With the volatility of the contact center market, it is always a positive move when the organization determines that keeping its operation within the United States is the best choice. Once that decision is made, the company needs to determine just where within the country the contact center can operate most effectively.

In a Contact Center Benchmark study, researchers sought to determine the biggest motivation for location. The most important factor cited by more than 47 percent of survey respondents was the availability of workers. The second biggest motivator was the low cost of building, as reported by 35.8 percent of respondents.

The available infrastructure for communications is also an important factor in determining the location for the contact center. According to 31.69 percent of respondents, this is a key factor. Another 17.14 percent stated that transportation – including road, rail and air – is also a key factor. A distant 7.9 percent reported that a location was selected due to a suggestion by someone else.

The availability of grants was at the bottom of the list of key factors to determining the optimal location for the contact center. In a number of categories studied, there was also an obvious need by some to stay close to or within the organization’s headquarters for ease of access to other departments and corporate services.

A number of outsourcers participated in this study, reporting that the location selected was often dictated by the proximity to their clients’ offices. Researchers believe that this could suggest that there may be a perception issue with outsourcers located far away, thereby driving the need for a ‘local’ contact center near the customer.

This study also examined comparisons between different industry sectors, discovering interesting results. For one, the Religious/Non-Profit group rated grants as a key factor, as much as 33 percent as compared to less than 6 percent across all respondents. 

When considering outsourcers, these organizations rated available workforce as the most important factor, followed by Information Technology, Media and Retail/Catalog sectors. Utilities reported that communications infrastructure and transportation were the least important factors.

For Media and Consumer Products sectors, external advisors appeared to have the highest influence. The three most important factors for the Banking/Finance and Insurance sectors were identified as available workforce, low cost of buildings and communications infrastructure.

In examining the three key factors around the world, this study identified the top three factors for contact center location by region. For Europe, the factors included available workforce, low cost of buildings and communications infrastructure.

In the Middle East and Africa, the low cost of buildings was replaced with transportation, while in the Asia Pacific region, communications infrastructure took priority over low cost of buildings. In South America, the low cost of buildings was the top factor, with communications infrastructure in second place and available workforce in third.