Call Center Facility Marketing

[Deane]

I'm the Director of Marketing for a commercial real estate firm. I'm interested to know, from your perspective, what does someone look for in a call center facility?

We have several properties that COULD be call centers, and one that's a fully-funished call center, ready-to-go, but we're having some trouble identifying potential customers for the properties.

Banks, catalog companies, insurance companies, etc. -- these are obvious prospects, but are there companies I'm overlooking? Where do YOU go when you're looking for a new call center facility?

Additionally, if you're looking to relocate your call center, what do you look for in a new facility? We'd like to tune up the marketing presentation for our dedicated call center property.

Thanks,

Deane

[Frank A. Engle]

Hello Deane!

From your post, it sounds as though you have a pretty good handle on the facility requirements for a call center. Taking into account that you are aware of all the facility (electrical, telecom, internet connectivity, etc.) requirements, the big keys for locating call centers in my opinion is threefold (in no particular order):

1. Does the location of the center meet the demographics of the typical agent who would be working there. Does it have public transportation for and enough parking to accomodate the large number of employees per square foot that will be working there.

2. Does the demographics and total population support the employee profile type and the quantity of employees needed to staff the center? For example, a 4000 seat center in a community of 20,000 is probably not going to work.

3. How much will the local government provide in tax relief and other financial/zoning incentives for the company launching the center?


These three items are just the beginning for an organization that is thinking about opening a new call center...but it is a start.

The best bet is to partner with the local development committee for your city, put a strong package together and then approach the top 50 or 100 outsource call center providers to discuss with them their expansion plans. It's highly competitive, but if you size and customize the package appropriately for the community the center is located in, and have strong community support, you should have a good degree of success.

Good Luck!!

[Deane]

>approach the top 50 or 100
>outsource call center providers
>to discuss with them their
>expansion plans

How do you go about identifying these providers? Is there a trade magazine or something you could direct me to?

Deane

[Frank A. Engle]

I have three links for you:

The first is an article from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine profiling the Kansas City area for call center re-location. They have a Location section in every issue so you may want to browse past issues for other locations also. It may give you some good ideas on what to put in your marketing material:

http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0703/relocations.htm

The second one from the same magazine lists the top 50 Outbound Centers:

http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/0302/0302top50.htm


The third is a good website for locating call center sites worldwide. It may give you some ideas.

http://www.callcentersites.net/


Good luck!

[Deane]

This has been extremely helpful, thank you.

Deane