News

Firm closes Idaho call centers

An Idaho Falls business that three years ago was one of the nation´s fastest growing private companies is shutting down its final call center.

Tele-Servicing Innovations Inc. announced that it is closing its Smelterville call center in North Idaho on Thursday because of the sluggish economy and the impact of the federal do-not-call list.

“We´ve been struggling the last couple of years to overcome the economic downturn,” Chairman Jeff Neiswanger. “We haven´t been making money, and we made the decision to close while we still could make payroll.”

The shutdown idles 80 workers in the Panhandle. Another 70 workers are being furloughed with the closure of the Idaho Falls center.

At its peak, Tele-Servicing Innovations ran call centers in Jerome, Burley and Salmon as well as Smelterville and Idaho Falls with a total payroll of 350.

“It´s a tough industry right now,” Neiswanger said. “There´s 10 million square feet of call center space available in the U.S. at the moment.”

Since the economy went soft, thousands of call center jobs shifted from the United States to India, Korea, Latin America and the Caribbean, where wages are lower.

But for Neiswanger´s company, the last straw was passage of the federal do-not-call act that restricts telemarketers beginning this fall.

While companies can continue calling existing customers, Neiswanger said his clients decided to reduce their telemarketing budgets and put more money into direct marketing and e-commerce.

“I don´t disagree with the law,” Neiswanger said. “We had some people out there who have done some bad things, scammed on the phone and called too often. … Unfortunately, TSI is not a large company, and we don´t have the time or the resources to weather this.”

http://www.idahostatesman.com/Business/story.asp?ID=45528

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.