Firm hiring for Modesto call center

An online data collection and marketing firm has leased a large northwest Modesto call center where it expects to expand its staff rapidly and pay workers $40,000 to $60,000 per year.

Reply! Inc. started with about 40 sales representatives in another Modesto office a year ago, but it recently shifted into the much larger facility at 5226 Pirrone Court.

"We anticipate growing to 200 (full-time) employees at this location over the next 12 months," Chief Executive Officer Payam Zamani said. "Modesto has call-center-ready professionals and a business-friendly environment."

Zamani said Modesto was a logical choice for expansion, considering its proximity to the company's San Ramon offices.

"While many technology companies have chosen to locate their call centers out of state, we found the efficiency of being near our corporate headquarters makes the Central Valley an excellent choice," Zamani said.

The company is ramping up hiring.

"We're looking to add 10 to 12 employees in the next 45 days," said Sean Fox, Reply's chief operating officer.

Fox said compensation primarily is linked to performance, with base pay plus commission. Reply also offers medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits, plus a 401(k) retirement plan and stock options.

"To be part of this company, you have to make sales," said Richard Berlanga, the senior manager for sales and service at the Modesto call center. He said employees should expect to earn $40,000 to $60,000 their first year. "I've had people make much more than that."

Berlanga said he's looking for self-motivated, goal-oriented staff members "who want to move up in our organization and who like the sales side of the business."

What the company sells is a little hard to describe.

Using the Internet, Reply accumulates and supplies businesses with locally targeted and category-specific sales prospects. It sells customer contact information to local businesses that provide services specific people have indicated they want to buy.

An Oakdale homeowner interested in a new roof, for example, may voluntarily fill out an online request form seeking information about roofing options. Reply collects that data, then it may sell that homeowner's contact information to up to four roofing contractors serving Stanislaus County.

Reply serves the home improvement, automobile, real estate, education and insurance markets. Its Modesto call center employees pitch its sales-lead generation services to companies selling products in those fields.

The Modesto center's top salesmen are seated in work stations elevated above the rest of Reply's staff, in what they call "The Cloud." They are surrounded by about 100 mostly empty cubicles, where new employees eventually will sit.

Those seats previously were filled by employees of Stella Relay, which operated a state-funded service to help deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired people communicate over the telephone. That contract expired and the building was vacant about nine months before Reply leased it about a month ago.

The 20,000-square-foot, fully-equipped call center was built in 2002 as part of the Innovative Technology Business Park. It is near Heald College and Brandman University.

Reply signed a 3½-year lease, with an option for an additional three years.

"The lease rate is perhaps half of what (the building) would have leased for four years ago, partly due to the fact that it is now bank-owned," said Ryan Swehla of Benchmark Commercial Real Estate in Modesto, who helped negotiate the lease.

Swehla said the previously foreclosed office building is owned by a Bank of America subsidiary.

He said commercial rental rates in Stanislaus County typically are 30 percent to 50 percent less than those in the Bay Area.

"Modesto offers Bay Area companies significant savings in real estate, employment, utilities and other costs of doing business," Swehla said. "For office-based businesses, the region's proximity to the Bay Area makes it ideal for back office support and call centers."

Reply officials said they will pay their Modesto workers the same as those doing the same jobs in San Ramon. They are impressed with employees here.

"The job candidate pool in the Central Valley is very good," Berlanga said. "People here work very hard."

To apply for employment at Reply, prospective candidates should e-mail their résumés to jobs@reply.com. Walk-in applicants also are welcome.

"Just come on in and bring your résumé," Berlanga said.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or (209) 578-2196.