Video: Site Selection Group Benefits the Call Center Industry
13-May-2011TMC Magazine
By Susan Campbell
May 13, 2011
The call center industry is nothing if not dynamic and one company specializing in multi-market evaluations of communities around the world with a keen focus on call centers is Site Selection Group.
In a recent TMCnet video, Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, spoke with King White, the president of Site Selection Group. King shared that Site Selection Group helps companies within the call center sector by comparing workforces throughout the world. In doing so, the organization is helping companies make strategic decisions about how to reduce labor costs by moving from a tier one city down to a tier two city, domestically or going offshore to perform call center activities.
On the implementation side, Site Selection Group helps with economic negotiations, whether it is international governments or federal, state and local governments. The company also focuses on helping the real-estate side with a turnkey solution for an entire life cycle of when you need to open up a new call center. The average company is typically 100 seats or 100 workstations or more.
Site Selection Group also works with companies in the state or locally. The organization’s clients take taxes into consideration when evaluating the business environment of each community and each state. By delivering a cost-benefit assessment of the impact on the economical incentive, tax conditions, future tax debt, labor rates, and more, companies can make an informed decision.
In recent months, Site Selection Group also had a merger with Business Incentive Group in Texas. While still in the middle of that integration, this move was in response to the strong demand to negotiate tax abatements, cash grants, training grants, tax credits and more.
As for benefits to customers, White noted that the company is, “doing an extreme level of professional work with those that have tax or legal backgrounds and we’re able to add a level of sophistication to the negotiation process as well as the assessment side and evaluating those incentives. We’re able to take financial analysis to another level. And lastly, the compliance side, we’re able to take the client all the way through the economic incentive package and so we’re able to follow these through for ten years.”
White also noted that the international space, while always competitive, is getting even more so. He highlighted growth in Vietnam, the Philippines, Latin America, Columbia, Panama and more. He also noted that western European markets are experiencing growing opportunities.
With the economic downturn in the U.S. in the past few years, White noted there has been a dramatic shift. As the recovery continues, customer and corporate mentality is changing. Customers are demanding English-speaking service, the unions are pushing calls back to the states and wage escalation offshore is changing the dynamic. As this continues, the demand for Site Selection Group continues to grow.
To learn more about Site Selection Group and the exciting things taking place in this industry, check out the video in full.