NCO to Close Call Center in Canada

NCO Group will close a customer service call center in Sault St. Marie, Ontario in November, according to a report from a local paper. The call center currently employs 300 people.

The accounts receivable management and business process outsourcing (BPO) giant informed employees late last week that the office would be closing November 27. Local Economic Development Corp. president Bruce Strapp said that his organization has also been briefed by NCO management.

The shuttering of the call center was prompted by NCO’s loss of an outbound calling contract for a U.S. client, according to The Sault Star.

The call center was a part of NCO’s 2004 acquisition of customer relationship management firm RMH Teleservices (“NCO Group to Acquire RMH Teleservices for $89 million,” Nov. 19, 2003).

Strapp noted to The Sault Star that the city had attracted offices for U.S. call center operators in recent years due to the U.S. dollar’s strength against the Canadian dollar and the city’s close proximity to the U.S. Sault Ste. Marie lies across the St. Marys River from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

But the recent strengthening of the Canadian dollar has led many call center operations in the city to reconsider the advantage of operating there, according to Strapp.