Recently I asked how a US Call Center could compete against the price pressure of Offshore call centers and I received some great comments. One was from an old friend that I used to work with years ago. He found me on the web and posted this comment. SC it was good to hear from you. You should give me a call!
Here is what SC said:
Tim, I am battling with my internal clients and having to justify why we should maintain a US call center when we can get an off-shore provider (currently looking at providers in the Philippines) much much cheaper. Stories like this don't seem to matter to internal or external clients when they look at the bottom line savings they can achieve when outsourcing outside the US. We used to be on the expensive side when compared to other US call centers but always justified it on the basis of quality. However, in the last couple of years there has been a marked shift away from the demand for quality and more toward the lowest possible price. As the Philippines develop and other countries like Costa Rica come on-line it is getting harder and harder to fight the battle...
On a side note – It was good to find you in the blog-o-sphere and hopefully someday we will cross paths again.
SC
Former Mini-World Guy
So, the question is:
Why should a US Company keep a US based Call Center?
Why not outsource it or open operations off shore in the Philippines or in India?
Here are common reasons I have heard:
- Quality - We can provide better quality here in the US
- Conversion - We convert better in the US
- Accent - We have a more acceptable accent in the US
- Security - We can be more secure keeping it here in the US
- Lower Hassle - We don't have to worry about time-zones or communication issues keeping it here.
- Politically untenable - It would be political death do run a campaign outside of the US
So, in the long run, offshore call centers can become competitive and overcome these objections:
Quality, Conversion, Accent, Security, Lower Hassle.
The only one that would be difficult is Politically Untenable objection. There just is no way that a political candidate can justify having his campaign work done outside of the US.
If all the major reasons that one would use to argue to keep a call center based in the US can be overcome, how does a US company justify, in the long term, keeping a call center here?
SC, I think you may need to think about creating an offshore call center. What are your reasons to keep it here?
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Tim,
My main reason for objecting to offshoring our call center activities has been based on quality. As our experience increases and our confidence grows I am seeing no reason not to continue sending as much of the work as I can overseas. Quality can be demanded and delivered from the call centers we are using in the Philipenes and we have begun looking at a call center in Costa Rica that is promising the same sort of success. The only reason we will not be able to send something overseas is based on client objections such as those mentioned from political campaigns.
Posted by: SC | November 22, 2005 1:09 PM | Permalink to Comment