Most businesses invest fortunes in any way they think will make their company thrive, from advertising and brand management to environmentally and socially sound operations, but there is one aspect of that latter business trend that is of particular significance. While many consumers familiarize themselves with a company through such general avenues as the ones that are opened by a business's marketing machine, many more seek a personal connection, and for these people, it will usually be the call centre that will be the first point of call. And while the proliferation of phone and answering equipment has, in theory, rendered this contact more user-friendly, any call centre is only as effective as its staff, and so it pays for any company to invest in treating them right.

Call centres are infamous for exhibiting one of the highest staff turnovers in the corporate world, and this is because dealing with unsatisfied customers on a daily basis can be a gruelling task. Whether consumers are justified in speaking in such a disgruntled way to a fellow human being, the fact remains that call centre workers are the first and often only face these consumers meet, and as such, they are the recipients of any dissatisfaction an individual feels for a particular corporation. And while call centre staff sign on for this sort of treatment when they commit their signature to a contract, it is often not the angry consumer that leads to their resignation, but rather the lack of support they receive from the company they work for.

Corporate social responsibility is a business concept that call centres need to embrace in order to continue to operate in the future. The notion of CSR means that companies aim to operate in a sustainable way, ensuring their continued existence in the future. Advocates of this theory suggest that all of a company's stakeholders be treated respectfully and responsibly, and they recognize that chief among these stakeholders are a company's staff.

Call centre staff perform a difficult job, but it should not be a thankless one. As the first representatives of any business, they perform an extremely important task, and this needs to be recognized, both in terms of financial recompense and in the guise of support from senior management. Without this recognition, the notion of business sustainability suggests that call centres will ultimately become a non-viable way of working, as staff members realize that they can earn more money, and be treated with more respect, elsewhere.