While most contact centers can be found in more remote or suburban locations, PC Mall moved to a new call center and sales facility in downtown Chicago in September to capitalize on the city’s labor pool.
The computer reseller has had a presence in suburban Chicago for some time, says executive vice president Joseph Hayek, “but we were very excited about the opportunity to take space in a great downtown, giving us excellent access to the workforce there.”
The merchant relocated its personnel from the suburban location and is also hiring net new sales executives and support teams. The largest group of employees PC Mall expects to house in the downtown facility will be sales executives with its small- and medium-size business (SMB) segment.
“While employees from our other business units will be based there, the Chicago facility is primarily intended to house a new outbound sales center for our SMB segment,” Hayek says. PC Mall aims to have about 70 SMB workers at the location within a few months; that will bring the overall headcount there to around 100.
The new facility is cost effective, thanks to a state of the art unified communications system, excellent training facilities and an executive briefing center. And it’s located near Chicago’s public transportation system, “all of which made it a great option for us,” Hayek says.
“The Chicago facility represents an investment by us that we believe will drive incremental sales–by hiring qualified new sales executives from an excellent labor pool, we hope to leverage our existing infrastructure and brand to profitably add new revenue.”