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PNC Financial Upgrades its Call Center Environment

By Michael Guta, Contributing Writer

As noted author Stephen R. Covey said, "Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers." If there is a quote that applies to call centers that would be it, because you don't want a disgruntled call center representative talking to your hard-earned customers. So it is imperative for call center organizations to understand creating a healthy and welcoming working environment goes a long way in improving customer satisfaction. PNC (News - Alert) Financial Services Group Inc. is keeping up with a current trend among US organizations of improving the working conditions of their employees at call centers with new perks.

According to The Wall Street Journal, PNC has made a considerable investment at its call center in Pittsburgh. The company renovated a 90-year-old building that used to house the Mellon National Bank and a Lord & Taylor department store with state-of-the-art lighting and equipment.

This trend or enlightenment is based on years of 100 percent or more turnover rates of call center employees. Every time a call center operator leaves his or her job, a new candidate has to be schooled before they receive a position. This requires training, which requires an investment from the company. If there is a high attrition rate, then the company is continually losing money.

To turn around the turnover rate, call centers are starting to emulate Silicon Valley companies by providing a more comfortable working environment. Online shoe giant Zappos, for example, gives their call center workers in Las Vegas the same type of desks and chairs as their executives, as well as other perks. The Utah call center for online auction site eBay (News - Alert) has two basketball courts, indoor bicycle storage, a massage therapy room, a cafe, fitness room and more.

So the questions organizations have to ask is, who is more important: employees or customers? The answer, of course, is that they're both equally important. Taking care of one while forsaking the other will eventually affect the overall operations of the company in a negative way.

The new center for PNC wasn't cheap, but the company made the investment to renovate the building and make it available close to where most of its employees lived. Taking all of these considerations will in the long run be a wise investment for PNC, because it didn't get to manage $122 billion in assets and administer $237 billion of assets without knowing the benefit of a good investment.