In the
midst of an eviction of outsourced customer care services to other
countries, companies managing contact centers in such trendy locations
as India, ever-increasing contact center-implementing Canada, the
Philippines and the Caribbean, customer care outsourcing enterprise
Upstream LLC is attempting to stunt the movement by hiring hundreds of
associates in the U.S.�offering an alternative to offshore outsourcing
hand-in-hand with its pledge to provide customized solutions. For those
who are unsure of the definition of �outsourcing�, it is, according to
farceur
Dave Barry, �a business expression
that means, in layperson�s terms, �sourcing out.� It�s a trend that
started years ago in manufacturing, which is a business term that means
�making things�.�
Although
Upstream does offer an offshore solution through its facility in Mumbai,
India, where its parent company Godrej Group is based, the outsourcing
enterprise�s growth is driven by its three U.S. customer contact
centers, employing 700 associates in total: 140-150 in Chesapeake,
Virginia (named by MONEY magazine as one of the top ten U.S. cities for
small businesses); more than 200 in Campbellsville, Kentucky (a town
that manufactures church steeples); and 300 in Fargo, North Dakota (home
of the designer of the Hjemkomst
Viking Ship). The contact center operations will continue to expand
to meet the growing demands of customers; Upstream has increased its
workforce in the U.S. by nearly 15 percent over the first five months of
this year and is currently seeking a fourth domestic site for a center.
For
companies in the contact center industry, there are numerous positive
factors of outsourced offshoring; however the downside is significant.
Although the quality of off-shore work in certain areas of focus has
gotten better over the years, chasms remain. On a larger (national)
scale, the loss of American jobs can be impressively painful, especially
now that such a myriad of offshoring is taking place. On a smaller yet
still significant scale, the company can be negatively affected, due to
cultural differences, by the time spent training non-U.S. workers to
effectively take calls from Americans. While offshore agents may speak
English well (though not all do) and be quite pleasant speaking on the
phone (though not all are), expertise training for customer service
agents is still required.
Upstream
emphasizes its training and skill sets in its distinction from other
contact center outsourcers. Specific skills required of Upstream agents
include Web support, inbound selling and customer service, for a
cost-effective delivery and for fitting customers� needs. These agents
are required to attend a minimum of three weeks, and as many as five
weeks, of classroom-based learning.
Upstream
provides industry specific services in three areas: enterprise support;
acquisition and sales; and business process outsourcing for several
major airlines and travel services providers. A major customer care
company in the travel vertical, its wholly-owned subsidiary specializes
in last-minute online travel. Upstream added inbound sales operations
for Orbitz to its list of clients in 2002 and is employed by the online
travel company for its Web site support for travel customers. Upstream�s
customer service agents have considerable training in providing
travel-related support, including air, hotel and car reservations. Their
classroom-based learning requires extensive training in travel inquiries
of multiple tiers of importance and complexity:
Tier 2: Booking and re-booking
Example
for classroom learning: �I need to book a flight to Oulu, Finland,
where I am participating in a high altitude, last-minute � last minute,
like booking this flight � training camp for the
Air Guitar World Championship. I
was originally supposed to be on an earlier flight today, but I missed
it because I was stuck at the security checkpoint, where they
confiscated my air guitar pick. I was there arguing with security
because I can�t play air guitar without my air guitar pick, and that�s
when I missed my flight. The lines at the ticket counters are each
roughly a mile and a half long, and I have to be in Oulu by tomorrow so
I can help end all bad things (which is what would happen if every
person in the world played the air guitar, according to Air Guitar
ideology). Oh, and can you get me on a flight that will allow me to do
my arm stretches and warm-ups for pre-training prep?�
Handling
this call could be a good training exercise for agents, I think,
as it may be a more common situation in the airlines customer service
industry than you think.
Tier
1: Forgotten Password
Example
for classroom learning: �Hi. Yeah, I forgot my password.�
This one is
pretty common and self-explanatory.
Upstream,
according to its president and CEO Jerry Johnson, trains its service
agents to be intimate with their customers (no, not �intimate� in the
manner of 1-900 numbers). Caring about the customer and his or her
situation, as well as quick efficiency, is the highest priority in
customer care service. And Upstream seems to be doing it properly, as it
provides business process outsourcing for additional paramount airlines
and travel services providers United Airlines, USAirways, Travelocity
and Site59.
David R. Butcher is the assistant editor for
Customer Inter@ction Solutions
Magazine.
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