ARI has opened the doors at its new Houston, Texas Call Center. This is ARI's sixth North American Call Center. Others include Maple Shade, NJ; Grapevine, Texas; Mississauga, Ont.; Montreal, Que.; and Mexico City, Mex.


According to ARI Senior Vice President of Fleet Services, Bob White, call volume for 2011 is on track to hit 3.1 million calls in the U.S. alone. ARI now manages over 780,000 vehicles.

"We are pleased to make this investment to support our growth. ARI has been ranked number one in customer satisfaction since 2003 so delivering the best service for our clients is our highest priority. Having the most certified technicians in more locations throughout North America, using state-of-the-art call center and web-based technologies, ensures that we can deliver the fastest possible response times and the most value to our clients and their drivers," White says.

"Houston was chosen as the location of our new Call Center based on the availability of qualified technicians. But other considerations included availability of quality facilities, accessibility for local employees and ARI's management team, and the overall quality of life for ARI employees," added White.

The new ARI Call Center has capacity for 185 employees. Calls are directed by country, allocated to each ARI Call Center, and routed to the most appropriate available technician, regardless of location, to ensure the fastest response times.

Ted Davis, Department Head, Call Center Operations, says that the company began hiring technicians from the Houston area this past August and putting them through an intensive training program in its Grapevine facility.

"We temporarily relocated new technicians to Grapevine so they'd not only be capable of taking calls the first day we opened our doors in Houston but they'd also have absorbed the ARI culture," he says. "In addition, we relocated experienced technicians from Grapevine and Maple Shade to support the new team."