And you're in which country...?
There has been a lot in the press recently about the demise of offshore customer services. Anyone reading this blog will be aware that customer service centres went through an offshore boom in the post-millennium period as every customer services director explored offshoring – often because it was what everyone else was doing rather than for any more strategic reason.
There was an initial trend of offshore agents acting as if they were local, adopting western names and taking accent classes, well parodied in John Jeffcoat’s movie Outsourced – out now on DVD if any of you want a good laugh about cows wandering into the call centre.
But, the wind of change arrived with an immense consumer backlash. Initially this could be (and was) dismissed as a fear of change, a wariness of people in far-off lands handling consumer problems. However, a scan through the press these days shows that the depth of feeling has persisted with the argument focusing far more on quality of service.
I was talking to a call centre boss recently who has agents in Hungary and the Philippines. The company used to have agents in India, but found that the Philippines worked better with British consumers. When I asked exactly why, I was interested that, for this company, it had nothing at all to do with accent or consumer perceptions of offshoring. It was the ability of the Filipino’s to understand when the caller was joking, when the caller was being serious, when the caller needs help – in fact it was all about an ability to connect to the person at the other end of the line, rather than sticking to a service level agreement.
There is a lot that can be achieved working with global partners through offshore outsourcing, but will that interface with consumers always need to be handled locally? I’d really like to hear more opinions on this.
The call centre boss has hit the nail on the head in how he describes the Indian agents failing to ‘connect’ with the customer in comparison to Filipino staff. It would be an interesting debate as to why – a guess could be that between 1947 and 1991 India was not exposed to the West where as the Filipino history suggests closer more recent ties. A comparative study on socio-linguistics and intercultural communication may provide further clues – but whatever the reasons it is generally accepted that the Philippines is a better voice location, although more expensive and much less scalable and arguably with more geo-political risk.
Let’s analyse India’s call centre problem - the issue with customer service is all to do with scale, cost, process and short supply of suitable and culturally relevant English speaking workers. To make the required margins and to combat attrition, medium to large scale operations (150 – 1,000 plus seats) must employ freshers and inexperienced agents. Unfortunately, even if higher wages were paid, it would be difficult to find enough call centre agents as most cases these resources have moved on to other less stressful and more career relevant jobs. Deployment of international language and communication trainers is helpful but to achieve a meaningful impact on the process large numbers are needed which is financially unfeasible and politically questionable. Conclusion – it will not be possible to provide a satisfactory return on investment in savings – this is why we will continue to see a withdrawal of these bigger deals. The continuing TV commercials publicising “we provide UK only call centres” will drive further consumer annoyance with brands which continue to expose their customers to poorly equipped inexperienced Indian customer service representatives, especially where the consumer can easily switch to alternative providers. Interestingly, some of the bigger brands have brought back higher value voice processes and are now also advertising that the calls are handled in the UK, meanwhile other processes are not. So to answer your question Mark – yes consumers need to be handled locally (or in the Philippines!), unless the operations are small, niche and higher value with well trained and experienced staff in which case India can compete.
On a positive note, it’s not all doom and gloom for India’s volume call centre industry. Domestic opportunities are emerging fast as India’s middle class become more consumer centric, some reports suggesting that domestic call centres will outpace international ones within 3 years and the well known MNC’s are already jumping on the band wagon. Also, ‘higher value’ operations such as recruitment and HR process outsourcing, market research and other knowledge processes requiring some consumer contact can attract Indian professionals with previous international calling experience, providing them with a better, less stressful career and higher earnings.
Posted by: Tim Bond | Tuesday, 29 July 2008 at 06:48 PM
Well posted,In the last few years, outsourcing has transformed into a more streamlined and mature industry. Here are some of the top trends predicted for the outsourcing industry for 2008.
Posted by: Robert | Wednesday, 30 July 2008 at 01:40 PM