Synergy’s proprietary online Quality Management system.
Exceptional Quality Wins Company MVP Gold Award
Phoenix, Ariz. – May 23, 2005. In its 12th year of recognizing companies with the MVP Quality Awards, Customer Interaction Solutions recently selected Phoenix-based Synergy Solutions, Inc. as the recipient of its MVP Gold Award.
“The award application process was arduous,” remarked Synergy president, Lori Fentem, “but it challenged us to think through how and why we do what we do for our customers – things like how we measure customer satisfaction, what makes it easy to do business with our firm, what we do to demonstrate commitment to staff quality, and an in-depth case study of how we implemented a creative solutionfor one of our clients.” Synergy’s case study focused on a powerful and innovative solution the company developed for ScriptSave, a leading provider of a nationwide prescription discount card that is co-marketed through several national insurance providers. Synergy’s solution immediately enabled Scriptsave to offloadan excess of 3000 complex calls from seniors per day.
All entrants were judged on a 16-point essay which described a specific teleservices program and its results, and explained their overall policies and procedures, including human resources, technologies, customer services, ergonomics and public image that are used to establish, sustain and measure the program’s quality. Judging involved assigning a numerical point value from 1 to 10 for each of the 16 evaluation points. Award recipients were recognized at the Gold, Silver and Bronze levels based on this detailed evaluation system.
“Through the entrants’ essays, we learned that there are countless individuals within these organizations whose combined efforts and teamwork have contributed to elevating their companies’ marketing via phone practices to the forefront of the industry,” stated the award presentation article. Synergy Solutions, Inc. is certainly worthy of such high praise.
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