The City of Douglas and the Industrial Development Authority are working together to bring a call center to Douglas.
 ACT has been providing call center services for more than 10 years. It is looking at putting its second Arizona location in Douglas. |
The city group – City Manager Curtis Shook, City Attorney Anita Sanchez, Ana Urquijo from Human Resources, Andrew Dym from Data Services and Economic Development Director Victor Gonzalez—met with representatives from the city of San Luis, where the call center is located, before touring the facility.
Call centers have been discussed for Douglas for the last four to five years, but this is the first real visible movement by the city to prepare for a center.
The city already passed the first reading of a resolution that would approve the purchase of the old Bayless Property, located on 10th Street, and the Tash Property, on 9th Street, for the center.
The Bayless building is 56,0000 square feet, larger than required for the 30,000 square feet the center needs. The two properties would also provide the 500 parking spaces required by the call center.
The city has been discussing locating a call center here with Advanced Call Center Technologies (ACT) which operates the facility in San Luis.
It started with 150 employees a year ago and is now looking to hire an additional 150 to bring its total work force up to 750.
If located in Douglas, the call center would employ 125 to start, but would be built up to 500 total employees.
“It was a very successful trip,” Shook said. “We should begin the negotiation process with ACT shortly.”
Joe Lembo, president of ACT led the group on an hour-long tour of the facility in San Luis. That facility includes two large rooms with banks of phones and computers, a control room, cafeteria and training space.
The average employee in San Luis was 19 years of age and either attending college or on their own for the first time. Based on those that attended the Job Fair a few months ago, it is assumed that the age range will be older for the Douglas center.
Pay starts at $8 per hour, but if the new employee is on time with no sick days for their first month, it goes up to $9.
There were also incentives and bonuses for meeting goals and overall excellent performance.
What is a Call Center?
A call center is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.
A call center is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call center, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact center.
A call center is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call center agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centers, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the center are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).
Most major businesses use call centers to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centres. Examples of this include help desks and sales support.
Advanced Call Center Technologies
Founded in Georgia in 1996, ACT began delivering a full range of services. ACT is a privately held corporation headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.
ACT is a performance driven provider of contact center and back office support services. With over a decade of successes, leading companies in the financial services, communications, and technology industries rely on ACT for proven results managing their customer relationships.
“Our live operator, automated IVR, and back office solutions are designed to deliver a better customer service experience, generate more revenue, and streamline back office processing.
“Our formula for success is simple. Combine tested and proven business processes, leading technology, and dynamic delivery teams to create consistent world class results,” ACT’s website said.
ACT has developed comprehensive services offerings, including:
√ Customer Management
√ Receivables Management
√ Spanish Language Services
√ Back Office and Technical Support
Spanish Language Services- Speaking the Customer’s Language.
Connecting with customers in Spanish is no longer a courtesy – it is a necessity. Nearly 50 percent of US Hispanic identifies having limited English skills. With spending in the US Hispanic market place projected to reach $1 trillion by 2010, in language services are a strategic imperative. ACT can help you penetrate the Hispanic market through a variety of channels including customer care/retention, customer acquisition/sales, technical support and receivables management programs.
ACT bridges the communication gap with native speaking, bi-lingual agents. ACT attracts, develops and retains a highly skilled bilingual workforce with the ability to compete in the global market. Our in language service incorporates the complexity and subtlety of culture and colloquialism while maintaining the integrity of the program and goals. This two tiered in language approach allows our agents to truly connect - driving revenue, asset recovery, and customer loyalty.
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