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Labor, Telecom Top List of Location Factors

Labor is the No. 1 location factor for call centers, simply because the quality and skill of the staff making and receiving calls is a huge determinant in the facility's success.

"Your call center employees are the face your company turns toward your customers. They are a critical element in building a trusting, long-lasting relationship with those customers," says Lieven de Letter, marketing manager for Belgian telecom provider Belgacom North America (www.belgacomna.com).

Labor availability and costs are paramount. Language skills also come into play with many types of call centers, and some operations require employees to have highly technical knowledge.

In addition, with call centers often handling a million or more telephone calls per year, telecommunications infrastructure obviously plays a key role in location decisions. In fact, "it's a deal-breaker," Tapp says. "First, broad-band data communication capability is a must. The typical term of ISDN (integrated services digital network) is nearly obsolete, due to the rapid changes and growth in the need for broad-band communications. As this industry rapidly evolves, we usually see the need for at least multiple T-1 connections (one T-1 is equivalent to approximately 24 voice telephone lines) with capacity for T-3, OC-12 (which is equivalent to about 288 voice telephone lines) and on up."

If a T-1 connection is adequate service, Tapp explains, then either copper wiring or fiber-optics will accommodate. But if communication needs exceed T-1 lines, fiber-optics is a must. "In addition, almost every component of a call center requires redundancy (also known as a fiber ring) so there must be plenty of capacity for the telecom system to function properly and to allow adequate backup in case of service interruption," he says. "Most local telephone providers have the capacity to run broad-band communications in second- and third-tier cities."

Time and money figure prominently in any site selection decision, and they're important concerns for companies planning new call centers.

"In some cities, the zoning process and construction process can be quite lengthy," Tapp says. "But our experience has been that, in most cases, the client needs the space immediately, and therefore it must be constructed or retrofitted in a very short period of time. If companies miss phone calls, they're losing money, so they have to be assured of on-time delivery of the facility." Tapp says his firm recently delivered a 37,000-sq.-ft. (3,437-sq.-m.) call center on schedule -- built from the ground up in only five months.

Furthermore, incentives from the city and state can play "a major role" in winning call centers, he points out. "We've seen an influx of call centers in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma generally because of our Quality Jobs Program, which is essentially a cash rebate of a portion of the wages paid for new companies coming into the state. It's one reason Oklahoma has been on the radar screen."

With that background and context, here's a review of recent call center location activity in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.