Mendota Foods sells a variety of food products around the world. The company engages directly with individuals with an interest in cooking by offering ideas and recipes in various staff blogs and podcasts. The management team at Mendota believes this drives brand loyalty and allows Mendota to charge a premium for its products. One initiative that Mendota has been running for the last three years is a call center with staff who can provide help and answer questions about cooking in general and Mendota products in particular. The chief financial officer is interested in learning more about the costs of this initiative and how they vary with the demands placed on the center. To help answer the question, the financial staff have collected call center volume (number of calls) and call center cost for the last 12 months. During a discussion of those results, one of the cost analysts suggests that length of the calls (total hours) is probably a better driver of call center costs. The managers asked the analyst to collect the information and report on how it should be used.

The combined data follow:

Month Number of Calls Hours Call Center Costs

1 $61,250 16,110 $288,210

2 67,200 17,190 268,145

3 60,300 16,050 238,550

4 62,050 14,550 244,565

5 45,300 12,670 182,750

6 74,200 20,050 280,740

7 52,150 13,230 252,760

8 65,650 17,590 282,845

9 77,550 21,200 314,975

10 45,300 10,450 153,725

11 66,750 18,510 292,460

12 69,950 18,870 271,935

Using the results of a multiple regression of call center costs on call center calls and call center time (hours), input the following:

e-1. Enter the regression coefficients.

e-2. Estimate the call center cost in a month of 62,750 calls and 16,500 hours of call center time (hours) using the results of a multiple regression of call center costs on call center calls and call center time (hours).