Chime Solutions is a Black owned customer service company that provides U.S.-based outsourcing services for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies in a wide range of industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, and telecommunications.
Headquartered in Marrow, Georgia, about 10 miles south of downtown Atlanta, the company operates call centers in several cities.
Chime’s roots originate in 2001, when Mark Wilson and his wife, Shelly, started RYLA Teleservices out of the basement of their home. They grew RYLA into a nationally-recognized customer support and contact center with more than 3,000 employees and revenues in excess of $100 million. Wilson eventually sold the business in 2010 for a reported $70 million.
“It was a significant operation, but really, it was our training ground. With RYLA, we learned everything there is to know about call center services,” he said.
After the sale of RYLA, Wilson teamed with a group of investors, including Magic Johnson, to acquire an Atlanta background and employment screening firm called eVerifile. As CEO of the private equity owned company, Wilson was responsible for driving double digit growth. He was also responsible for establishing eVerifile CS, a subsidiary that was focused on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services.
He would eventually acquire eVerifile CS in May of 2016 and merge the operation with Chime Solutions.
According to Wilson, Chime puts its customer support centers in “the middle of neighborhoods that have high unemployment with a rich pool of talent and people who need work.”
“We opened Chime in an old J.C. Penney’s in a shopping mall and converted it into a 1,500-seat, state-of-the-art call center in Morrow. We expanded in a mall in southern Dallas which opened in October (2020) with 500 seats. We also repeated the same thing in Charlotte,” Wilson explained.
“Our goal is to replicate this model for various Fortune 500 companies that are willing to outsource their customer service to us. The Fortune 500 companies send us a trainer to train our trainer, which enables us to continue to provide training for any additional new hires.”
Next up are Baltimore and Detroit, he said. Five other cities will be added over time, with the goal of 1,000 jobs created per city for those living in underserved communities.
In December of 2020, Chime closed on a $30 million recapitalization investment that will enable the expansion into new markets and allow them to invest in next-generation customer experience technologies.
“There is a lot to what we are trying to accomplish,” Wilson said. “We’re doing business as a Black-owned company, creating jobs for Blacks. Using the multiplier effect, meaning for every job you create, another is created. And it is money spent in the community.”
Subscribe and Follow SHOPPE BLACK on Facebook, Instagram &Twitter
Get your SHOPPE BLACK Tees and Hoodies!
You might be interested in
