And now for today’s strange news: Sitel, an outsourced call center services provider, today announced the unveiling of a call center themed children’s book titled Agent D, Can You Help Me? The announcement was made at its Asheville, North Carolina call center facility this morning.

A children’s book about the call center? Is this really necessary? What kid would throw out the stories of knights, ninjas, pirates, and super heroes for tales of the customer agent in the contact center? Of course, everyone is entitled to their own passion, and for some that is call centers, but I highly doubt that children will share the same opinion. Call center operations are one of the last subjects I would use to entertain a 4 year old. Then again, if the goal is to put the little ones to sleep, it may just be a perfect construction.

Sitel calls the book a tribute to ICMI founder Gordon F. MacPherson Jr’s call center themed book, Frankie at the Call Center. I’m assuming one children’s book about the thrilling fantasy world of the call center kingdom wasn’t enough. Sitel’s 32 page book was written and illustrated by employees in the Asheville office. The book is aimed at children ages 2-8 and will emphasize “the importance of customer service representatives while teaching them to help others.” The book will purportedly help Sitel parents explain what their jobs are to their children.

Happy Government

Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, penned the book’s foreword. Yes, the governor himself found this call center children’s book worthy enough to write a foreword. I’m guessing the call center industry has a lot of weight in the state of Tennessee. The unveiling is set to happen at the Employee Appreciation Luncheon, which will be attended by several notable local and state government officials, including Asheville’s Mayor Terry Bellamy and representatives from Congressman Heath Shuler’s office.

The company’s job creation in the area is nothing to laugh at–it recently announced plans to hire 60 associates at the Asheville office. The Mayor of the city is sure to be happy about jobs being created en masse during these times of near 9% unemployment

Bert Quintana, Sitel’s president and COO, commented on the endeavour:

“As Sitel strives to mean more to our employees, we are always looking for new and creative ways to inspire them, and share our exceptional customer service culture in our call centers. I’m personally so proud of our talented Asheville team who developed a unique way for our employees across the globe to share with their children the great work they do on a daily basis.”

Well, its not up to me to judge what Sitel chooses to create for children. Its the children’s jobs to discern exactly how exciting a CSR’s day is.

What do you think about Sitel’s new children’s book? A bit much? Power to them? Why is this news? Go ahead, let loose with your comments below.