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Call Center Outsourcing

If you run a telephone call center there are pros and cons for outsourcing the whole operation to a third party. Here’s more information on the whole process and how it can add value to an organization.

First off we’ll look at the overall nature of a call center and what it’s purpose is.

What is a call center?

A call center is a centralized office which can handle a large volume of telephone requests on behalf of a company. They are used mainly to provide product support or to handle inquiries from consumers when the company does no have the manpower to do so itself. Most major businesses use call centers to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, banks, mail order catalogue retailers, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Outgoing calls, such as telemarketing and debt collection calls, can also be made on behalf of companies.

Operators usually work in large offices with a PC workstation and headset, connected to a telecoms switch. This office may be networked to other centers via a LAN (Local Area Network) to increase its capacity.

Why do businesses use call centers?

Many small, medium and large businesses outsource their customer support and other telephone services to avoid the expense of setting up such a service locally, which would require a large investment in office space, technology and training. Often the call centres will be located abroad in places which offer cheap labour, such as India and the Philippines.

The problems of call centers

The main disadvantage of using call centers is that the company is handing over responsibility for customer satisfaction to employs people outside the organization. If the call center is not chosen with care the reputation of the company can suffer.

Many people find dealing with call centers frustrating and problematic. The operators must be sufficiently trained to respond to customers inquiries accurately and efficiently. Waiting times must be kept to a minimum and automated queuing systems are often seen as a major source of frustration for customers who “just want to talk to a human being!” Operators working robotically from a script can also be a major cause of customer dissatisfaction.

Off-shore call centers

It has become common practice to outsource most call center operations to cheap centers of labor, the most popular of which are India and the Philippines. Both these area benefit from having a relatively high level of English although accent and cultural differences can cause major problems. For example, from 2003 many new telephone directory services were set-up in the UK following the deregulation of directory enquiries. Within a year there were over 120 services, most using overseas call centers. I made a call to such a service asking for the phone number of a “Tube Station” (Metro or underground train station) which completely baffled the Indian operative at the other end of the line. His training had not included such colloquialisms for the London Underground and I was eventually put through to a random hairdresser!

Both speakers in the USA and the UK can have very strong local accents which can confuse the overseas operative who may have an impressive command of the English language on paper but finds a string Bronx or Yorkshire accent virtually incomprehensible.

The moving of jobs out of the US or the UK can also have a negative political effect on the company who is seen to be “exporting jobs”. Sykes Enterprises, who runs call centers in the USA, shrank its local operations in 2005, yet added 10,000 call centre workstations in Costa Rica and the Philippines. Also in 2005 IBM shed 13,000 workers in Europe and the United States, but increased its payroll in India by more than 14,000.

The future of call centers

Despite the problems of overseas call centers the future seems bright for operations in certain countries. The Philippines has been slowly usurping India as the major call center outsourcing center as costs have risen sharply in India. The Philippines is also the third largest English-speaking country in the world with about 72 per cent of the population fluent in English, and has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. They have also been exposed to American culture for an extended period of time.

Other countries such as Israel, the Czech Republic and Malaysia have also seen a large increase in call center operations over the last five years. However, since the economic crisis of 2007, wage levels in the USA have decreased dramatically, especially for Hispanic workers and, as costs rise in countries such as India, call centers may well be relocated back to North America.

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