Business View Magazine | February 2018

160 161 more than 1,600 colleagues, and we are growing quickly.” BVM: How did you build your client portfolio? Achak: “We have a strong team of salespeople whose one job is to con- stantly reach out to companies who we think are changing the world and trying to connect themwith FCR.We really do sell them on the concepts that FCR is building and howwe are changing the world in the outsourcing space.” BVM: Is there a typical FCR client? Achak: “There is no typical client or program size.We work with large com- panies and medium-sized companies across all industries - some Fortune 500 companies, but we also work with small, fast-moving disruptors and tech com- panies.We look at a couple of things: financial viability of the company, and the cultural fit. Do theymatch up with who we are as a company? Do they understand our vision and does it match theirs? If those things are aligned, then we think it’s a good fit.” BVM: Is that what makes FCR differ- ent from the competition? Achak: We really are trying to rethink how outsourcing is done from the ground up.The whole idea of building massive sites is,we believe, an older model from an older time.We think it’s a much better idea to build smaller and FIRST CALL RESOLUTION more nimble, pod-size contact centers in commu- nities that need the jobs.We believe people want to work in a company where they know everyone, where they recognize their colleagues,where their managers know their hopes and dreams, and where they understand where their career is going.We feel like people get lost anytime the site gets over 500 people. It just becomes a numbers game at that point.” BVM: So, your model is to offer individual people long-term employment opportunities in areas of the country where employment of this sort is a good fit? Achak: “Not only that, but where you can work in this job and actually own a house in your small town.We’re one of the few outsourcers that has been organically growing, creating jobs in the U.S., that’s privately held, focused on small towns, and that’s not built to growmassively large contact centers, but instead build manageable, smaller ones that are trying to create careers. I don’t thinkmany companies are doing this.We seem to be one of a kind.” BVM: But what is the value proposition to your clients? They don’t care about who you hire and what you pay them; they only care about what you can do for them. Achak: “I disagree.Here is why they do care. If it takes, let’s say, somebody in Manila or India ten minutes to handle a call, but it takes my people, five minutes, is that really the same value? Now,what if their quality is a three and ours is a ten? I’ll go fur- ther. If their work is being done by a company that