Newest of Several Call Centers Opens By Brian Pearson, Business Editor   |   Mar 20, 2009

Official: Marshall & Swift/Boeckh Could Employee Up To 1,000

Tiffany Whitlock was a homemaker who wanted to make a few extra bucks for the h household when she went through a temporary agency for work two years ago.

She landed at the Marshall & Swift/Boeckh call center in Tyler – and has been there ever since.

“And I plan to stay”, Whitlock said with a grin.

Whitlock, 34, is among 75 employees at the center at 2301 S. Broadway Ave., which held an event Thursday to celebrate the opening of its new offices and the addition of another 25 jobs by June’s end.

After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Peter Wells, company president, said the call center could become a $100 million operation with 1,000 employees in the coming years.

The center is expected to have as many as 300 employees within three years, Wells said.

The jobs will add to the approximately 1,000 call-center jobs in Tyler, a market that is ripe for that kind of industry, said Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Council.

A community is a prime target for call centers when fewer than 2 percent of its work force is employed in that industry, Mullins said. The 1,000 employed in call centers in Tyler represents about 1 percent of the work force, he said.

A community reaches call-center saturation when 4 percent of its work force is employed in that industry, Mullins added.

He said Tyler’s half dozen or so call centers aren’t the type that bug people at home around dinner time. “They’re good jobs,” he said.

Call centers here mostly are set up for customer support, dealing primarily in incoming calls, Mullins said.

Suddenlink’s call center here is an example of this, as is National Electronic Warranties and Marshall & Swift/Boeckh.

Tyler also is home to a Texas Attorney General’s Office regional child-support call center, which employs 35. The center was opened in 2003, according to the AG’s website.

Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, the nation’s leading provider of building intelligence to the property-insurance industry, has had a Tyler call center since 2003, said a company written release. It formerly was in a 10,000 sf office near the Albertson’s grocery store on Tyler’s east side. The new center has 23,000 sf.

“We are growing globally,” Wells said of his 80-year-old company. He said Tyler was an ideal place to consolidate the California-based company’s call-center operations.

“We like the environment down here,” Wells said. “We like the people. We like the work force.”

He said he expects the number of employees here to grow to a many as 300 in the next three years and possibly to 1,000 in the near future.

“Our market is growing in the face of the economic (downturn), he said, adding his company grew 20 percent in 2008 alone.

Wells said annual salaries for his Tyler employees range from up to $30,000 for those conducting phone surveys to more than $100,000 for management.

Marshall & Swift/Boeckh employee Whitlock said she knew she was at home there not long after she arrived as a temporary employee.

She since has moved u p to customer service team leader. “I knew it was a growing company, with a lot of opportunities opening up,” Whitlock said. “I think the coolest thing about working at the call center is the widespread customers. It’s a close-knit relationship, and I like that.”