81.7% growth
City: Cedar Rapids
Founded: 1996
www.infinitycontact.com
1st time on the list
Since 2005, Infinity Contact has seen revenues quadruple.
This is the company’s first year on the Fastest Growing Companies list, with 81 percent growth.
In 2006, the sales and contact center moved into a 24,000-square-foot building in Cedar Rapids, which was expanded in 2012.
The company is led by Thomas Leidigh, CEO and founder, and Steve Griggs, president, who have managed to grow the business and reshape its model through industry changes. When the ‘do not call list’ legislation was established in 2003, the entire call center industry changed. People can register their phone numbers for free and are put on a list that sales businesses can’t contact.
Instead of doing what many others in the industry did, Infinity Contact developed a unique business model.
Many contact centers transitioned into inbound services, where they aren’t calling people, but are answering customer service calls on behalf of companies. Infinity Contact developed a model where instead of outbound sales calls to residents, they are using multiple means of contacting small- and medium-sized businesses and making sales for large clients.
“In the last year, we’ve enhanced our business model as part of that we’ve focused more on the Fortune 100-type clients that want to sell and market into the small- and medium-sized businesses,” Mr. Leidigh said. “Fortune 100 companies have the budget and scalability to handle large influx of sales. When you land a new account, its considerably larger.”
Infinity Contact serves industries such as automotive, software, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, utilities and retail.
“We’re pretty close to capacity here in Cedar Rapids, we definitely are going to focus on new markets for 2014,” Mr. Leidigh said.
The company was founded in 1996. Its main function then was providing direct mail to auto dealers. In 1998, the company incorporated inbound and outbound phone technology.
In 2005, Mr. Leidigh brought on Mr. Griggs as a partner in the company.
Infinity Contact employs more about 450 people. The company has been able to maintain a low-employee turnover rate by listening to workers at frequent roundtable discussions, offering recognition and awards and holding events for employees.
-Pat Shaver
