NORTH AMERICAN CALL CENTERS
Calling on Canada
North American call center trends show
a clear signal from up north.
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ompanies looking to site new or consolidated customer contact centers continually see Canada as being ripe with possibilities. Industry observers say the country has been a hot location for at least the past year. Favorable currency exchange rates coupled with abundant qualified labor seem to be the instigators of this northward bent.
To a lesser degree, Mexico is drawing call center activity. Border cities such as Tijuana and Reynosa, as well as sprawling Mexico City, have attracted firms in recent years. Plentiful, cheap labor is the major lure.
Also in vogue are areas near closed, closing or ongoing military bases, both in Canada and the U.S. Several factors come into play here. For one, call center executives consider military spouses a reliable source of labor, as a military family is likely to be stationed in a particular location for at least two or three years. In addition, retiring military personnel bring to the call center seat valuable qualifications such as computer skills and work discipline.
More companies have moved to outsourcing in recent years. Estimates place the number of U.S. customer contact centers at around 75,000. Up to 20 percent of those may be run by outsourcing firms, says Blake Wolff, president of Telvista, a Dallas-based customer contact outsourcing firm.
"As an outsourcer, we reflect our clients' wishes and we make fair and economical decisions," Wolff says. "We are careful to pick towns that fit."
The huge push to "Smalltown USA" in the '90s has ebbed somewhat with the push to Canada and Mexico, Wolff says. He also wonders if economic developers in smaller U.S. cities are as eager to bring in customer contact centers as they once were.
"We've learned something as the economy crashed," Wolff says. "Small towns have been hurt by closings of large call centers just as if a large manufacturing plant had closed. It's tough on these towns."
Jeff Furst, president of FurstPerson, a Chicago-based provider of staffing and recruiting services for call centers, agrees that outsourcing is becoming more popular. He adds that outsourcing firms are helping fuel the trend to move outside the U.S., with Canada being a strong destination.
Furst says another reason companies are looking outside U.S. borders is a drop in the number of qualified customer contact workers in the U.S.
"Even though, because of economic conditions, there is a larger available pool of workers, the quality levels compared to what these jobs require is diminishing," Furst says. "Demographics point out that there will be fewer workers available over the next few years to fill jobs that are created, hard times or not. There is a greater battle for qualified candidates in some markets, and it will translate into site selection issues as time goes on."
To a lesser degree, Mexico is drawing call center activity. Border cities such as Tijuana and Reynosa, as well as sprawling Mexico City, have attracted firms in recent years. Plentiful, cheap labor is the major lure.
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More companies have moved to outsourcing in recent years. Estimates place the number of U.S. customer contact centers at around 75,000. Up to 20 percent of those may be run by outsourcing firms, says Blake Wolff, president of Telvista, a Dallas-based customer contact outsourcing firm.
"As an outsourcer, we reflect our clients' wishes and we make fair and economical decisions," Wolff says. "We are careful to pick towns that fit."
The huge push to "Smalltown USA" in the '90s has ebbed somewhat with the push to Canada and Mexico, Wolff says. He also wonders if economic developers in smaller U.S. cities are as eager to bring in customer contact centers as they once were.
"We've learned something as the economy crashed," Wolff says. "Small towns have been hurt by closings of large call centers just as if a large manufacturing plant had closed. It's tough on these towns."
Jeff Furst, president of FurstPerson, a Chicago-based provider of staffing and recruiting services for call centers, agrees that outsourcing is becoming more popular. He adds that outsourcing firms are helping fuel the trend to move outside the U.S., with Canada being a strong destination.
Furst says another reason companies are looking outside U.S. borders is a drop in the number of qualified customer contact workers in the U.S.
"Even though, because of economic conditions, there is a larger available pool of workers, the quality levels compared to what these jobs require is diminishing," Furst says. "Demographics point out that there will be fewer workers available over the next few years to fill jobs that are created, hard times or not. There is a greater battle for qualified candidates in some markets, and it will translate into site selection issues as time goes on."