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January 29, 2007
Contact Center Outsourcing: Time to Bring the Agents Home
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
It does not take innovative thinking to determine that in order to increase profits, an organization will either have to increase revenues while keeping costs constant, or reduce internal costs, such as overhead. One of the first areas to try and cut costs is in the number of supported employees. One of the biggest drains on all cash flow for the organization: the contact center.
As a result, the trend over the past decade has been on contact center outsourcing to a firm overseas or building facilities offshore that will still be part of the parent company, all in an effort to reduce capital spent on manpower. These alternative locations were very attractive as they promised lower overall costs and a skilled and educated labor pool that would work for a fraction of their American counterparts.
While offshoring contact center operations and agents appeared to have too many benefits to ignore, many organizations jumped too soon without examining the overall implications of such a move.
Some found a degradation in the services that they could offer, a backlash from customers, cost structures not as favorable as originally perceived and even struggles in effectively managing these offerings from afar. Although many organizations made significant investments in establishing contact center operations overseas, many are finding that it is time to come home.
The ability to deliver the expected levels of customer service is a key issue for these organizations. For smaller companies especially, establishing overseas operations is not an option, therefore they must rely on overseas contractors. By doing so, they relinquish certain control over service levels. Language barriers and cultural differences can also impact service levels, which can result in a backlash from customers.
Security is also an issue when contact center operations are on foreign soil. For SMBs who have opted to trust overseas contractors, they run the risk of exposing their proprietary systems and intellectual property to dishonest individuals.
Consider India where extremely low labor costs attract large numbers of organizations looking for contact center contracts. This country also experiences extremely high turnover and contractors could be taking valuable information to competitors or even resorting to poaching and piracy. With different laws, regulations and controls throughout different countries, the organization places itself at risk.
Aside from the issues surrounding security risks and a decline in customer service, domestic changes have prompted some organizations, including large corporate enterprises such as AT&T and Dell ( News - Alert), to turn their attention back home.
Many organizations have discovered the benefit of choosing contact center operations that are domestic. Such an option could be in a college town for example. Such environments have a steady stream of talented individuals looking for flexible employment. These individuals tend to bring more to the company in terms of qualifications, and they tend to stay with the company for several years.
Another option that is proving attractive for organizations is home-based contact center agents. Technology now makes it possible for an agent in a home-based office in Florida to handle the customer service calls that come into the contact center in Colorado. The organization can realize tremendous cost savings by eliminating considerable overhead. Additionally, the organization is not limited to selecting only from the local talent pool.
While it is true that some organizations have had tremendous success with their operations overseas, the benefits of bringing contact center operations back to US soil cannot be ignored. Organizations of all sizes can realize better control over cost, service and security by refocusing their efforts to include US-based contact center operations.
(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/contact-center-outsourcing/articles/4784-contact-center-outsourcing-time-bring-agents-home.htm)
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