If you think that call centre outsourcing is all about cheap and cheerless phone support, James West argues it is a practice that is maturing, with a range of options helping businesses give the best possible customer service.
Call centre outsourcing has become synonymous with poor quality support delivered by workers thousands of miles away, all in the name of saving businesses money. Yet such examples are becoming hard to come by, and many different types of outsourcing are now being used to compliment and improve the service businesses deliver in-house.
Peter Ryan, lead contact centre outsourcing analyst for Ovum, visits outsourced call centres around the world, and reports that many of the staff he meets are ‘the cream of the crop’.
He insists the market is now mature and that leading outsourcers are able to exceed the quality of service that their clients are able to offer to customers.
If this is the case, why aren’t there more positive stories about outsourcing? Rufus Grig, CTO of Azzurri Communications’ contact centre practice, says anonymity is the best endorsement for an outsourcer. “If they are doing their job properly, the customer may not notice they are dealing with an outsourcer.” And those who have managed this sleight-of-hand are not quick to shout about it for fear of alerting their competitors of its potential.
Peter Ryan says the savings once mooted are rarely realised, especially as the emerging locations for offshoring have matured. India, for example, which Ryan describes as a ‘great play’ five years ago in terms cost, has become extremely competitive, with workers demanding better benefits and higher wages in exchange for their loyalty.
Instead the reason to outsource has become more about quality. “For a good outsourcers, quality customer service is their bread and butter, and they can deal with the attrition, staffing and technological issues which are not core to most businesses,” explains Ryan.
Although long-distance offshoring destinations such as India, the Philippines and South Africa are still popular options for businesses looking to outsource, the change in emphasis from cost to relationship-building has seen the rise of ‘near-shoring’, that is the practice of outsourcing to locations closer to home soil.
For the UK, this means countries such as Poland and Egypt, while in the States it’s Canada and Mexico. Peter Ryan explains the appeal. “If there is a problem, the call centre is closer - 2-3 hours on a plane instead of long haul. Cultural familiarity is also better.”
Another option is home-shoring. This can involve working with an outsourcer based in the client’s home territory. Such an arrangement is carried out almost exclusively for quality-driven reasons, as savings will be minimal, but it does mean the customer benefits from the speciality of the outsourcer as discussed earlier.
The other type of home-shoring involves call centre agents working from home. “Not only do you lose the huge overheads associated with running a call centre, but you tend to attract older people who own their homes and have a good level of education and life experience – ideal traits for call centre workers,” says Ryan. (For more on home-working, see page 22)
Yet the future of outsourcing is not any one of the methods described above. Instead, call centre outsourcing will increasingly be defined by blending these different ideas to create the right balance.
A simple example would be retaining a home soil call centre, either through an outsourcer in the same country or managed in-house, for the queries that require special care and attention.
Some home working will be employed, perhaps allowing agents to work some days in the call centre and some from home, to minimise overheads and transport costs. Near-shore outsourcing might be employed to act as an overflow, or to offer service out of hours. “There is no magic bullet, businesses will need to find what works best for them,” says Ryan.
Please Login or Register for free to view to the full article.
|
