Catena is now Pearl Talent! Same mission, new name.
Call center turnover isn't changing any time soon. Having your staff float in and out of positions is part of this line of work. In fact, customer service turnover averages 38% annually, with some centers seeing rates as high as 60%. Those who decide to stay usually only stick around for 15 months.
It's no surprise your call center is working overtime to keep up with customer demands. Your agents are short on time, energy, and about ready to burn out.
It’s difficult to know which path to follow when it comes to call center staffing. However, you know you need help filling positions. Posting on a job site and sifting through a mountain of applications doesn’t sound effective, so what other options are there?
In this guide, you'll learn:
Hiring in-house means you're filling positions with local candidates using traditional channels. Sometimes, it makes sense to do this. Job boards, local recruiters, staffing agencies, and employee referrals work well to fill certain positions locally. However, it often depends on what type of roles you're hiring for and whether you need physical presence.
What you get:
What you give up:
When it makes sense: Enterprise teams with dedicated HR departments, industries requiring physical presence, or highly specialized/regulated sectors.
Outsourcing means partnering with vendors who handle call center operations. There are two main options:
Outsourcing, while it can work for some organizations, often creates quality control challenges. With the right talent partner, you'll gain access to professionals with customer service expertise without losing control of your operations.
Remote call center staffing means hiring skilled professionals from global talent markets to work remotely as part of your team. With the right talent partner, you'll gain access to professionals with specialized customer service training, diverse experience, and deep expertise. Many international call center professionals are trained specifically for US customer service standards and bring immense value to their positions.
These roles don't require physical presence but still need customer service expertise.
Here’s who falls into this category:
Your local talent pool for call center positions may be thin and expensive. Hiring internationally will bring you talented and experienced customer service professionals without the inflated salary expectations of competitive local markets. The average US call center representative earns $50,028 annually, plus benefits and office costs. International talent delivers the same quality at 30k total cost.
Hiring internationally for customer service roles lets you scale your team without overworking existing agents. This is both a quality-of-life decision and a financial one. When your agents aren't constantly underwater with volume, they handle customers better and stay longer. Your team has more capacity to deliver excellent service, and they're less likely to burn out.
Ask yourself the following questions:
If the role doesn't require hands-on in-person presence, it's likely remote-ready.
Do you need to fill any roles like these?
Analyze more than salary costs. Factor in benefits, payroll taxes, office space, equipment, turnover risk, and time-to-hire. Compare that to international hiring cost, typically 40-60% lower in total.
US-based in-house agent:
Remote international agent (Pearl):
Run the numbers on what you'd save annually, then decide what to do with those savings.
International hiring can get complicated quickly without the right guidance, support, and maintenance. At Pearl Talent, we manage candidate vetting, compliance, and onboarding, and give you ongoing support. In short, we handle the complexities so you get the benefits of hiring internationally.
You don't have to overhaul your entire staffing model overnight. Start with 1-2 roles (maybe customer service representatives or technical support). Prove the model works, then expand as you go.
At Pearl Talent, we provide end-to-end support from job scoping to onboarding to ongoing management. We handle what makes international staffing complex so you can focus on delivering excellent customer service.
Through international staffing, you access the same caliber of talent at 40-60% lower cost than US hires.
Pearl always places pre-vetted call center professionals.
Here’s how it works:
We only accept the top 1% of candidates through a high-quality screening process. Pre-screened for de-escalation skills, empathy, problem-solving, and technical adaptability. You meet 2-3 pre-qualified candidates, not 200 random applicants.
Our candidates come pre-trained in customer service fundamentals:
Your onboarding focuses on your products and processes, not teaching customer service basics.
AI won't replace your call center team, but call centers that don't use AI strategically will get left behind. That’s why every Pearl Talent call center professional goes through Pearl’s AI+, a 5-week training program that teaches them how to use AI across everything they do.
We don't stop working with you after just one placement. Pearl learns what works for your team and keeps sourcing similar talent. When turnover happens, you're never scrambling.
Ready to place the top 1% of call center talent on your team? Book a consultation and fill your first position in just 2 weeks.
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Salary.com. “Call Center Representative Salary.” Salary.com, 2025. https://www.salary.com/research/salary/listing/call-center-representative-salary.
