AC Contact Center Looks to Provide an Economic Boost

With many Atlantic City casino workers losing their jobs, the Atlantic City Contact Center aims to fill the void.

By Anthony Bucci, Assistant Editor  On Dec 14, 2015

NETCAST BPO, a provider of contact center and business process outsourcing services, recently celebrated the grand opening of its newest venture, the Atlantic City Contact Center.

Based out of the first two floors of the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City, the contact center will process inbound and outbound customer calls for a variety of industries including retail, financial services, hospitality, utilities, healthcare and telecommunications, among others.

According to Warren Golden, president of NETCAST BPO, the company decided to bring the center to Atlantic City not only because of the lack of contact center businesses in the area, but due to the shrinkage of the casino industry, it will provide “many individuals who lost their jobs an opportunity to work in a customer service application again.” Additionally, the company will receive $32.7 million in tax credits over 10 years through the Economic Development Authority’s Grow New Jersey Assistance Program, as long as it creates and retains a “promised” amount of jobs in the area.

“Our plan is to hire approximately 332 individuals in several different phases by early 2016,” Golden says. “And, the tax credits allow us to provide lower rates to our customers to help us get the business we need to keep the people we have working, while growing the business.”

Earlier this year, the contact center held a job fair, in which Golden says hundreds of potential applicants came to apply.

“We had an extremely overwhelming response at our job fair, where we interviewed approximately 400 candidates,” he says. “Most of them were casino workers, who tend to be extremely qualified for the positions that we have available, as they are attuned to working in customer relations.

“It is a very good partnership to be able to work in and with Atlantic City,” Golden continues. “We are bringing jobs to an area that needs more open positions. And, we get the benefit of having experienced, qualified and customer-orientated individuals.”

Moving forward, the company plans on opening more locations in the Atlantic City area once it meets its objectives.

“Our initial goal is to hit approximately $14 million of business per annum in the current center, while hiring the 332 people that we projected with the state,” Golden concludes. “And after that, we plan to open a second similar contact center in the area, with the potential of opening a third and a fourth. With the current and anticipated future demand for our call center services, the total of number of jobs created could potentially reach 1,000 to 1,300 by 2018. I think that is a substantial economic impact for the Atlantic City area and is something we are very excited about.”

 

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