Call centers are the heart of a company’s customer service operations. A successful center provides needed support to the company but also, and more importantly, is the bridge from you to your customers. When creating or starting a call center it is important to keep the customer experience top of mind when making any decision regarding location, design, and technology.
Location Musts:
- Choose a location that will best impact your business and customer experience, not just your bottom line. Often a lower cost space will not provide the needed services, amenities and technologies to produce outstanding results.
- A location in a major city can provide a larger candidate pool for agents, helping to staff in a high-turnover business.
- Candidates in major cities offer more diverse backgrounds, allowing you to support many languages.
- Single story and flex space are the most ideal for call centers. Choose spaces for growth potential and the ability to transform as your business changes.
Design for Customer Impact:
- Position, arrangement and assignment of workspaces will affect your team’s morale and productivity. Consider creating areas for each section of your team, including team leaders.
- Offer nice breakrooms, secure storage and pleasant furnishings. These amenities will help attract and keep staff.
- Don’t skimp on items like keyboards, chairs and desks just to help your bottom line. Choosing items with ergonomic designs will help prevent absenteeism and injuries in your workforce, improving call volumes and times.
- Space acoustics should be a large part of your design plan. You will want to be certain that your agents will be able to be heard and hear your customers, with very little disruption. Consider installing sound absorption fillers on walls, sound blocking screens between stations, and sound masking on the ceilings
Technology to Succeed:
- Call centers require sophisticated technology to handle their customer’s needs. Advanced technology results in streamlined call handling which reduces call times, associated costs, and improves customer satisfaction.
- Ensure that you can obtain appropriate hardware, such as a LAN (local area network) and sophisticated voice solutions.
- Explore spaces that have other tenants, which may reduce the time it takes to install and employ complicated technology needed to get your call center up and running.
- Install wiring and cables so that they are easy to access and relocate as your center grows or changes.
Establishing a call center for your business, or to assist other businesses, is a major project and one that requires careful planning and consideration. Finding the right space is crucial to your success and customer satisfaction.
The Bradley Business Center is proud to feature single story flex space that is ideal for a call center location. Our location provides access to a diverse workforce and we will work with you to help envision a design that will allow your business to succeed and grow. Contact us to schedule a visit to the Bradley Business Center and see for yourself how perfectly appointed our facilities are for your future call center home.