Call Centers Weather Shifting Sands Of New Economy (cover) Call Center Growth on the Rise New Economy = New Facilities? India Emerges as Hot Spot European Growth Goes Exponential Canada: North America's Sweetheart New US Markets Emerge Request Information 
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SITE SELECTION SPECIAL FEATURE FROM JANUARY 2001
New Economy = New Facilities? In terms of establishing a new call center, what does Web-enabling mean for site selection and development? Luckily for corporate real estate execs it doesn't really make a lot of difference. You're still basically looking for the same key elements: available, skilled labor; low operating costs; access to a strong telecom infrastructure; and available, quality space.The few differences will occur more at the individual workstation level. "If there is information being traded other than e-mails, you might need more fiber optic availability. But if you've already got the building, you may need to get another T1 cable," says White. "The individual workstations will need the fiber optics run to them vs. just a phone line, and they'll have to be Internet ready." Overall, customer contact centers require basically the same things they required 15 years ago. However, markets have changed, and labor and real estate tightness continue to challenge call center operators. "There are three things you need for a successful customer contact center: labor, labor and labor," Shapiro emphasizes. "The need for labor has been and continues to be the most compelling requirement when we undertake a call center engagement; I can't emphasize that enough. I'm joking when I say labor, labor, labor, but in reality it is labor quality, labor costs and labor availability -- not necessarily in that order. You can't get passed that right now, and we have call centers doing all kinds of things to adapt to the fact that there is no labor out there." University towns and capital cities have served as the top spots for call centers of late. Unfortunately, the rapid growth of the industry has taken a toll on the "smart" locations. "Austin, for example, is down to under 2 percent unemployment; Madison, Wis., is down to about 1 percent unemployment, and Raleigh-Durham is down to around 1.5 percent," reports Shapiro. "While the talent is there, it's just not as available, or it's available at an increasing cost." Such labor costs are a high concern for call center operations. Says Shapiro: "Payroll is still going to be 70-75 percent of your call center costs, and payroll is still highly variable by geography. You can still see swings from 20-25 percent from high-cost markets to low-cost markets."
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