Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

Ken Carlon of Optima explains how increasing occupancy in a call center can be a key to increasing income.

What are some of the neglected or misunderstood ways to make a call center more profitable?

For outsourcers it's generally utilization in terms of occupancy.  There is a false economy that can be created around profitability by client where an outsourcer may generally feel, in order to be profitable, they need to charge a certain amount per hour.  This measure of profitability per client can be true when a center is running at 85%+ capacity, but when they are not, this model goes out the window.  The first priority should be to maximize their capacity utilization. Once a center is built and staffed, management, executive, IT, facility and equipment costs are in place and ongoing.  As long as a client is paying a rate greater than the variable cost (agent, supervisor, telephone company, etc.) associated with a given piece of business, the excess contributes to the overhead and thus the profitability of other pieces of business or the business as a whole (depending on how you look at it).  The key is any empty seat is more expensive than one occupied at a low or undesirable rate.