Posted on 03/16/2017 2:25:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A call center company spun off from Quicken Loans' telephone-focused mortgage sales operation is planning to add 500 employees by year's end and looking for additional office space in downtown Detroit.
Rock Connections, a five-year-old call center and part of Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert's family of companies, has reached capacity with 800 employees in its building at 1900 Saint Antoine next to Ford Field, said Victor You, CEO of Rock Connections.
The fast growth adds teeth to Gilbert's observation that call centers could be a growth industry for Detroit and create a "point of entry" to jobs for residents. And the company is adding customers outside Gilbert's own vast array of corporate holdings.
"We've outgrown that building, and now we're looking for new office space downtown, or additional I should say," You said in an interview with Crain's.
The company has doubled its workforce since moving into the building next to Ford Field and I-375 last May.
Rock Connections is hiring 50 new employees each month, You said.
"Our goal is to get to 1,300 team members by the end of this year," You said.
Rock Connections provides call center services for Quicken Loans, Meridian Health Plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and companies affiliated with General Motors Co., You said.
In addition to inbound and outbound calling for sales and lead generation, the company provides customer support services and appointment-setting, as well as email and text message direct marketing. About 300 Detroiters work at Rock Connections, You said.
"A big chunk of the folks they've hired come from Detroit and the neighborhoods," Gilbert said March 1 during a company convention at Cobo Center. "You don't need a college degree, maybe not even high school (diploma) if you're good enough and you present well."
You's leadership and the growth at Rock Connections were featured at the convention, which Gilbert's team calls the "Family of Companies reunion." Gilbert also discussed Rock Connections during an on-stage interview of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
A Crain's reporter was given access to cover the company meeting.
The company is marketing itself as a call center that can generate revenue for clients instead of the "cents on the dollar ... savings" model of overseas call centers, You said.
"Why would we not create this right here in Detroit rather than Nebraska, India, the Dakotas or wherever it might be?" Gilbert told Duggan.
The mayor agreed.
"I think the call center has real opportunity," Duggan said. "Detroiters want to work. We've just got to create the opportunity."
Call centers are known for having high turnover in employees.
Rock Connections has a 26 percent attrition rate, according to You.
But that includes employees who leave for another job within Gilbert's family of companies, including Quicken Loans or the online mortgage giant's in-house title company, Title Source, You said.
Meridian has contracted with Rock Connections to do customer service for Medicaid patients, You said.
Meridian shares its headquarters with Quicken Loans inside the former Compuware building at One Campus Martius, which the health care company co-owns with Gilbert.
The company, which has telecommunications licenses in all 50 states, also sells automotive warranties for an Illinois company that You declined to identify.
Rock Connections moved downtown in October 2012 and was originally housed inside the Qube, the former Chase Tower. The company then moved into the One Detroit Center, which Gilbert bought for $100 million in 2015.
In May 2016, Rock Connections moved into the building at 1900 Saint Antoine, which sits across Gratiot Avenue from the stalled Wayne County jail site that Gilbert is trying to buy to build a $1 billion mixed-use development.
The call center company is now working with Gilbert's real estate management company, Bedrock LLC, to find additional square footage in downtown Detroit that "aligns with our campus," You said.
Oh, yuck... to the extent they make unrequested solicitation calls to people’s homes from these call centers, these are the worst possible jobs to add to our economy.
It’s against the law to make “unsolicited” calls to potential customers and has been for years. Call centers are going to exist. They’ll either be here employing our people or in India or the Philippines.
It may be against the law but we get so many here at our home “landline” number that we no longer answer that phone unless caller ID shows a name we know.
Same here and why I clicked on this story. We have two small businesses and orders/appointments do come via phone, so I always check to see if they left a message. Even robos leave messages, sometimes.
Googlebots spoof local area codes AND leave messages.
Can’t understand why cold calls are even a business model. So irritating, it’s negative branding.
We get those too. One guy yesterday (obviously from South Asia) kept calling me back after I told him to take me off his call list as I had been “rude” to him. When I get around to it I’ll sue him for the standard $1,400. I always win.
Better a Detroiter than someone from India.
A tacit admission that calling 'customer care' puts you through to third-party flunkies in a sweatshop who can no more fix your problem from where they are than you can sitting where you are. They read their scripts and parrot the lines. They have no knowledge, no power, no leverage, no ability to resolve.
In other words, those companies want your cash but don't want to earn it or retain it by expenditures on, y'know, employees.
Can you imagine having a confidential financial discussion with someone who is innumerate? A discussion of your most personal medical issues with someone who can't spell penicillin or hemoglobin?
“Rock Connections provides call center services for Quicken Loans, Meridian Health Plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and companies affiliated with General Motors Co.,”
While Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans has done incredible development for downtown Detroit, these ‘jobs’ are just replacements for the employees at the mentioned companies, who now don’t have to answer their own phones.
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