Red Roof Inns alone had been receiving about 2.7 million calls annually. Given the sharp rise in volume, Daniel needs a stable staff and he wants to have an environment that is attractive to new recruits. One of the advantages of the new site is that it's located in a central area of Columbus, making access more convenient to many employees. Choosing to locate an in-town call center, rather than one in the suburbs, is not only advantageous for labor reasons Daniel says cost savings were also realized because Accor secured a lease instead of buying the property outright. Accor officials also hope to experience operating efficiencies from a stable workforce that finds the conditions desirable, thus cutting agent churn.
Workstations are L-shaped, with keyboards located in the corners to maximize space usage.
The 17,000 square foot former car dealership presented opportunities for architects at KSBA to accent some of the structure's unusual and dramatic features. The back service bays, for example, became the break area and the showroom floor now accommodates administrative staff. It's not just a break center. Roger Kingsland, managing partner at KSBA, says the community center concept grew out of his firms' attempts to design a fitting successor to Accor's previous, and very popular, campus call center environment. The previous center featured several acres of land, a lake and recreation facilities for tennis and racquetball.