DATE: Sunday, July 13, 1997                 TAG: 9707120607

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  212 lines

1-800-HAMPTON ROADSMORE THAN 40 CALL CENTERS MAKE THEIR HOMES HERE - AND SEVERAL ARE ON THE WAY. ARE THEY GOOD BUSINESS?

The roar of a jet passing over the TWA Reservations Center in Norfolk makes Jeff Black smile.

``It lends an air of authenticity when a plane flies by,'' said Black, TWA's director-area reservations.

On their way to Norfolk International Airport, jets regularly fly over the center on North Military Highway - good props for an airline reservations operation where about 230 full-time sales agents field, on average, 100 calls a day from customers.

``Hello. TWA. This is Ann Smith. How may I help you?''

The names change, but it's the sort of greeting used throughout Hampton Roads as the area becomes a magnet for call center businesses.

The area has more than 40 call centers, facilities devoted to answering inbound calls, making outbound calls, or both, according to the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance. The centers employ nearly 12,000 people.

It's a growing industry, too. Through 1995, the area hosted 37 call centers. Since then, another half-dozen firms such as TWA and Gateway 2000, the big computer company, have opened centers here, hiring thousands more.

``When these national or international firms look for a site to set up or relocate a call center, Hampton Roads comes on the radar screen,'' said alliance President Hans Gant.

The majority of area call centers receive inbound calls on toll-free numbers to take orders or answer questions. Also included in that group are telemarketing operations, with workers calling to sell products or services. Some centers do both.

Companies with recognizable names like Bell Atlantic and Panasonic have call centers in Hampton Roads. So do lesser-known firms such as MAP Mobile Communications Inc. in Chesapeake, which has a call center with 400 employees for the firm's pager customers.

Nationwide, call centers constitute a $650 billion industry that employs 4 million people. Every day, about 60 million calls are made to toll-free numbers.

Someone has to answer them. And odds are improving that person will be in Hampton Roads.

``Customer service has grown rapidly over the last five years,'' Gant said. ``Companies look for an area with the right labor pool to make them successful.''

Hampton Roads has it.

``We're pleased with the caliber of people we hired,'' TWA's Black said. ``There's an abundant supply of workers here.''

Maybe better than anywhere. TWA has call centers in Chicago, San Francisco and Kansas City. ``We've had more success in recruiting here than anyplace,'' Black said.

Even before TWA opened in June 1996, Black said, he had a pool of 5,000 applicants who came to the building while it was under construction.

Bell Atlantic could have chosen any one of six states or the District of Columbia as the home for the new call center it opened last Monday in Newport News.

One of the biggest reasons it picked Hampton Roads was the experienced labor pool, said Dan Mahoney, senior vice president for marketing for the Faneuil Group in Boston, which staffs and operates the call center for Bell Atlantic Plus, a subsidiary of the local telephone company.

Mahoney described the Newport News facility as a megacenter for the Bell Atlantic region. Workers market cellular phones and Internet service, and when Bell Atlantic can offer long distance, they will handle that too.

But call center work isn't for everyone. Agents must be comfortable on the phone and able to talk to different people all day.

``The main thing we're looking for is communication skills,'' Mahoney said. ``In all instances, the customer service representative is the contact for the company.''

WHY HERE?

Hampton Roads has a distinct advantage with large groups of qualified workers at the nearest college campus or military base.

Call centers ``tend to draw from student populations,'' Gant said. ``They look for a concentration of military dependents. Spouses and other family members make a good pool for call centers.''

Students and military dependents might want flexible work schedules or part-time jobs - sometimes a drawback for other jobs. In call center work, it's the nature of the business.

Answering inbound telephone calls doesn't earn a huge salary. Pay at the Bell Atlantic center starts at $6.50 an hour, with added incentives available. TWA agents make between $5.50 an hour and $8.50 an hour. Sales incentives help there, too - 25 percent to 30 percent more.

``We have very good benefits,'' TWA's Black said. Besides health insurance and paid vacations, workers receive travel discounts, and the flexibility to trade shifts with each other.

The entry-level jobs also can lead to career paths.

Employees can move up in the management-coaching structure. Mahoney said the Bell Atlantic-Plus center has one coach or manager for every 12 people on the phones.

Call center agents move into the training ranks or into human resources, too, where they hire and establish policy.

And call center managers make more than agents. One executive recruiting firm listed the job of call center vice president as one the 13 hottest jobs for 1997.

``Vice president-call centers is expected to see a 51 percent growth in 1997,'' said Jeffrey Christian, president and CEO of Christian & Timbers, Cleveland. ``These businesses will grow tenfold in the next three years.''

Growth requires happy and healthy workers.

Gateway 2000 call center managers in Hampton provide a positive atmosphere to keep morale up. A plaque above the door reads, ``Through this portal pass the greatest customer support professionals in the world.''

Gateway addresses the physical side of the job, too. The company searched call centers across the country for the best layout, processes and furniture.

The 300 call center workers use scientifically sculpted desks, keyboard stands and chairs.

