Today’s emphasis on customer care has allowed a number of call centers to grow and increase hiring; however, this is not always the case. Some contact centers, in fact, are not doing well and needed or decided to close, lay-off staff or offer employees part time and full time work at home (in virtual call centers). This just happens to be the case for Sykes (News - Alert) Enterprises Inc., a provider of contact management solutions with call centers throughout the world. The firm provides business process outsourcing services and outsourced customer support requests (with an emphasis on inbound customer care and technical support) to market-leading companies around the globe.
As per a recent Union-Bulletin post, Sykes is planning to close the Milton-Freewater call center, located in Milton-Freewater, Ore., on Dec. 11, 2014. There are no indications of a possible last-minute save of the Milton-Freewater facility that has been slated for closure, unlike the last time when contracts with partner firms expired, said Andrea Burnett Thomas, spokeswoman for the Florida-based technical support and customer service operation.
Sykes opted to shut down its operations and leave the commercial building it currently occupies which was actually a major piece in the largest incentive package ever brokered by the city of Milton-Freewater and that was used to bring Sykes’ operations to the area in 1999. The incentive package included approximately $5 million in benefits; the building has an estimated value of $3.72 million. The structure’s location and the facility’s attributes make it the perfect venue to bring another valuable service to the area; a soon-to-be-established new American Viticulture Area called The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater is in the works to take place of Sykes’ customer contact center, told Milton-Freewater City Manager Linda Hall.
Sykes’ call center employees, of which there are estimated to be around 240, were notified of the forthcoming changes by the company. They were told Sykes’ decision is not to go out of business, rather, offer those who opt to stay with the company an opportunity to work from home as customer service staff.
In other words, Sykes’ Milton-Freewater will be incorporating telework as part of its work culture; telework is viewed as the wave of the future for companies looking to increase production and reduce costs. Although work-at-home employees must demonstrate a great deal of self-discipline to maintain a good balance between work (to complete job tasks) and personal life (to include avoiding distractions incurred in the home setting), it is an option that can bring many rewards: it offers flexible work, fewer wasted hours traveling to and from work and more time to spend with family.
There is no doubt that rather than bring the people to the work, bring the work to the people is an apt option (and solution) for call center services, however it is a solution that might not work for all clients. Nonetheless, firms like Sykes, which specialize in undertaking responsibility for information intensive business processes on behalf of their clients, may find the work-from-home option a viable one not to lose their trained employees.
Whether some of Sykes’ employees will be transitioned earlier out of the customer service center has yet to be determined, but one thing is for certain and that is the kind of tasks that are to be outsourced will likely to be broad, important and servicing a wide range of clients.
Edited by Alisen Downey