PACE Association Announces Hiring of CEO
New vice president of sales brings catalyst for growth
Phoenix, AZ – March 20, 2006. Synergy Solutions, Inc. a premier provider of outsourced customer contact solutions, recently hired 18-year veteran teleservice professional, Jay Hammans, as Vice President of Sales.
“I am thrilled to add someone of Jay’s expertise and experience to the Synergy Solutions team,” commented Synergy Solutions president, Lori Fentem, “I’ve known Jay in the industry for many years and he comes to us with vast experience in all areas of client services, account management, and sales and his commitment to excellence blends perfectly with the Synergy Solutions culture.”
Prior to joining Synergy Solutions, Hammans began his teleservices career with Idelman Telemarketing, where he spent 8 years opening and operating call centers and serving as Call Center Manager. Jay also worked with Sitel Corporation and assisted their early efforts towards international services to U.S. companies. In 1996 he joined ProMark One as director and soon became their Vice President of Client Services. When ProMark One was acquired, Hammans moved to the consulting side of the teleservices industry working with TPG Telemanagement and Concentra Solutions, assisting a number of companies to identify, initiate and manage outsourced service opportunities for customer care, sales and support.
In his new position, Hammans will be called upon to increase awareness of Synergy’s inbound calling services and continue to position Synergy as the customer contact company of choice across the country. “Synergy has a great culture, fantastic leaders, and they’re really making a difference in the industry by providing responsible, customer-focused solutions,” commented Hammans, “Synergy is the kind of company that I would be completely comfortable having represent my brand to my customers for so many reasons, and I’m excited to get the opportunity to share those with our future clients,” he added.
Hammans will be based in Omaha, Nebraska, where he lives with his wife and four children. Hammans is involved in the community through a number of service oriented civic groups and religious organizations.
Synergy Solutions expands into International Falls, Minnesota
Phoenix, AZ – March 21, 2006. Synergy Solutions, Inc., a premier provider of outsourced customer contact solutions, recently announced the opening of its newest customer contact center in International Falls, Minnesota. This is Synergy Solutions’ sixth center opened since beginning operations in January 2000, and brings total employees to over 1000.
The International Falls center is a 45-seat state-of-the-art customer contact center at International Mall, previously owned by CH Consulting. At maximum capacity, up to 80 employees will be needed for the operation with approximately 40 working a day shift and 40 on the night shift. Currently the center has 30 on the day shift and 20 working at night. Synergy’s purchase of the call center retains all the jobs and offers expansion in the future. These are jobs that are important to a small community like International Falls.
The International Falls center is a perfect addition for us,” said Lori Fentem, president of Synergy Solutions. “We had worked with the team at CH Consulting before and had always been impressed with their outstanding performance and quality. The people of International Falls have demonstrated a commitment to ethical Teleservices and we are thrilled to be able to save jobs in this community. It was also a relatively turnkey operation where we could connect via VoIP to our centralized technology and be up and running quickly. The speed with which we could launch operations in International Falls was critical as we had several clients who wanted us to increase our capacity to provide additional services.”
Synergy Solutions’ purchase of CH Consulting’s call center is good news for International Falls and former CH employees. It is especially good news when a quality company like Synergy Solutions comes into a community and creates additional jobs.
Call Centers Care
Phoenix, Ariz. – On April 22, 2006, – the Arizona Chapter of the American Teleservices Association held its first philanthropic event by organizing the CALL CENTERS CARE team and participating in the 4th Annual Walk to End Domestic Violence. The event featured a 5K Run and Walk to create awareness and raise funds for the Arizona Woman’s Foundation that distributes collections to several area shelters for domestic violence victims.
“Perhaps the most humbling aspect of the event…” says Lori Fentem, President of Synergy Solutions, “is the financial support we received from TSRs in our call centers throughout rural America. Even though this was an Arizona event, they recognized the importance of this cause and donated generously to support our efforts”.
The Arizona Chapter of the ATA reached out to the Arizona call center community to recruit members for the CALL CENTERS CARE team. Additionally, the local call center community as well as call center representatives from sites in other states made generous donations in support of the team walkers and runners. 20 members of the CALL CENTER CARE team completed the 3.2 mile run/walk in downtown Phoenix.
Overall, the event was a success with over $315,000 being raised for this cause. The CALL CENTERS CARE team was the 5th highest contributing team with $3,765 raised. Additionally, Lori Fentem of Synergy Solutions was ranked as the highest fundraiser among team runners and Corey Conklin, also of Synergy Solutions was ranked as the highest fundraiser among team walkers. The team was formed by the ATA Chapter to create a means for everyone in the call center community to get involved. Chaired by Lori Fentem of Synergy Solutions and Patricia Butler of Teledirect International, participants encompassed all areas of the industry including outsourcers to technology companies and a wide array of job functions including TSR, IT, Account Managers, Finance, Center Managers, Marketing and Senior Management. The team proudly wore lime green CALL CENTERS CARE t-shirts that truly stood out in the crowd and demonstrated that Arizona Call Centers care about their community.
