2003 Fast Company Magazine
Fast 50 Champions of Innovation
BE SURE TO SPREAD THE WORK AROUND
Toll-free call centers are a ubiquitous part of the "virtual" economy. But call centers themselves are almost always centralized operations, which creates lots of problems. Robert Camastro, former director of planning for worldwide reservations at United Airlines, has built a call-center company with a distributed workforce. Its six centers, all based in New Brunswick, Canada, shift calls among various locations -- allowing each operation to be smaller and more personal. In just three years, Virtual-Agent Services has grown to 500 employees and 20 high-profile clients.
