Call Centre Outsourcing to India cut Costs: What about the Quality of Services?
Giant industries like Time Warner Corp and the Wall Street Journal have made global headlines claiming to have outsourced some or their entire call center workforce in an attempt to cut costs. One the other hand, Industry giants like Dell and Capital One stand rigidly in their position that outsourcing operations have influenced more costs than benefits to the companies. The dilemma between whether call center offshore outsourcing is beneficial or adds costs to the business has stirred a debate that has shaken the global business industry. This discussion points to the fact that, call center outsourcing is an important decision that the firm has to contemplate accurately acknowledging both sides of the coin carefully.
During the early 90’s companies began exploring the idea of outsourcing call center services and BPO programs to foreign countries, as a means to cut cost and improve business efficiency (Kumar, 2012). India was among the first countries to accept and adapt to the innovation, a decade down the line has left India being a first country that organizations consider to offshore their call center services. The paper attempts to evaluate the significance of call center outsourcing to India, as a means of explaining the importance of call center outsourcing. The writer should focus on the advantages and disadvantages that call center outsourcing has brought upon companies, and the country itself. Conclusively the author is expected to identify the relationship between call center outsourcing and its relevance in regards to quality of services and the global business market.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Discussion
With the change and development in technology, the business world has had no other option rather than constant improvements and quality maintenance. One would argue that, as technology has developed and offered more options, the customer expected to receive more options with high levels of quality. Call center offshore outsourcing simply defines the process where a company obtains an external service provider, outside the United States to operate and manage the company’s call center. Companies can outsource a part of the call center operations example sales, marketing, marketing research or outsource the entire company call center. Once an organization has outsourced the call center, the company will use a hand off approach in observing the performance of the external service provider (Yakhlef, 2009). The external provider is responsible for the hiring and training of all the call agents, and typically the day to day call center operations thereby the decision to call center offshore outsourcing is an important one in the business.
Several companies like Dell, Capital One and JP Morgan Chase have walked away from outsourcing, claiming the process to have more costs that outweigh the benefits. A recent study shows that one of the main limitations of outsourcing call centers is the decreased customer satisfaction. Call center offshore outsourcing causes a major decline of quality services provided by the company. Research shows that different enterprises that have attempted to outsource their call center have experienced a significant decrease in service quality and customer satisfaction. This is mainly caused by linguistic and cultural barriers that come up in the offshore call center. Example, an American company, outsourcing its call center to India does not share a similar culture to that of India. Since the external service provider is solely responsible for the hiring and training of call agents, there is a high probability that most of the agents will be of Indian Origin.
Officers hired may lack the cultural knowledge, fluency and communication skills that are vital in laying good communication grounds with the customer. However, according to a recent study company satisfaction rates have been identified to go down regardless of whether the company outsources domestically or abroad. But businesses that have outsourced to India have exhibited the factor of language and cultural barriers to be a limitation of offshore call center outsourcing. Some scholars have argued that outsourcing overseas leaves the company with little or no control of the call center. This results in a bad business culture and poor quality services provision (Reyes Gonzalez, 2006). When the company approaches the external service provider, it is stated that the enterprise uses the hands-off approach and allows the center to function independently.
Since the offshore call center does not bear the culture, practices, and values of the business, then the call center may conduct practices that are not efficient to the customer. On another perspective, one may argue that agents employed may not be aware of the business’s goals and knowledge. Officers who are hired may be ineffective in getting the work done, resulting in decreasing service quality and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, agents working for the call center may not work together in the same area; this may lead to the lack of communication which is likely to result in limited communication. The costs involved in establishing an offshore call center, often revolve around legal issues such as hiring a lawyer, losing customers to outstanding poor quality. However such costs may accumulate to affect the company, this would explain the businesses that have walked away from offshore call center outsourcing to settle for regular business call center services.
As compared to other countries, India provides a better advantageous position on outsourcing a call center. The primary objective behind outsourcing a call center abroad is to cut costs; the company attempts to reduce costs associated with the running and maintenance of a call center. Outsourcing to India enables the company to cut costs, which improves the amount of saving patterns in within the enterprise. Not only is the company able to save, but outsourcing to India benefits the company with a 24/7 call center service provider (Kumar, 2012). A 12 hour time difference between India and the western countries facilitates companies with an excellent location to run business services 24 hours. Companies benefit from inbound and outbound call center services that promote the center to have a host of call services.
India has gained experienced in the call center business; with years of experience, the country can provide any call center services that improve the company. Nonetheless, India has high volumes of English speaking professionals; this gives this country a better position of hosting call centers without the barrier of linguistics and culture. India has developed quality training programs that teach agents how to converse with people from around the world properly. It is surprising that the business industry today has evolved to such a level of commitment and understanding. A customer can order and enquire on products from Mumbai, and get a doorstep delivery within the next day from America. The professionalism and integration as reflected by offshore call center outsourcing are breathtaking. Not only have companies learned to communicate and depend on another, but also complement each other respectively.
Conclusion
In regards to managing a business, a business manager should understand how different strategic measures will affect the company. Although a controversial topic, call center offshore outsourcing is a process that carries both advantages and disadvantages. However, as more companies adapt to this process together with the growth of technology, the method may be affected by competition either from the western or eastern parts of the world. Offshore call center outsourcing may not have the relevance and important that it has in the next five years, the internet and other future technological advances may shift focus from the telephone to another entity that may affect call center establishment.
References
Jonathan P Feffer, M. K. (2008). How Offshore Outsourcing affects Customer Satisfaction . New York: MIT Sloan Business Review.
Kumar, A. (2012). Business Opportunities: Special Reference to Business Process Outsourcing in India. Journal of Management and Market Review , 15-26.
Reyes Gonzalez, J. G. (2006). Information Systems and Outsourcing. Journal of Information and Management , 821-834.
Yakhlef, A. (2009). Outsourcing as a mode of Organizational Learning. Internationa Journal/ Case Study , 19-24.
