Outsourced Call Centers Mean Unexpected Quality Developments

Some inwardly cringe at the thought of call center outsourcing. Thick accents, ignorant call center representatives and a host of other, even less positive developments could follow. A new report in the JD Supra Business Advisor, meanwhile, notes that there are a lot of misconceptions about the outsourced call center, and addressing these means getting the most out of outsourcing.

National Association of Call Centers director of research Paul Stockford pointed out that, the higher the perceived value of the customer, the greater the likelihood that the call center involved would be in the United States. With an estimated 66,000 such call centers in place, that means a lot of high-value callers out there.

This points to the first big myth about outsourcing in call centers: outsourced doesn't always mean “off-shored”. Call center outsourcing does take place within the United States, and it operates just as well as an on-premises call center. Customers that believe the call center agent is speaking clearly will stick around even in the face of major issues; a hefty 88 percent will hang in there. When the agent doesn't speak clearly, that drops to just 35 percent.

Another myth is just how comparable business-to-consumer (B2C) call centers are to business-to-business (B2B). A B2B hotline might actually need to process calls equivalent to about three percent of its total employees per year, and that's a huge quantity less than a B2C call center. B2B callers, though, will have much more specific issues to address, and these can be prepared for in advance.

Some believe that a call center's quality is better when operated on an in-house basis, likely believing that if it can be observed and measured, it can be better controlled for quality. Yet there's a key misunderstanding in there; in-house systems face big problems in overall scalability and the level of training provided.  Adding or subtracting employees from a call center can be difficult, and expensive in terms of lost opportunity. Two major firms—Time Warner Cable and Comcast (News - Alert)—both operate in-house call centers, and neither company has done well in terms of customer service recently. Both are looking to change this, however, and it might be that the in-house call center will be one of the first points on the block. Couple together frequent turnover and high overhead, and the in-house call center can be a rough ride.

With businesses often looking to save money here, instead of regarding the call center as the face of the business—or even, as some have found, a powerful marketing tool—the call center can end up used as a sales floor strong-arm or a squad of poorly paid drones rattling off the company line. Once businesses get a handle on the various myths of outsourcing, and find the kind of value it can offer, there might be a lot more outsourcing done than ever...and that outsourcing may end up closer to home than some expect.

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