|
Call Center Site Selection
By James Beatty, NCS
International
Selecting a new site for your contact center can potentially be one of
the most expensive, gruesome, agonizing, painstaking processes you will ever
pursue. This article will outline how to make the process one that is cost
conscious, pain free, well planned and easy to implement.
Labor, as you know, is 65 percent to 70 percent of your operating costs.
Therefore, I urge you to properly identify the number of agents, supervisors
and managers needed at start up and for 6, 12, 24 and 36 months. Factor in
attrition rates so you can quantify employment levels and forecasts at each
of the benchmark dates. The respective skill, educational and experience
levels required of the agents to successfully deliver the type and quality
of service at your new location must also be quantified. Additionally,
training needs and requirements should be well articulated and documented as
pre-employment screening and training programs will be a key incentive
factor in the selection of the community or, as I like to refer to them,
your location partner.
Your location search parameters must be established. Do you need to be in
a specific time zone, particular part on the United States, North America or
the world? As such, let me share some locational trends that have evolved
for call centers in the last few years as identified by consulting firms
specializing in call center site selection
The Small Town Strategy is one in which you focus your search on
communities, areas or regions that have a population of less than 50,000.
You can establish a higher or lower number as you see fit, but the key point
here is that it will allow you to focus on reviewing areas that would
generally go unnoticed and, therefore, undiscovered. This strategy has been
utilized by centers that wanted to avert the sometimes-fierce competition
that occurred in urban markets with unemployment rates of 4 percent or
lower. This strategy has also allowed call centers to mitigate escalating
wage pressures that have occurred in the larger markets.
The Hub and Spoke Strategy is one that companies may choose to use in
place of establishing a “Mega Center.” Let’s assume you need to set up
a 500-seat center, which would equate to 500 to 1,000 agents. Instead of
housing the entire operation under one roof, you establish one center of 250
seats or 250 to 500 agents and 2 or 3 operations each with 100 to 150 seats
equating to 100 to 200 agents. Each of the smaller operations would be
strategically placed within 40 to 50 miles of the larger operation. This
allows you to take advantage of multiple labor markets and could possibly
lead to job progression opportunities due to potential variations in wage
and salary levels. This would also allow you to compare efficiencies at each
center and adopt best practices. Key personnel could be rotated among these
operations to develop lead agent, supervisory and management talent.
The Urban Inner City Strategy is one in which you locate in inner city
areas that have traditionally been overlooked in many economic development
and site searches. These areas generally have an abundance of labor and
talent, very little competition from other employers and significant
opportunity for support from the local municipality, county and the state in
the form of grants, loans and other incentives. According to HUD, many of
these areas are undergoing a renaissance in America in the form of new
investment in retail, housing and infrastructure improvement and, as such,
are tremendous opportunities for the companies willing to make the
commitment. Sprint has successfully deployed this strategy in Kansas City,
MO at one of its customer service facilities, which ultimately received
national awards for excellence.
The Global Strategy is for companies that want to explore opportunities
in Canada, Europe, Ireland, Japan, Australia, India and other international
locations. This allows companies with customers worldwide to adopt the “follow
the sun” strategy in providing around-the-clock customer service. These
countries have adopted very aggressive programs for customer service
operations to attract inward investment from U.S. firms. These countries
know and understand your global needs and have even established offices in
the U.S. to pursue opportunities.
What are some of the most popular areas for call center growth? The leading
states and provinces for growth in calendar year 2000 were:
|
Jobs |
| Texas |
12,293 |
| Florida |
10,575 |
| Oklahoma |
5,567 |
| Illinois |
4,575 |
| Louisiana |
4,500 |
| Virginia |
4,400 |
| California |
4,200 |
| Pennsylvania |
3,600 |
| Ontario |
3,125 |
| West Virginia |
2,750 |
Some of the leading U.S. metro areas for calendar year 2000 were:
| Baton Rouge, LA |
4,500 |
| Oklahoma City, OK |
3,717 |
| Dallas/Fort Worth,
TX |
3,600 |
| McAllen, TX |
3,315 |
| Tampa/St. Petersburg,
FL |
3,300 |
| Chicago, IL |
2,150 |
| West Palm Beach,
FL |
2,091 |
| St. Louis, MO |
1,745 |
| Charlotte, NC |
1,700 |
| Las Vegas, NV |
1,625 |
| Source:
Deloitte and Touche |
There are a number of resources available to you in your search. Every
country, state, province, city and community has an economic development
office to assist you. Most utility companies have very active and
well-informed economic development staffs as well. Call centers are key
targets for these entities due to the large numbers of jobs that can be
generated. What is large? Well, in some communities 50 to 100 jobs can make
a huge impact in the local economy.
These organizations will assist you in identifying labor availability,
buildings and even telecommunications infrastructure. Best of all, these
resources cost you nothing and the people you will encounter in the process
are very knowledgeable. In addition, the Web site, www.callcentersites.net
can provide you with information on every call center location in the United
States. Other call center locations worldwide are added to the site daily.
Should you have any questions related to your site search, please fell
free contact me at Jbeatty@callcentersites.net
and I will address these questions or comments in future columns.
James Beatty is president of NCS International, Inc., which
specializes in corporate site selection, community analysis and marketing.
[ Return
To March 2002 Table Of Contents ]
|
