large vs small call centre

Having been involved in call centre operations across multiple sites over a number of years, the following immediately springs to mind. A 500 seat centre will have greater call handling capacity than 2 smaller centres, UNLESS you can find some way of sharing and flowing the call loads between the 2 smaller centres. This probably means you will need to have inter-centre overflow trunks.

2 smaller centres will allow business continuity and risk management strategies to be put in place, should one centre fail. Having 2 centres may allow one to back up the other. However, this may require additional technology to allow for data distribution and synchroniation of the 2 centres.

One large centre will require a large building, with high quality power, standby generators, Uninterruptable Power Systems, redundant phone and data links, etc. This is likely to be expensive to set up and maintain.

Two smaller centres may not need sophisticated power and telecommunications systems redundancy if they are in different parts of the country and can service each other’s coverage area. You might save on toll call costs too, as well as building rentals.

Smaller centres may be easier to staff as they can be sited in smaller cities and towns where the labour costs may be cheaper than a large city. You may also have an easier job recruiting a suitable pool of staff as they would not need to travel so far to work.

In the end you have to weigh up the risks vs the costs.