After many years of moving contact center operations off-shore, either directly or through outsourcers, several companies have changed direction and are repatriating agents to onshore locations.
Lower salaries and improved profit margins drove companies to off-shore locations, such as India and the Philippines but now a growing number of companies are reconsidering their decision. Bringing agents back onshore is not based on any new spirit of nationalism but on the fact that many customers complain about the quality of services received from off-shore agents.
For routine questions, customers seem satisfied working with off-shore agents who offer a simple direct response. However, for more complex interactions, customers much prefer a live agent and one who can quickly provide the information needed. Customer satisfaction ratings often fall short with non-native English speakers who rely heavily on scripted conversations and perform poorly when they need to deviate from their script. This results in agent’s lack of contextual understanding of the issue, fewer first call resolutions, longer hold times and multiple transfers. Callers’ dissatisfaction may ultimately result in customer defections.
The timing seems right to bring some agents back on shore, as the growth in home agents by several outsourcers attracts a better educated pool of workers and increased flexibility in work hours. Although on-shore home agents receive a higher hourly wage, companies save in other areas, such a more call completions, lower travel costs, and higher agent retention, which results in lower training expenditures. Rather than viewing customer support as a commodity, several companies realize that improved service deliver is a competitive differentiator that promotes customer affinity.
The move to bring more agents on-shore will happen gradually but slow economic conditions makes organizations even more aware of the value of retaining their customers with improved support. Some examples of companies that moved some of their operations back onshore include the airlines such as Delta and US Airways manufactures such as Dell and Chrysler and retail operations such as Netflix. For companies that want to outsource on-shore agents, there are many available vendors who support both onshore and offshore outsourcing including Convergys, Sitel, and Teleperformance. Outsourcers that specialize in supporting home onshore agents include Alpine Access, LiveOps and West Communications.
After many years of moving contact center operations off-shore, either directly or through outsourcers, several companies have changed direction and are repatriating agents to onshore locations.
Lower salaries and improved profit margins drove companies to off-shore locations, such as India and the Philippines but now a growing number of companies are reconsidering their decision. Bringing agents back onshore is not based on any new spirit of nationalism but on the fact that many customers complain about the quality of services received from off-shore agents. For routine questions, customers seem satisfied working with off-shore agents who offer a simple direct response. However, for more complex interactions, customers much prefer a live agent and one who can quickly provide the information needed. Customer satisfaction ratings often fall short with non-native English speakers who rely heavily on scripted conversations and perform poorly when they need to deviate from their script. This results in agent’s lack of contextual understanding of the issue, fewer first call resolutions, longer hold times and multiple transfers. Callers’ dissatisfaction may ultimately result in customer defections.
The timing seems right to bring some agents back on shore, as the growth in home agents by several outsourcers attracts a better educated pool of workers and increased flexibility in work hours. Although on-shore home agents receive a higher hourly wage, companies save in other areas, such a more call completions, lower travel costs, and higher agent retention, which results in lower training expenditures. Rather than viewing customer support as a commodity, several companies realize that improved service deliver is a competitive differentiator that promotes customer affinity.
The move to bring more agents on-shore will happen gradually but slow economic conditions makes organizations even more aware of the value of retaining their customers with improved support. Some examples of companies that moved some of their operations back onshore include the airlines such as Delta and US Airways manufactures such as Dell and Chrysler and retail operations such as Netflix. For companies that want to outsource on-shore agents, there are many available vendors who support both onshore and offshore outsourcing including Convergys, Sitel, and Teleperformance. Outsourcers that specialize in supporting home onshore agents include Alpine Access, LiveOps and West Communications.
