Beating the Recession - Saveology.com to add 250 jobs

Growing Great: Saveology.com is hiring sales staff for its Fort Lauderdale call center as the comparison shopping-Web site bucks the employment layoff trend.

CEO Benny Aboud at Saveology’s call center. Aboud says the company receives more than 200,000 calls a month.Saveology.com, a comparison-shopping Web site, plans to hire 250 salespeople to work at its Fort Lauderdale headquarters.

The Web site allows consumers to compare prices for telephone services, Internet access, insurance and more – akin to Travelocity or Expedia, Saveology CEO and part-owner Benny Aboud said. Aboud said the company hopes to add all the positions in the next month, but said it would more likely take 45 to 60 days. There are currently about 220 people answering the phones, he said. “Last month, we didn’t pick up 20 percent of the calls we got because we were understaffed,” Aboud noted. “We receive over 200,000 [calls] a month.”

Customers go to Saveology’s Web site to do their comparison shopping, but, 70 percent of all purchases come from those who first visit the Web site, then call to speak to a sales representative, Aboud said. Some things, such as insurance, can be handled online. But, others, like arranging cable TV or Internet access, typically require person-to-person contact.

Aboud projected that about 75 percent of the new employees will be full time, eligible for health benefits. Full-timers will make an average of $40,000 a year, Aboud said.Without the new jobs, the company has about 500 employees nationwide, Aboud noted. The company also has locations in South Plainfield and Edison, N.J.

Aboud’s background includes operating 120 wireless stores and founding Elephant Group, which offers marketing services, in 1997, according to a company news release. Elephant Group sold its wireless division to AT&T in 2004, but has an array of Web sites that market many of the services found on Saveology.

The number of jobs and the speed at which Saveology plans to add them is welcome news in a bleak economy, Broward Alliance spokesman Ron Drew said.“The other thing we really like about the company is that, even though it’s a call center, the company is an info tech business,” he said. “Those are the types of companies that we’re working to attract to diversify the economy here.”

South Florida Business Journal by Bill Frogameni on March 20, 2009