How may we help? Call centers ease economic blow

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - In an area long dependent on furniture, textiles and, more recently, high-tech cable manufacturing, business recruiters have started building a new and entirely different sector that's employing hundreds of people: call centers.

As employers across the country continue to shed jobs, Hickory in recent months has landed two of North Carolina's biggest projects _ the 500-worker Convergys in an old textile manufacturing headquarters and a planned 900-worker call center.

The number of new jobs is small compared with the waves lost in the manufacturing sector. They sometimes start employees at a wage lower than the regional average, and the centers can have high turnover and stress. But business recruiters say they're a natural fit and help soften the blow of relentless layoffs.

Those recruiters say the secret to attracting them is simply having the right buildings ready for the call centers to occupy.

Catawba County landed the two call centers in 2008, and business recruiters say more could follow.

In June, recruiters announced the Ohio-based Convergys Corp. call center. Then, in December, they announced that Atlanta-based Covation LLC will move into a Hickory spec building constructed to lure a call center, promising to hire 913 workers in two years. Right now, the building is a partially completed shell.

Recruiters and industry analysts say growth in the call-center sector, combined with the area's available workforce, customer-friendly workers and sometimes cheaper wages than bigger cities, make the region attractive to companies looking to place new centers.

"Hickory, if you look at the demographics, there's no competition," said Kenny McDonald, executive vice president of Charlotte Regional Partnership, a 16-county business recruiter that helped Catawba County land the centers. "They can get (employees) to come to them."

The region last year had 75 call centers employing 20 to 2,700 people each, according to the Partnership. Tony Crumbley, vice president of research for the Charlotte Chamber, says growth has been flat, and some centers have laid off employees, but that more companies are looking to open call centers in the area.

Catawba County business leaders knew they had to further diversify the local economy after factory jobs kept moving overseas and the dot-com meltdown forced cable makers to slash their work forces. A consultant's study in 2007 showed the Hickory market had plenty of people willing and able to work in customer-service jobs _ 62 percent had experience in that field, 4 percentage points higher than the median for other areas the firm had studied.

So the partnership put the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. in touch with Adevco, a call center developer. Then Adevco started the spec building that Covation ended up choosing, and county recruiters marketed the site to consultants who work with call center clients.

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The jobs are so attractive to this troubled area that state and local officials are willing to risk incentives on even unproven companies. Covation, for instance, lined up $6.4 million in state and local backing, including a $600,000 state grant, just four months after it was incorporated.

State officials defend the incentives in an area where unemployment topped 10 percent in December, higher than state and national averages.

And the potential for more call centers in the Hickory region is good, say local recruiters and at least one industry analyst.

More sectors are using call centers to focus on customer service, if only to retain the customer base they have in the shaky economy, McDonald said, adding that most people still prefer to speak with a person rather than get help online.

Companies also want to cut costs by outsourcing customer service, a $20 billion market that is growing by about 5 percent a year, said analyst Michael DeSalles with Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm whose clients include call centers.

Though some call-center planners look for a bilingual population to fill a portion of their agent staffing, particularly those who speak Spanish and English, McDonald said they mostly want employees who speak clearly and without much of an accent.

Inside the Convergys call center, employees in comfortable clothes sit in banks of cubicles, headphones on and hands stroking computer keyboards as they answer calls from customers.

The average agents are in their mid-30s, said site leader Aleyda Holcombe, though it's starting to attract more college-age students. Operations manager Connie Orr said some companies like to contract with centers in the South because of natives' empathetic natures.

"You call into some place usually because you're upset," she said. "A lot of people from our area kind of have more understanding, for instance: 'I can see how you'd be frustrated,' or 'I'm so sorry to hear your bill is too high this month.'"

The company _ which also has centers in Charlotte, Jacksonville and Greenville, N.C. _ declined to name its clients.

Many of its Hickory employees were laid off from furniture jobs and had been unemployed for up to six months before getting positions, Holcombe said. Here, they make $9.50 per hour starting out, plus benefits. At Covation, local economic development officials say the average salary for the work force will be $34,500, not including benefits.

The average wage in the Hickory metropolitan area is $15.68, according to the Western Piedmont Council of Governments.

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Agent Marcell Miller, 58, was laid off from a furniture job in Georgia and had moved to Hickory to be with her new husband. She looked for work for six months before Convergys hired her.

"I love it," she said. "It was really challenging to me to learn. I wasn't too tech-savvy, but with the training they give us, it's getting easier the more I do it."

The work can be stressful, though. McDonald said call centers can have high turnover because talking on the phone all day can be taxing. That's why companies look for areas with a sizable population of young people to continually replenish their work forces.

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Customer-service jobs are expected to grow by 25 percent, or 545,000 jobs, by 2016, far faster than average for all occupations.

Work can be repetitious and stressful, with little time between calls. Long periods at computers can strain the body and eyes, and some employees must work nights, weekends or holidays. But resolving customer complaints can be rewarding, while the sector suits flexible schedules and provides a clean working environment.

Most of the jobs require a high school diploma, though employers are starting to look for candidates with some college education.

_ Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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© 2009, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).