A lot of these site selection decisions are based on general cost and labor availability issues. The companies that are opening call centers in these smaller communities are not downsizing the size of their facilities. Many call centers typically have 400 to 500 employees. By creating this presence they know other call centers will not want to move into that market and compete for them for a limited pool of workers. Small cities are viable for many but not for all types of call centers and requires staffing and recruiting expertise to find sufficient numbers of workers.
Word of mouth spreads extremely fast.
If you have a good reputation and like being part of the community this works to your advantage. If you have a poor reputation but you can find enough people you will also survive. If you are lousy company and you can't recruit sufficient agents you shouldn't think about locating there. Companies that require large workforces, and have high turnover should stick to metro areas that have sufficient population and workforce inflows to replenish labor supply, suggests Shapiro. Metro areas also provide access to supervisory and managerial talent, and to training vendors and better transportation.