Saved annually by partnering with Hire Bloom
Cost reduction vs US rates
Better retention than hiring US agents
“When you’re a small company, every interaction with every customer really makes a big difference,” explained Wendy Gibson, General Manager over online operations at Check City.
As a financial services company specializing in short-term loans and money services, Check City needed collections specialist and customer support representatives who would raise the bar. Wendy continued, “We don’t have thousands of contact center agents, and we want every single contact to be exceptional and high quality.”
Hiring proved to be a challenge. With turnover already high in collections, managers were spending 10 to 15 hours per month just sourcing and screening candidates. Even then, candidates would no-show for interviews or not show up on their first day.
When offshore hiring was raised as a solution, Wendy wasn’t immediately sold. “There were some concerns and some fears around hiring an offshore customer service representative,” she said. “In my own experience as a consumer, sometimes when you get someone on the line who may have a little bit of a language barrier or may not understand some of the nuances of the products or services that I'm trying to get information about. That can be a little offputting and I was afraid for that.”
Wendy wasn’t really open to outsourcing, until her colleague Brenda brought on some offshore agents through Hire Bloom.
Check City fist came to Hire Bloom through a personal referral—the company’s owner heard about it from a friend who’d seen strong results. Brenda piloted the program with five Hire Bloom team members in 2024.
When Wendy saw the success in collections, she brought Hire Bloom into her customer support and loan underwriting departments. She explained, “When I decided to start using Hire Bloom in my department, I had high expectations because of the feedback I received from Brenda—and I have not been disappointed. Our customers love them too!”
The 14 team members now at Check City report directly to their managers with no BPO layer in between. They were trained 100% remotely via Zoom and fully integrated into their respective teams. “Hire Bloom has removed any skepticism I had about hiring offshore talent,” Wendy said. “I don’t even like describing it that way anymore — because these are now members of our team who truly believe in our mission. It’s just like having another person working from home.”
While Wendy and Brenda love the direct management model, Hire Bloom has also helped reduce recruiting hours. “With Hire Bloom, it’s like having HR on staff without the additional costs,” Wendy said. “They do all the vetting and recruiting, and it’s freed up our management team to focus on what’s more important for them.” Hire Bloom also assigned a dedicated support specialist to Check City from day one.
Hire Bloom team members now represent 28% of Check City’s combined customer support and collections headcount, but only 18.5% of the labor costs in those departments. For Wendy, that equals $17,518 in annual savings per team member.
Check City’s Hire Bloom team members are also more likely to stick around. They have a 78% retention rate, 2.6 times better than the US industry average for customer service. For a company that spent years dealing with turnover, the consistency has been a positive shift.
In Wendy’s customer support department, Hire Bloom team members make up 20% of the team but account for 40% of its top performers. In collections, they hold five of the top ten positions alongside people who have been at the company for over 20 years. “They’re easy to train, easy to teach, eager to learn, committed to quality—and we can see it in the numbers,” Wendy said.
Because Check City added Hire Bloom team members during peak morning and evening windows, each agent only has to handle one to two contacts at a time. First-contact resolution improved and hold times dropped. Plus, the positive influence of the Hire Bloom team members has led to lower turnover among Check City’s local staff—an outcome Wendy didn’y fully anticipated.
“Our local team members are staying longer. Our Hire Bloom team members aren’t going anywhere anytime soon,” she said. “It ends up being a better day and a better experience for everyone.”
Sara grew up in Honduras and started working at 17 because she had to. Her father struggled with alcoholism for years and passed away in 2022. Overnight, Sara became one of the main providers for her family.
“It was tough, I’m not gonna lie,” she said. “I started working at the age of 17 at a call center. It wasn’t a very well-paid job and the work was exhausting. I also spent hours traveling back and forth, and it didn’t offer good benefits either.” Every dollar she earned went straight to household expenses.
When she found Check City through Hire Bloom, that changed.
She now earns twice her previous salary, has kept up with her university studies, and has been able to help cover her sister’s education too. For the first time, she has savings, she is close to buying her first car, and she has booked her first flight.
Sara’s story is one of many across Check City’s Hire Bloom team. Jorge in Guatemala City was commuting four to six hours a day before taking this role—time he’s now put toward university classes. Kenny, a single dad, now cooks dinner for his son and picks him up from school. Others have accessed medical care or moved to better housing for the first time.
“Hire Bloom has not only been able to help us improve our operational efficiencies, but we’re truly making an impact in people’s lives,” Wendy said. “One of Check City’s biggest values is improving the quality of people’s lives—and being able to extend that to our team members feels right. They’re part of our family.”
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