The Schwan Food Company Announces Sale of Contact Center Services to Customer Elation
Marshall, Minnesota — Dec. 1, 2009 The Schwan Food Company announced today an agreement with Customer Elation that will bring world class call center services to its customers and business units. It also brings to Marshall, Minn., another major employer that is positioned for growth in its industry.
Call center services includes the handling of customer-service interactions by telephone, e-mail, regular mail, Web chat, and interactive voice response applications all aimed at enhancing the customer experience and improving revenues through inbound- and outbound-sales calls and order fulfillment. These services have historically been provided to Schwan through its internal contact centers located in Marshall and Lake Wilson. Under the agreement, Customer Elation will purchase all of the assets related to the contact center business. Further demonstrating its commitment to the Marshall community, Customer Elation will also purchase the building located at 307 West College Drive in Marshall. Customer Elation, based in Bloomington, Minn., also operates contact centers in Hutchinson and Foley, Minn. Customer Elation has further agreed to retain the 200-plus employees currently working at both contact centers. Effective Dec. 1, these individuals will all begin work for Customer Elation. The two companies have also reached a long-term agreement under which Customer Elation and its employees will continue to provide contact center services for Schwan. As a leader in the call-center industry, Customer Elation brings enhanced skills, new creativity, and cutting-edge innovation and technology to Schwan’s contact center services. The agreement, however, allows Schwan to continue to rely upon the experience and skills of those individuals who already know its business, products and services as a result of their prior employment at the contact centers. “This partnership is a perfect and powerful fit,” said Greg Flack, CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Schwan Food Company. “It allows The Schwan Food Company to stay focused on building its frozen-food brands and pursuing its growth initiatives. It allows us to enhance our call-center needs through the expertise of Customer Elation. And most importantly, we enter this partnership with the knowledge and confidence that our customer-service needs remain in the skilled and reliable hands of the people who know us so well.” “We are excited about this opportunity to grow and to help The Schwan Food Company fulfill its customer-service needs,” said Pete Hainey, President of Customer Elation. “We look forward to working with the newest members of our team.”