NARS to Open Call Center in Missouri

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

Seems that all the finger crossing and gussying-up has paid off for Cape Girardeau, Missouri. National Asset Recovery Service Inc. is expected to announce today that it will open its newest call center in the southeast Missouri city ? bringing with it about 350 additional jobs.

NARS is one of the major players in the debt collection call center industry ? and also the product of a Missouri local boy. Company president Chris Buehrle is from Cape Girardeau, so this call center opening is also a homecoming of sorts for the Show-Me State native. A painting Norman Rockwell forgot to paint.

The company was waiting on the Southeast Missourian-sponsored Career Fair last month to see if the labor force was strong enough to support the call center. “I don’t ever recall having that much riding on a job fair as what will be riding on this particular job fair,” Mayor Jay Knudtson told the Southeast Missourian News.

The majority of the calls would be made to the center, not from it, Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president and CEO John Mehner said last month. NARS’s biggest client is Sprint Nextel, which provides more than 60 percent of the company’s business.

“Predominately, they would be answering customer service calls,” Mehner said at the time. The call center may also handle debt collection calls.