Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401280283
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: EC-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By AMANDA BARRETT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When Sears, Roebuck & Co. decided it was getting out of its mail-order business and closing its Roanoke telecatalog operations, Dee Stokley and Jo Dean were worried.
"We thought we would lose more than our jobs," said Dean. "We thought we would lose the friends we have made here."
Stokley had been a telephone consultant with Sears for five years. Dean also was with Sears five years, working as a telephone consultant and a consultant adviser before becoming a team adviser.
When Retired Persons Services took over the telecatalog center, Stockley and Dean learned that their worries were unfounded. Not only did they keep their jobs, they kept their friendships, too.
"The transition to RPS was easy street," said Stokley, who joined RPS in October. "The nice family culture here made it easier," she said.
RPS is an affiliate of the American Association of Retired Persons and has its headquarters in Alexandria. In September it bought the Sears Telecatalog Center on Thirlane Drive.
The operation is one of the nine RPS facilities that take telephone orders. The nonprofit mail-order drug company filled 8 million prescriptions in 1992.
Richmond is the company's distribution center closest to Roanoke. It serves nine states, including Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. The center is one of 11 in the country.
Although RPS serves AARP, customers don't have to be members of the organization. However, members receive benefits such as catalogs and medication information leaflets.
Dean said the fact that RPS rehired the Sears operations managers and many of its former telemarketers helped smooth the transition.
"It was a plus having everything already in place," said Dean, who has been a team leader and trainer since joining RPS in September. "That helped us keep a special team effort."
The biggest difference, Stokley said, is in the kind of orders the telephone representatives receive. "Since it's medicine, we are extra careful about making sure we take orders correctly," she said.
Also, the computer system is easier to work with, said Stokley. "The computer screens tell you what to do," she said.
The employees work in teams with six people to a pod and four pods to a team leader. Teams regularly meet to discuss ideas, problems and complaints. "By paying attention to the people on the front lines, we know what our customers' needs are," said Dean.
The beginnings of each month and Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest times, said Stokley and Dean. Consultants have a steady flow of calls most other times.
RPS offers flexible full-time and part-time schedules and hires people with a variety of ages and situations, from students to grandmothers.
Stokley, who ran several restaurants in the valley before moving to Sears, has seven daughters, four grandchildren and another on the way. She said her part-time schedule allows her to enjoy a lot of free time with her family.
For Dean, who opted not to work while rearing her children, Sears and now RPS was a welcome change. "When I came here, I knew I had found a home," said Dean.
Both employees think RPS' earning potential is limitless. "We can become the biggest [mail-order pharmacy] if we continue to do exactly what we've been doing. We have the same dedicated people as we had at Sears," Dean said. "We became the No. 1 center for Sears and we can do it again for RPS."
Stokley said the number of RPS customers will keep growing. "People like myself are getting to be 50 and 60 and they'll need this service," she said.
RPS is helping the economy locally, said Stokley. "Look at all the people from Sears that were hired," she said. "Plus we help UPS [which delivers some of the company's products] nationally."
And both think the economy is helping RPS. "It keeps us on our toes," said Stokley.
The employees are proud of the service the company offers to the elderly.
"For a lot of older Americans, it's not easy to get out and go to the drugstore," said Dean. "We take their order and get it out the same day, and it's there for them."
\ RETIRED PERSONS SERVICES\ A NEW NAME\ \ The company: The mail-order pharmaceutical company that serves mainly members of the American Association of Retired Persons.\ \ Headquarters: Alexandria.\ \ Roanoke Valley operations: Operates a telecatalog center accepting and processing telephone orders at a 600-employee facility at 3645 Thirlane Road. The company bought the facility from Sears, Roebuck and Co. when Sears closed its catalog operations last year. Many of the former Sears employees were rehired.
by CNB