GreatCall of San Diego is doubling its footprint in south Reno just under a year after its arrival.
GreatCall is expanding from 18,500 square feet on the second floor into an additional 18,289 square feet, the entire first floor, of the office building it occupies at 9290 Gateway Drive.
GreatCall Chief Financial Officer Bill Kuncz says increasing demand for the company’s products and services drove the need to boost its Reno operations. The Reno facility houses GreatCall’s call center, information technology, human resources, training, quality assurance, inbound sales and management services for its Jitterbug cell phones and 5Star 5Star Urgent Response device marketed to seniors. The company also sells a suite of medical and health-related apps for mobile devices that are integrated with its products.
GreatCall currently is building out 6,000 square feet of space on the ground floor and expects to take down the additional square footage by September.
“By September we will be the sole tenant in the entire building,” Kuncz says. “We have customers all over the country. In order to deliver the service we promise our customers we have to have the people in place.”
GreatCall currently employs about 220 in northern Nevada, but within the next 18 months, Kuncz says, GreatCall expects to employ more than 400 people at the south Reno facility. That rapid growth is occurring much faster than company executives originally anticipated, Kuncz acknowledges. The company is making expansion moves now to better position itself for coming growth.
“The company is doing well and we are hitting all of our numbers as far as people want to get our services,” Kuncz says. “We continue to innovate and introduce new products, and we want to make sure we are ahead of the curve. We like to be proactive and have people on hand, trained and ready, to answer those calls.”
GreatCall’s policy of promoting from within the organization also has helped it succeed in northern Nevada, Kuncz adds. Many employees who joined the firm in its inception here have been promoted to supervisory- and management-level positions, he says.
“The experience we have had in Reno and the type of people we have hired has exceeded our expectations,” he says. “It’s proven to be a wonderful community to grow in.”
