ContactCenter Pro
Call Center & Customer Service
Scaling Call Center to 2,500 Agents
How a BPO scaled from 800 to 2,500 agents in 18 months without proportionally expanding recruiting
ContactCenter Pro, a business process outsourcing company specializing in customer service, won several major contracts that required scaling from 800 to 2,500 agents in just 18 months. Their traditional recruiting process involved lengthy phone screens focused on communication skills and language proficiency - exactly the kind of assessment that could be automated with AI. This case study shows how ContactCenter Pro used AI voice interviews to achieve 3x growth while actually improving quality of hire and first-year agent retention.
The Results
The Challenge
ContactCenter Pro's growth opportunity came with an equally large operational challenge. To scale from 800 to 2,500 agents in 18 months, they needed to hire an average of 95 new agents every month - a pace that would require their 10-person recruiting team to conduct 400+ phone screens monthly. The math was impossible: even if recruiters did nothing but phone screens, they could only handle about 250 per month. The nature of call center recruiting added additional complexity. Success as a call center agent depends heavily on communication skills, language proficiency, tone of voice, and ability to think on your feet - qualities that are difficult to assess through resumes alone and require actual conversation. The traditional 30-minute phone screen was designed to evaluate exactly these attributes, but it was also incredibly time-consuming and difficult to standardize across different recruiters. Quality of hire was inconsistent, with some recruiters being too lenient and others too strict, resulting in first-year attrition rates of 45% - expensive and disruptive for operations.
- !Massive hiring need: 95 new agents monthly, requiring 400+ phone screens against capacity of 250
- !Communication-dependent assessment: Call center success requires evaluating voice, tone, articulation, and conversational ability
- !Inconsistent screening: Different recruiters applying different standards, resulting in 45% first-year attrition
- !Multilingual complexity: Needed agents fluent in German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish for different client contracts
The Solution
ContactCenter Pro implemented Talky to standardize and automate the initial phone screening for all agent positions. The AI interview was specifically designed to assess the core competencies required for call center success: communication clarity, active listening, problem-solving under pressure, empathy, and language proficiency. The interview was configured to last 15-18 minutes and replicated the structure of a typical customer service call. A key innovation was the multi-scenario approach. Rather than asking generic questions, the AI placed candidates in realistic customer service scenarios: "A customer is calling because they received the wrong item and they're very frustrated. How would you help them?" The AI evaluated not just what candidates said but how they said it - tone, pace, clarity, empathy in voice, and structured problem-solving approach. For multilingual positions, the AI seamlessly switched between languages to assess fluency. Candidates who demonstrated strong communication skills and customer service aptitude were automatically scheduled for final interviews with hiring managers.
- Scenario-based assessment: Realistic customer service scenarios to evaluate problem-solving and communication under pressure
- Voice quality analysis: AI evaluated tone, pace, clarity, and empathy - not just content of responses
- Multilingual evaluation: Seamless language switching to assess fluency in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
- Standardized scoring: Consistent evaluation criteria across all candidates, eliminating recruiter variability
Implementation Process
ContactCenter Pro's implementation was driven by urgency - they had new client contracts starting in 90 days and needed to ramp up hiring immediately. The project was fast-tracked with intensive involvement from the VP of Operations, recruiting leadership, and top-performing team leaders who understood what made great agents. The team spent significant time designing the scenario-based interview questions. They analyzed call recordings from top-performing agents to identify the specific communication patterns, problem-solving approaches, and voice qualities that correlated with success. These insights were translated into AI evaluation criteria and scenario design.
Rapid Discovery (Days 1-5)
Analyzed call recordings from top vs. bottom quartile agents to identify differentiating communication patterns. Interviewed operations managers and team leaders to define the ideal agent profile. Documented key competencies and created evaluation rubric.
Scenario Design & Voice Calibration (Days 6-12)
Designed 8 realistic customer service scenarios covering common issue types. Tested scenarios with 30 current agents to calibrate AI scoring. Fine-tuned voice quality analysis to distinguish between nervousness and actual communication issues.
Integration & Testing (Days 13-18)
Integrated with Workday ATS. Set up automated interview invitation workflows. Configured multilingual capabilities and tested with native speakers of each language. Established scoring thresholds based on current agent performance data.
Pilot & Full Launch (Days 19-25)
Soft-launched with 100 applicants while maintaining parallel traditional screening. Compared AI evaluations to recruiter assessments. Made final calibration adjustments. Rolled out to full hiring pipeline starting Day 26.
The Results
The results were exceptional across every metric. Over 18 months, ContactCenter Pro screened 8,437 candidates through AI interviews and successfully hired 2,547 agents - achieving their growth target and then some. The time from application to completed screening dropped from 8 days to 3 hours, dramatically accelerating the hiring pipeline and reducing candidate drop-off. Most impressively, the quality of hires improved significantly. First-year agent retention increased from 55% to 75%, reducing the costly cycle of rehiring and retraining. Operations managers reported that agents who had passed the AI screening were consistently well-prepared for the actual demands of call center work. The standardized scoring eliminated the recruiter variability that had previously caused quality inconsistencies. And with recruiters freed from conducting 400+ phone screens monthly, they were able to focus on candidate relationship management, improving the overall candidate experience and employer brand.
"Talky's AI interviews actually do a better job of assessing communication skills than human phone screens because they're completely consistent and unbiased. Every candidate gets the same scenarios and is evaluated on the same criteria. It's not just faster - it's more accurate. Our agent quality and retention have never been better."
Marcus Schmidt
VP of Operations, ContactCenter Pro
Key Takeaways
Scenario-based AI interviews are highly effective for assessing communication skills and customer service aptitude
Voice quality analysis (tone, pace, empathy) can be automated to provide consistent evaluation across all candidates
Standardized AI screening eliminates recruiter variability, improving both hiring quality and fairness
Multilingual AI capabilities enable efficient scaling for BPOs serving diverse client needs
Improving quality of hire (75% vs 55% retention) delivers greater ROI than volume alone when scaling operations
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