Customer service positions outnumber applicants

By Dave DeWitte

CORRIDOR – The humble customer service representative is one of the occupations that drives the Corridor economy, but it’s not so humble anymore.

A limited supply of customer service representatives is one of the pressure points in the workforce driving a $750,000 million workforce recruitment campaign launched in January by the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.

The customer service representative is one of the largest occupational categories in the Corridor, according to a recent report from Iowa Workforce Development and the Institute for Decision Making. There were 2,077 customer service representatives in the Corridor in 2012, according to the report, Clusters Employment and Staffing Patterns, by Iowa Workforce Development and the Institute for Decision Making.

Those are just a fraction of the customer service-related positions that are becoming harder to fill, according to Kim Johnson Becicka, vice president of continuing education and training services at Kirkwood Community College. She said telemarketers, insurance sales agents, general office clerks and insurance claims and processing clerks are all part of the larger customer service skills picture.

Although the number of telemarketers in the workforce is expected to decline 23.3 percent between 2012 and 2016, the needs in the other occupations are all expected to rise. The increases are projected to range from a 1.5 percent increase in demand for customer service representatives, to a 13.1 percent rise in insurance claims and policy processing clerks.

The supply/demand situation for customer service representatives show that pressure points aren’t just creeping into the technical and highly skilled areas of the workforce, according to Ms. Becicka.

“We have pressure points not only at the highly technical two-year associate’s degree and bachelors degree positions, but in positions that require more than a high school diploma but less than a two-year degree,” Ms. Becicka said.

Thomas L. Cardella & Associates operates customer contact centers that handle outbound and inbound calling for Fortune 500 and other companies. It employs about 160 in Coralville and 400 in Cedar Rapids, but has capacity to double its Cedar Rapids operation to 800.

Customer service representatives make up 230 of the 450 associates staffing GEICO’s customer contact center in Coralville. The property and casualty insurance company plans to hire 75 more this year, according to Melissa Lynne, human resources representative.

“That is similar to what we did last year,” she said, “though it can be challenge, we believe we will reach our hiring goal this year.”

Ms. Lynne said new associates will need a property/casualty insurance license, but the company provides all the licensing training after they are hired. She said computer skills, communication skills, decision-making skills and attention to detail are hiring priorities.

Safelite last year staffed a new customer contact center in Hiawatha, handling auto glass replacement claims for the insured customers of its clients. The quality of the workforce was part of the appeal.

“The quality is very good,” said Malinda Lindimore, Safelite Auto Glass’ director of national recruiting.

The quality was better than the quantity. During a period last spring when the company was seeking to hire about 30 per month, “the amount of hires we were looking for exceeded the talent pool that was available,” Ms. Lindimore said.

Mr. Cardella said his company came into the new year needing to hire 200 people between both contact centers. It could not meet its goal of filling all the positions by the end of January, and “we were leaving money on the table” because it couldn’t handle all of the potential business a contract provided.

The company has since caught up with its hiring needs.

“Every community has its challenges, but in the Cedar Rapids community, we still do a decent job of getting applicants as we’ve expanded,” Mr. Cardella said.

The larger staffing challenges have been at the Coralville contact center, he said. He attributed the issues to the low unemployment rate in Johnson County, where “almost everyone has a hiring sign out.”

Thomas Cardella & Associates answered the challenge by shifting a customer service contract with more complex needs for CSRs to the Coralville contact center and moving the lower-paying work to a job market with higher unemployment.

The higher paying work – an average of $14.50 per hour, brought in more applicants. If the mix of work had not been changed, Mr. Cardella doubts the company would have been able to find the quality and quantity of workers it needed.

Strong verbal and computer skills are important to Thomas L. Cardella & Associates, but also “astute” individuals who can quickly assess and make decisions about how to handle a customer service situation, Mr. Cardella said.

Safelite Auto Glass looks for candidates who are “very customer-minded, very detail-oriented and very professional over the phone,” according to Ms. Lindimore. She said the qualifications also include the ability to relate complex concepts over the phone so that customers can understand it easier.

The company even seeks highly specific personality traits, such as friendliness, caring, and empathy Most callers are customers of insurance companies served by Safelite Auto Glass who aren’t having a good day because they have experienced a broken windshield or window that can limit their ability to use their vehicle, Ms. Lindimore said.

In May 2012, the average wage for customer service representatives statewide was $15.92 per hour, or $33,100 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median wage, at which 50 percent are paid more and 50 percent less, was $14.70 per hour, or $30,580 per year.

One reason employers may be having more difficulty filling these positions is that educational requirements appear to be rising, Ms. Becicka said.  In many roles, the customer service representative must be more technologically adept than they were three to five years ago because of increased use of technologies such as Internet chat and use of multiple databases to review customer information.

Beginning in 1998, Kirkwood had offered a certificate program in customer service representative skills that employers often substituted for experience in considering new hires. With limited demand, Kirkwood dropped the program for a year or two, Ms. Becicka said. Recently, with input from employers about rising difficulty finding skilled customer service representatives, it was updated and reinstated.

Pay is just one of the considerations employers use to attract customer service employees.

Mr. Cardella says one of the chief advantages of his company’s customer service jobs is the opportunity to advance. The vast majority of the company’s management team were promoted from entry-level positions, said Mr. Cardella.

Paid training and flexible schedules are a plus at Safelite Auto Glass, according to Ms. Lindimore.

“The schedules are set so you can have a life outside of work,” said Ms. Lindimore. The flexibility is attractive to college students and parents who must work around their children’s schedules, she added.

And there’s more good news about becoming a customer service representative, Ms. Becicka said. She said occupational data shows that customer service spots are not only a good place to get a foot in the door, but also “a good place in the career ladder to move up over time.”