Lori Fentem named to Board of Directors with the American Teleservices Association
Phoenix, Ariz. – May 24, 2006. Lori Fentem, president of Phoenix, Arizona-based Synergy Solutions, Inc., has been named to the Board of Directors of the American Teleservices Association. In her role, Fentem will focus on chapter development across the entire association including numerous U.S. regional chapters, as well as the ATA’s chapter expansion into India, Canada, and the Caribbean/Latin America. Fentem has been a member of the ATA since 1991, and her company, Synergy Solutions, was one of the original Platinum members. Fentem was recognized in 2004 as the recipient of the Fulcrum Award, the highest honor presented by the ATA in recognition of volunteerism. Prior to joining the National Board, Fentem founded the ATA Arizona Chapter and served for three years as the Arizona Chapter President, as well as, the co-chair of the National Chapter Presidents Committee. Fentem remains on the Arizona Chapter Board in the role of Sponsorship Chair and has been active in chairing the chapter’s philanthropic activities.
The American Teleservices Association (ATA) represents the call centers, trainers, consultants, and equipment suppliers that initiate, facilitate, and generate telephone, Internet, and email sales, service, and support. Call centers offer traditional and interactive services that support the e- commerce revolution, provide specialized customer service for Fortune 500 companies, and generate annual sales of more than $500 billion. The ATA represents members’ interests by advocating on Capitol Hill and in statehouses nationwide, providing advanced professional education opportunities, defending the teleservices industry in the public realm, and acting as the industry’s information clearinghouse.
The ATA Board is comprised of 14 volunteer members of the organization. The Board is chaired by Lisa DeFalco, Chairman of TPG Telemanagement and other elected members of the Board represent a variety of companies such as GE Consumer Finance, Verizon, AEGON Direct Marketing Services, SureFIND Telephone Data Products and Services, Call Compliance, Mutual of Omaha, Disney Direct Marketing, Inc., KPI Group, 1 2 1 Direct Response, and First National Bank of Omaha. “I am honored to have the opportunity to serve with a prestigious group of industry leaders,” commented Fentem, “The ATA Board is committed to developing and driving the strategy for the association which includes its unwavering commitment to industry advocacy at the state and federal level, as well as education on best practices in quality and ethical teleservices,” she added.
Exceptional quality earns company MVP Silver Quality Award
Phoenix, Ariz. – June 19. In its 13th year of recognizing companies with the MVP Quality Awards, Customer Interaction Solutions selected Phoenix-based Synergy Solutions, Inc. as the recipient of its MVP Silver Award.
All applicants for this award must present a 16-point essay describing an actual and verifiable case study of a specific teleservices program and its results, detailing policies on quality, core values 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.
This is the second year in a row Synergy has been recognized for its exceptional quality. “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 our commitment to quality, and an in-depth case study of how we implemented a creative quality solution for one of our clients.” Synergy’s case study focused on a strategic and innovative solution the company developed for a large national financial services company that was offering services to an extremely high profile customer segment.
“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.
Synergy Solutions was also recently ranked as part of the “Top 50” Teleservices Agencies by CIS. “Customer Interaction Solutions is committed to being the industry’s leading source of in-depth information on teleservices/call center products, solutions and innovations. Our editors determine the ‘Top 50’ rankings based on objective, verifiable criteria to make our readers’ purchasing decisions as easy as possible,” notes Nadji Tehrani, Founder and Executive Group Publisher of Customer Interaction Solutions.
Synergy Solutions Management Reorganization to Drive Superior Results
Phoenix, Ariz. – December 28 2006. Synergy Solutions Inc., a premier provider of outsourced customer contact solutions, announces that Robert H. Covert will assume responsibility as Vice President of Operations.
Covert, who formerly held the position of Vice President of Client Services, is moving to the role in recognition of his superior skills in the area of performance analytics and operational execution. This new position will be responsible for working closely with the Synergy Operations management team throughout its call center network as well as the Account Management team in order to deliver exceptional service and results for Synergy clients. Additionally, he will be focused on enhancements and innovations within Synergy’s proprietary platform SPOT (Synovative Power of Technology) in order to maximize performance.
The new role for Mr. Covert is part of the company’s overall commitment to Synovation which is defined as the Power of Team combined with Innovation. “I am thrilled that we operate in an environment where we recognize the outstanding contributions and unique capabilities of our team and are able to evolve our roles to maximize each member’s passion and strengths” commented Synergy Solutions president, Lori Fentem. “Bob is an outstanding fit for this role and his focus on Operations and performance management is going to allow Synergy to excel to even greater levels than previously experienced”.
Robert Covert has over 16 years of teleservices industry experience providing both inbound and outbound call center solutions for many of the nation’s leading corporations. Mr. Covert joined Synergy Solutions in 2003 and has served as a member of the Synergy Solutions Senior Management team for 2 years.
As part of the reorganization, Synergy Solutions Account Managers will now report directly to Corey Conklin, Chief Operating Officer.
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