More and more companies are outsourcing their customer service call centers these days. The primary reason for most companies is cost savings.
Many companies view their customer service call center as a cost center. This view will lead to management efforts to maximize cost savings, including lower service levels, holding back on technology improvements, lower wages, or the possibility of outsourcing the customer service function to an outside call center.
The biggest obstacle and the biggest fear to outsourcing is the loss of control. There is fear of loss of control of quality, of the interaction with the customer, of the financial process, and of security. The top tier outsourcing call centers spend great deal of their energy to help their clients have comfort that they have control of these areas.
We had one Fortune 500 company interested in outsourcing one customer service function, but they remained very hesitant. We finally convinced them and allowed them to have one of their employees actually have a desk on our call center floor for the first 3 months of the project, so they could still feel in control. It turns out that after we brought the project up, we had better service levels, faster average speed of answer, and lower abandonment rates at lower costs than they were doing it in house. Why? This was our core competency. We had the right technology, the right management, the right personnel. For the Fortune 500 company, it was a sideline function -something they needed, but not something they had any expertise in doing well.
What has been your experience in outsourcing your customer service functions?
Out sourcing customer service functions, Wow! Now that will be a wild ride down the mountain. With customer service and customer satisfaction indexes diving all over the place outsourcing you customer service as a cost center is double suicide. Why do you think their diving? There is a direct indexed relationship between falling customer approval ratings and the outsourcing of customer service functions as cost centers. I would be reluctant too. In fact I wouldn't do it at all. Businesses that go this way or think they have to go this way are on the edge of a long downward spiral.
Many companies that have tried it have opted out and are reestablishing their customer service under customer experience management focusing on the power of the customer and looking at this issue as building value not saving cost. In the long run the worth of customer relationships through building value added experiences is far more rewarding on the financial return.
http://cdccustomerservice.blogspot.com
Http://customerdevelopmentcenter.com
Posted by: Tim | January 12, 2006 8:16 AM | Permalink to Comment