Research firm to close call center.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

TNS Intersearch, a leading market research and political polling firm, will close its 85-seat call center in downtown Eugene on June 10, putting 85 to 90 employees out of work, the center's manager said Thursday.

The move is part of an industrywide shift to conducting more of this type of research over the Internet instead of the phone, manager Lisa Jawork said.

In the past 22 months, London-based TNS Intersearch has streamlined its phone research operations, shutting down five other call centers, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast, Jawork said.

Now, the company has three call centers in the United States and five in Canada, she said.

TNS Intersearch typically evaluates its operations several months before a lease comes due. The lease on TNS Intersearch's space on Lincoln Street will come due in November, Jawork said.

TNS Intersearch workers were notified in early April of the impending closure of the Eugene center, Jawork said.

She said she has hosted one on-site job fair to help employees find new jobs, and is planning another. In addition to contacting local call centers, Jawork said she has invited other employers, such as local RV manufacturers, to contact TNS employees.

Many TNS workers are eager to apply for the 240 jobs at the Royal Caribbean reservations call center when it opens in Springfield in December, so Jawork said she has invited a human resources representative from the Miami-based cruise line to visit the TNS Eugene call center.

TNS Intersearch arrived in Eugene in July 1990, setting up an office on River Road. It moved downtown in 1997.

TNS is one of the world's largest market information groups. The firm conducts customer satisfaction surveys, political polling, TV audience measurements and consumer research on products and services.

Employment at the Eugene call center generally fluctuated between 150 and 250 employees. Most worked part time, Jawork said.

The industry trend toward Internet-based surveys isn't affecting all call centers that do research over the telephone.

Venture Data, Eugene's biggest call center specializing in political polling and market research, has 323 employees, majority owner Jeff Call said.

The trend shouldn't affect political research - Venture Data's mainstay - much in the next few years, Call predicted.

Certain types of studies, such as business-to-business or membership surveys, have switched to the Internet, Call said. But surveys requiring a random sampling of the general population haven't made the switch because there are still groups of people not represented on the Internet, he said.

Internet-based research is cheaper than phone-based research, but the data quality isn't as good, Call said, adding that firms have better controls with phone surveys.