If your contact center is in the fortunate position of expanding, and your executives are queasy about home agents or outsourcing, one way to keep costs down while maintaining performance is buying used high-quality furniture: chairs, workstations, cubes and filing cabinets. Many of the items on the market today are from companies, including contact centers that were set up in only the past few years but which have folded, contracted, or moved offshore (or home), which means they are quite good shape.

 

Like any used item you have to look under the hood, i.e. if it moves it can (and does) wear down, snap, get jammed and break, like chair cylinders and piston rods and the wires inside cube raceways from too many reconfigurations. Therefore it pays to buy from professional dealers rather than say accepting a deal on a just-vacated center with the furniture thrown in because it sounds good and gets you up and running ASAP.

 

Arnolds Office Furniture, which is based in Bridgeport, Pa., is one such firm. It specializes in used cubicles and has them in every size, shape and color. The firm, which ships and installs nationwide, has more than 100,000 square feet full of brand new looking used office furniture, cubicle walls, system furniture, cubicles, work stations, conference tables and contact center furniture. It also has fireproof filing cabinets chairs, desk and tables, executive office furniture and office equipment.

 

And to sweet the offerings even further Arnolds is discounting used cubicles.

 

“The economy is hurting everyone now, so we are helping new or expanding businesses by saving them startup cash,” owner Jay Berkowitz said.

 

Floor planning is a critical element when outfitting and office with cubicles. Arnolds will introduce a floor plan design that allows more interaction between the users, such as  contact center agents and the workspaces. They adopt what the firm calls “a human centered approach to interior office design” whether it is three or 1,000 used cubicles; each customer gets their undivided attention when business owners work them. They create functional workstations that meet the needs of individuals and businesses simultaneously.

 

Arnolds Office Furniture has a team of highly trained staff who have worked in the office furniture business for many years and will help guide businesses through the entire office design and installation process. They are very familiar with fire and building codes that affect the office layout. They help find the exact furniture system that best fits a contact center and/or office space and that also creates a comfortable work environment for employees and maximizes productivity in the process.

 

An important part of workspace planning is knowing just how much furniture can fit into a specified area. Arnolds Office Furniture can design a visual layout their floor plan. This allows businesses to see how much space the furniture they’ve selected will take up; they will know things like if an additional cubicle will fit in the room or if the column in the center will not allow as many workstations to be installed as planned.

 

Being able to see a floor plan with actual dimensions can assure executives that they are making an informed purchasing decision. A proper design layout can prevent installation issues such as blocking an important wall switch or thermostat or not being close enough to a power source.

 

With this combination of expertise and quality value furniture that is even more attractively priced, why should organizations (like contact centers) buy new?