Location Is Everything in Call Center Outsourcing

Top Call Center Outsourcing Companies understand that the location of their sites is critical. The ability to attract and hire experienced talent for front line as well as lower, mid and senior management positions dictate a contact center’s ability to operate and scale successfully.

Benefits of Location

A contact center’s location should be convenient for its labor pool to get to and from work, should be close to schools or day care facilities where team members that are parents are able to take and pick up their children, ideally would be close to local universities, and would be in close proximity to inexpensive places to eat. In metropolitan and some suburban areas, it is important to be close to public transportation. Getting to and from work should be a low effort exercise in order to attract and retain talent.

Many consider that the location of a contact center should be within close range of other contact centers, which implies that there would be access to experienced talent. Knowing with confidence that within a given location there is availability of resources helps ensure that a contact center can scale when needed and is not beholden to existing staff. On the other hand, having competition for talent can also create difficult conditions if the talent pool isn’t large enough or if unemployment in that area is low. Typically having at least on other outsourced call center in the area means that there is a belief in the local talent pool which speak to the benefits of the location.

Other benefits of location should be proximity to fiber optic internet and telephony for optimal connectivity and redundancy. Top call center outsourcing companies also realize the importance of proximity to the electrical grid. The possibility of outages require business continuity plans which must include redundancy and the ability to interconnect with multiple providers.

Areas of Focus

The country and city from which top call center outsourcing companies decide to operate are obvious influences on the strength of the overall offering. US on-shore operations can be expensive and are exposed to the fluctuations in the national and local labor markets, including minimum wage rates and proximity to talent. Near-shore and off-shore markets can often times be less costly, but expose the buyer to foreign currency exchange rates as well as country risk. A minimum requirement to operating in a foreign country is a strong local partner or local staff and legal counsel and banking partners.

If a contact center requires certain skills – languages or writing skills, for example, or technical or industry-specific knowhow, location is also an important determinant of the ease of hire of talent with these skills. Metropolitan areas are typically good places to be able to source for language skills. Writing skills may be able to be sourced in most places. If, for example, chat or social media writing skills are required, it could be generally assumed that access to a younger population might be relevant. If technical skills (technical support or help desk or others related to IT) are sought, proximity to local universities or hi tech companies is likely a requirement.

Conclusion: Stakeholders

Location truly is everything in call center outsourcing. One place does not suite all areas of focus. What may be an ideal site for one company may not be ideal for another. What is certainly true is that companies must be very clear on what they expect from a location and have a clear sense how to execute on that vision to bring maximum value to all stakeholders – internal and external users of the services delivered from that site, as well employees and management, and most importantly, the customers serviced by the people working in that site. If you want to learn everything about call center outsourcing so you can make the right decision for your company consult our Complete Guide for Call Center Outsourcing.

Respond to customer needs, in the fastest, most satisfactory and resolution-based ways available in the marketplace is the guarantee of a great customer service. Get to know Callzilla, a company that provides call center services putting quality first. We provide outsourced call-center services for all types of industries, achieving excellent results.