Virtual Call Center

Of all the positive attributes attached to running a virtual content center--meaning agents work remotely—being an environmentally conscious business is often undervalued if not overlooked entirely. And that’s a shame because the “green” aspects of the virtual contact center are very notable.

It all begins with the fact that agents do not need to drive anywhere to conduct business on your behalf. If you run the typical medium-sized 100-seat call center, the reduction of 100 people on the roads lowers CO2 emissions by approximately 931,000 pounds annually if you use an Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate that each gallon of gasoline expended emits 19.5 pounds of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and assume that each worker travels 19 miles each way to work. (The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the average one-way commute is 19 miles.)

Keeping those 100 agents off the highways and byways helps preserve infrastructure as well. If your first reaction to that statement is, “yeah, but the effect of only 100 commuters off the roads is negligible,” think again.

Using the statistic from the U.S. Department of Energy that the average commute to work each way is 19 miles and knowing that each person must drive back again, making the daily roundtrip commute 38 miles, each of the 100 agents would have to drive 850 miles each month just to go back and forth to work. Now multiply that by 100 agents and in just one year’s time the call center agents drive 1,020,000 miles a year on the nation’s road ways.

Eliminating more than a million miles of driving is not the only factor that makes the virtual contact center “green.” By eliminating the need for a large office space, your business significantly reduces its carbon foot print. And it will save your business a load of cash as well.

Take a look at the cost savings of reducing the carbon foot print of a 120 square foot traditional call center. Say the office space rents out at the mid-range cost of $21 per square foot, the physical space would cost you $2,500 per agent, per year. Now multiply that by 100 agents and the cost shoots up to $250,000 per year just to have them all on-site. And don’t forget that utilities, at about $2.50 per square foot according to one source, compound that cost by an additional $30,000. Turn it around, and it means the virtual contact center model saves your business $280,000 annually in physical space alone.

There is one more way that a “green,” virtual contact center can be beneficial to your bottom line. Ecologically enlightened customers will take notice of your efforts and will certainly be more apt to reward you with their business than a competitor that is not. It’s a win-win on all levels.