Chapter List

Overview

Estimates vary, but all reports I ve seen show a steady growth in the call center industry that s been going on for the better part of ten years now. As the industry grows, the skills involved in managing centers have become their own specialty; being a call center manager is now something portable, that a person can take with them from company to company, even as that person changes jobs across industries.

At the same time, the number of people employed in call centers has reached staggering heights. Some estimates (rumored to come out the US Labor Department) say that perhaps two to three million people in the US work in call centers.

By any measure, it s an industry that s saturated, and that has a historically tough time attracting a steady supply of acceptable workers.

However. The flip side of that very good news includes some down side. Labor is very expensive, and in the US at least, very hard to keep and maintain. A recent benchmarking study done by the Purdue University...