the establishment of call centres in france: between

Networks and Communication Studies
NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 1-2, 2002
p. 75-78
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CALL CENTRES IN FRANCE : BETWEEN GLOBALISM AND
LOCAL GEOGRAPHICAL DISPARATENESS by Nicolas Bonnet1
The geographical scales on which call centres operate represent different
configurations of centres from both the technical point of view and the human
aspect. As a result, a typology of call centres exists. The underlying rationale for
the establishment of call centres may be different, which means that explanations
for the choice of location and the very geography of the call centres involve a
certain degree of complexity.
“Technopoles” is a French term meaning a town or city with teaching and
research facilities which can support the development of hi-tech industries.
“Technopoles” resulted in France from a public initiative but the establishment of
call centres is due less to a public initiative alone than to a partnership between
various public and private players. The established institutional structures relating
to technopoles in the south of France constitute important locational advantages. It
is quite clear that, for a company, the establishment of a call centre results from a
meticulous choice relying both on technical criteria and on human parameters. It
should be noted that the latter criterion is assuming increasing importance in the
location of a centre. The Taylorism of communication which is the commonly
accepted image of call centres has tended to diminish during the past few years.
Several responses help to explain this phenomenon. In general terms, call centres
in France have on average 50 telephone executives as against 250 in the United
Kingdom. Taking into account the fact that 70 % of the operating cost of a call
centre is represented by labour, the latter requires particular attention with a view
to achieving high-quality work.
The current geography of call centres varies greatly in different parts of the
world. It is expressed both in the locations and in the technological aspect and the
cultural appropriation aspect on the part of the general public. After having been
almost absent from the call centre market since the middle of the 1990s, France has
been catching up quickly with Ireland, England and Germany. The reasons for this
are the same as those in Northern Europe. However, France has thus entered the
field of call centres both in the direction of its internal market, in particular mobile
telephones (such as the relocation of France Telecom employees in the Montpellier
call centres), and for a high quality teleservices market segment (computer
telemaintenance, management of bank or insurance accounts). The recently
established call centres in certain towns in the south of France already adopted
1. GERT/GEMS/UMR ESPACE CNRS - University of Montpellier III. Paper presented before the
Commission Networks and Telecommunication Meeting, IGU, Kwangju (Korea), August 2000.
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NETCOM, vol. 16, n° 1-2, 2002
new technologies in information and communication through their status as
technopoles. Currently, there exists less a need for technical security (private
teleport or Advanced Telecommunications Area) than a real demand for a good
environment for the telephone executives. Jobs for telephone executives are
growing in terms of interest for the employee and in terms of qualification. This is
because, for the call centre, keeping its telephone executives and supervisors
means savings in recruiting and training staff. The relocation of a certain number of
call centres from the Paris region to the provinces attests to this intention and
greatly reduces the turnover endemic in Parisian call centres. It is precisely with
these structural changes that France is beginning to harmonise with the European
countries which are most advanced in the call centre industry. In telecommunications there is nothing to choose between the networks in terms of quality or
throughput. Since 1 January 1998 with the liberalisation of the market, competition
tends to make prices uniform on a European scale, the only difference still
perceptible is between the British Isles and the continent with regard to legislation
and labour costs.
This is why France is specialising in the qualitative market segment of call
centres. However, it is the Paris region in which the great majority of call centres of
the pan-European type are concentrated. This is because the Paris region remains the
focus of concentration of multinational corporations in France. The position of
France as a crossroads in Europe and in particular between Southern Europe and
Northern Europe makes its regions an excellent anchoring point in the European
market. Call centres constitute, for towns engaged in information technology, an
asset which is quantifiable in terms of jobs and wealth. This is because emerging
towns such as Montpellier or others, such as the conurbation of Castres-Mazamet
close to the city of Toulouse, are favourably positioned. One town has a more
special position. Amiens, in the département of the Somme, has set itself up as a
laboratory for the whole of France by becoming the town of call centres. In this
town, the call centres also put themselves forward as an element in urban social
policy. The concept applied to the different social services in the town and the state
should make it possible to process current applications on social service files without
any particular equipment. The gain is two-fold for the town and for the most needy
clients since it avoids certain journeys and facilitates the processing of files.
The logic of the location of call centres cannot be stereotyped. The location
of a call centre is a response both to its own logic and to the localised data of the
site. The setting up of training and reception structures constitutes a major asset for
a town and for a region in attracting call centres. The synergy of the local players in
Amiens and Glasgow demonstrates the validation of the phenomenon. The call
centre is far from being a major reorganising element for the territory. Socioeconomic controls are the main factors in the development of the territory. The
strategies of companies are indubitably linked to their type. This is because, if the
vision of the company is that of a multinational, its establishment policy will not be
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CALL CENTRES IN FRANCE
77
the same as that of a local small or medium enterprise or a hotel call centre which
just aims at a collection of companies of small size, wishing to manage their
customer relations at lesser cost : local strategy (strictly local or national criteria) for
certain groups and dual for others (essentially local and international criteria).
Because of this plurality the location of call centres is manifested by different
establishment strategies and offers on the part of different local authorities. In the
urban integration of call centres it appears that two characteristics are displayed,
one Nordic and the other Latin. The first, like cities such as Glasgow or Amsterdam,
favours the teleports and call centres being driven towards the periphery. This
strategy is based on the setting up of a public transport system, good accessibility to
the premises by staff and all the services dedicated to the telephone executives.
Nevertheless this policy tends to put the call centres in a ghetto by creating a
veritable town of call centres at the periphery of the conurbation. The second is
organised according to the opportunities and availabilities without any specific
strategy. In the future, it may be interesting to observe how the location of future
call centres will take place in urban and out-of-town environments as well as the
territorial reorganisation of major public services which will result from this. The
stakes seem to be commensurate with the size of the societal phenomenon
constituted by this type of location.
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