Straight Forward

What Straight Forward does

Straight Forward is a privately held, woman-owned call center solutions and consulting firm founded in 2009 and headquartered in Sauk City, Wisconsin. The company delivers two core product lines: full-service call center outsourcing covering the entire customer lifecycle (marketing, sales, retention, inbound, outbound, quality assurance, and reservations) and strategic/operational consulting for contact center operations using a proprietary assessment methodology. Its go-to-market is consultative and relationship-based, serving enterprise and mid-market clients across cable television, manufacturing, government, hospitality, education, and mining verticals through direct sales engagement. The company operates a rural sourcing model with locations across Wisconsin (Sauk City, Menomonie, Whitewater, Eau Claire, Rice Lake, Brodhead) and Illinois (Peoria), employing between 251 and 500 people. It is led by CEO Lori Recker with Jessica Main serving as Vice President.

The underlying technology stack is centered on PCI-DSS certified call center infrastructure enabling secure payment card data handling. There is no public API surface, no AI/ML capabilities, and no documented third-party integrations; the service is fundamentally labor-delivered rather than software-platform-delivered. Revenue is generated through three pricing mechanisms: hourly outsourcing, project-based engagements, and consulting term arrangements. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The company's competitive positioning rests on rural sourcing (access to diverse, lower-cost workforce from local communities and college populations), regulatory credentials (PCI-DSS and Woman-Owned Business certifications), and a documented hands-on consulting team with direct operating experience building and modeling call centers.

Straight Forward has grown organically with no external funding rounds, no acquisitions, and no parent company. Strategic expansion has been geographic and certification-driven: Menomonie (2013, 100-person operation), followed by additional Wisconsin sites (Rice Lake, Whitewater), the first out-of-state site in Peoria, Illinois (2016) with a stated intent to hire 250 employees, PCI-DSS and Woman-Owned Business certifications (2016), and the 2016 Excellence Award for its Sauk City office. Marketing is relationship-led with content (blog), earned media (press releases), and organic social presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, supplemented by community job fairs for recruitment.

Name

Straight Forward

Legal name

Straight Forward

Website

https://straightforward.cc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Straight Forward is a privately held, woman-owned call center outsourcing and consulting firm headquartered in Sauk City, Wisconsin, serving enterprise and mid-market clients across cable television, manufacturing, government, hospitality, education, and mining verticals. It operates a rural sourcing model with 251-500 employees across Wisconsin and Illinois, delivering inbound, outbound, sales, retention, QA, and reservation services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Call Center Outsourcing Services

NAICS

Telephone Call Centers (56142), Telemarketing Bureaus and Other Contact Centers (561422)

akta.pro primary industry

Multilingual & Global Shared-Service Contact Centers (BPAAAAAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Channel/Partner Sales Support (Reseller Enablement, Deal Reg) (BPAAADAH)

Keywords

• Call center outsourcing
• Contact center services
• Business process outsourcing
• Call center consulting
• Rural sourcing solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Sauk City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Outsourcing Services: Full-service call center outsourcing providing inbound, outbound, sales, retention, quality assurance, and reservation services. Revenue is generated through hourly billing, project-based arrangements, or dedicated staffing contracts. The company delivers services throughout the entire customer lifecycle from marketing to sales to building customer loyalty.
2. Consulting Services: Strategic and operational consulting for contact call centers. Includes assessments of all operations or customized focus on specific functional areas. Delivered through hands-on team engagement on consulting term arrangements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Straight Forward provides outsourced call center and contact center services for business clients, covering inbound, outbound, sales, retention, quality assurance, and reservation support across the full customer lifecycle. The company complements these outsourcing services with strategic and operational consulting for call center operations and a rural-sourcing delivery model that staffs engagements from rural Wisconsin and Illinois communities.

Product overview

Straight Forward is a call center solutions provider offering a unified portfolio of outsourcing and consulting services. The core offering consists of Outsourcing Services (covering the full customer lifecycle through Sales, Retention, Inbound, Outbound, Quality Assurance, and Reservation), Consulting Services (strategic and operational consulting using a proven methodology), and Rural Outsourcing (complete sourcing solutions in rural communities). The company provides flexible engagement models including hourly, project-based, and consulting term arrangements, serving clients across governmental agencies, resort centers, study abroad companies, mining firms, and cable operators.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Outsourcing Services Full-service call center outsourcing for business clients covering the entire customer lifecycle, including marketing, sales, retention, inbound, outbound, quality assurance, and reservation capabilities.
• Consulting Services Strategic and operational consulting for contact and call center operations, using a proven methodology to assess all aspects of operations or focus on specific functional areas, delivered by a hands-on consulting team.
• Rural Outsourcing Complete rural sourcing call center solution that delivers call center operations from rural Wisconsin and Illinois communities, providing cost-effective alternatives to urban call centers and access to local and college workforce populations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Increased hours, deeper understanding of services, and greater sales numbers for cable television operator clients

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Teleperformance: World's largest customer experience management BPO with extensive US onshore and offshore delivery. Comparable in core call center services but operates globally with much larger headcount and tech investments.
• Concentrix: Global BPO and customer experience giant offering voice, digital, and analytics-led CX services. Comparable in core call center offering but with vastly larger scale, global delivery, and enterprise-grade technology stack.
• TTEC (TeleTech): Large publicly traded global CX/BPO provider with US onshore and offshore delivery. Comparable in core inbound/outbound voice services but operates at much greater scale and with a technology product (TTEC Engage) alongside services.
• Sitel Group (now Foundever): Major global customer experience/BPO provider with omnichannel contact center services. Comparable in core outsourcing services but at enterprise scale across multiple geographies and verticals.

Direct peers

• Arise Virtual Solutions: US-based contact center outsourcer using a distributed independent-contractor agent model. Comparable to Straight Forward's flexible staffing approach and US-onshore delivery for inbound/outbound sales and support.
• Liveops: US-based virtual contact center operator delivering inbound/outbound sales, customer service, and support. Comparable to Straight Forward in being a domestic-outsourcing-focused BPO serving enterprise clients across multiple verticals.
• Working Solutions: US-based contact center outsourcer providing inbound sales, customer care, and omnichannel support. Comparable as a similarly sized, US-onshore BPO with a flexible distributed/work-from-home agent model serving enterprise clients.
• FCR (First Call Resolution): US-based inbound/outbound contact center and BPO provider headquartered in Oregon with additional sites. Closest comparable to Straight Forward in terms of being a privately held, US-onshore call center outsourcer serving multiple verticals with both sales and support services.

Others

• Five9: Cloud contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) software vendor providing the underlying telephony, routing, and workforce management that BPOs like Straight Forward rely on. Not a direct competitor but a key technology/ecosystem participant in the same market.
• Genesys: Enterprise CCaaS and customer experience platform provider supplying omnichannel routing, AI, and workforce engagement tooling used by contact center operators. Adjacent enabler to Straight Forward's delivery stack rather than a direct peer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sfowcareers
• Facebookfacebook.com/straightforwardofwi
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/straight-forward?trk=top_nav_home

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Straight Forward