TWA paid attention to office ergonomics for its reservation center, too.

The building is divided into four sections, each with about 115 workstations for 460 agents. Chairs adjust up and down, with seat backs that move back and forth. Keyboards are equally adjustable, up and down and in and out from beneath desktops.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Walking by workstations personalized with calendars, photos and miniature jets, Black explains how important morale is to call center agents.

``They're the front door to the whole company,'' he said.

Dress is relaxed for agents: sport shirts, shorts and casual dresses. It helps ease the strain of the job.

``You come in, you sit down, you take a call,'' Black said. ``The challenge is that you may be the one-hundredth person I've talked to today, but I have to make you feel like you're the first.''

Two 15-minute breaks during the 8 1/2-hour shift break up the call-answering routine - at least a little. As they can during half-hour lunch breaks, agents can snack in the break room or rest in the TV lounge. Outside, the center has a picnic area and a short walking trail.

Training keeps morale up, too, as workers refresh and update their skills and share customer service tips.

After 20 years as a reservation sales agent with TWA, Leslie French began conducting classes last spring. For a refresher class on telephone etiquette, French instructed a group of eight agents.

To the two men and six women - the TWA center is about 83 percent female - French stressed a cardinal rule of call center work: ``Leave your problems behind when you walk in the door.''

Everyone has baggage, she tells the agents. ``People calling in also have baggage. How do you handle it?''

With QTIP: ``Quit Taking It Personally.''

``The whole time you're on the phone, keep a positive attitude,'' French told the group. ``Positive people make more money.''

A positive attitude needs confidence. ``If you sound unsure,'' one of the agents said, ``they won't believe you.''

Still, there are difficult calls, customers who don't make the job easy.

``What do you do?'' French asked.

``Adapt and overcome,'' said Justin Thornton of Chesapeake, one of the the two men in the class.

Dressed comfortably in sport shirt and shorts, Thornton speaks confidently, perhaps a legacy of four years as a U.S. Marine.

But don't think the former leatherneck longs for more esprit de corps in the female-dominated workplace. ``It's easier to work with women,'' he said. ``There are no big egos.''

Call center work requires a lack of ego. The common goal for all agents, French reminded them, is to provide excellent customer service.

``When these people call in, we are talking to the world. Would you want to talk to you?''

After 20 years, French says she still enjoys call enter work.

``I like the versatility, talking with people on the phone and the flexibility,'' she said. ``I like being on stage with every call.''

Charline Hicks of Norfolk came to the TWA Reservations Center shortly after it opened. Before that, she worked for five years as a hostess at a restaurant - working a second job as a telemarketer for the last six months of 1996.

She prefers answering inbound calls. ``In telemarketing, you have to call people and talk them into something,'' she said. ``Inbound calls are easier because they're calling, they know what they want.

She would like to conduct classes like French's, but she does not have her sights set on management.

Justin Thornton has other goals. ``I want to be CEO.''

ECONOMICALLY SOUND

The rise from entry level to higher positions in the industry is one reason Hans Gant likes Hampton Roads' growing reputation as a home for call centers.

``These are good jobs to bring to the area,'' he said. ``There are different levels within the customer service industry. Level three is the higher end. It requires different skills, more advanced workers. We have a good balance between the first, second, and third levels.''

The balance gives workers a chance to move up and opens opportunities to train at the lower end.

``Once the market has reached a certain level of employment in the customer service field,'' Gant said, ``you see pay go up and these become very good jobs.''

Gant cites Panasonic's 1995 arrival in Chesapeake, where it opened a worldwide call center for all of its products. ``These jobs require a lot of technical skills,'' he said.

Last spring's announcement that Chubb Insurance would open a call center in Chesapeake means even more high-end opportunities.

``These jobs will pay better than what people typically think customer service jobs pay,'' Gant said.

Pay for the three levels of work at call centers and other similar operations, Gant said, begins at about $7 or $8 an hour for entry level jobs. The second level of call center jobs requiring more education earn salaries in the low $20,000-a-year range. Workers at the most technically oriented call center jobs can expect to make a salary in the low $30,000-range.

Aside from paying call center agents, TWA had to invest in Technology. Touring the reservations center, Jeff Black described it as a $6 million building, with about $3 million invested in computer and phone equipment.

The cost is part of the territory, just like the noncompetitive nature the call centers in Hampton Roads enjoy - at least for now.

TWA is the only airline call center in Hampton Roads. If there were three or four airline call centers here, Black said the competition for employees would create more turnover.

``We know each other exists,'' Black said. ``My sense from talking to others is that the wide range of call centers hasn't hurt anyone.''

But the trend for the local call center industry suggests that more airlines will come to Hampton Roads in the future.

Then the competition will take off. ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

ABOUT 460 FULL-TIME TWA SALES AGENTS FIELD ABOUT 20,000 CUSTOMER

CALLS A DAY...

THE MAJORITY OF AREA CALL CENTERS, LIKE TWA'S IN NORFOLK, RECEIVE

INBOUND CALLS ON TOLL-FREE NUMBERS...

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu