Call centers remain ripe for outsourcing

[OhioChick]

Published: June 9, 2008 6:00 a.m

MUMBAI, India – Consumers dread two things when they pick up the phone to dial a call center – receiving poor service and deciphering a foreign accent.

Only about 10 percent of call centers are located outside the United States, according to Purdue University. But foreign call center provider WNS Global Services sees room for U.S. companies to continue shifting this work overseas. WNS can assist customers more efficiently and at a lower cost than U.S. firms, said Neeraj Bhargava, the company’s chief executive who spoke to reporters during a tour of WNS’ Mumbai call center.

Young Indian workers there take calls from Americans and British residents asking questions about bank accounts, insurance and travel itineraries. WNS caters to both U.S. and British companies, including Travelocity and British Airways. Bhargava sees the most growth potential in the United States, despite its slowing economy and the dollar’s declining value.

“For everything you say, the U.S. is still the most attractive market,” he said. “It has the most openness to outsourcing.”

But some local companies, including Centennial Wireless, prefer to manage their own customer service call centers. The wireless carrier is investing $2.5 million to relocate its southwest Fort Wayne call center to a larger space in Parkwest Shopping Center.

Although Centennial probably could reduce costs by outsourcing the call center, the company opted to grow the operation locally, said Matt Roskuski, vice president of customer care. A well-trained, local call center staff can provide better service to the wireless carrier’s 725,000 customers.

“Centennial looks at it as an investment, not an expense,” Roskuski said.

The company will employ 325 in the call center when the project is done in August, Roskuski said. The expansion will add about 50 call center workers. Starting compensation ranges from $10 to $13 an hour, including wages and bonus opportunities, said Phil Laux, senior vice president of marketing for Centennial Wireless.

Starting salaries at WNS range from $4,000 to $15,000 a year – or about $2.30 to $8.62 an hour – depending on the employee’s experience and position. Workers who earn more handle technical tasks, such as researching legal briefs for attorneys, Bhargava said. Call centers make up about a fifth of the company’s business. WNS also handles clients’ business processing and billing work.

More: http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/BIZ/806090370

[babylonsister]

1. Only 10%? I'm shocked it's that low. I now get calls

from people trying to sell me trips to Vegas and time shares to name but two, and they're from India, Manila, anywhere but here. :crazy:

[rox63]

2. I recently spoke to Verizon tech support people with heavy foreign accents

I'm pretty sure their DSL support has been shipped overseas.

[OhioChick]

3. Add Allstate to that list. n/t

[sui generis]

4. Darwin at work

So, your business is aimed at median income consumers on the pretext that they can pay for the services you support.

You get rid of the "expensive" U.S. call centers and the "expensive" locally manufactured goods in favor of cheap foreign labor and parts.

You do this while blathering that if you make it cheaper you can pass the savings on to your loyal customers.

But your loyal customers - well, they're not working any more, so less likely to be continuing service or paying their bills.

Then when jobless claims go up and consumer spending goes down these morons claiming free market economics works forget to mention that global free market economics works until you have 1. a level economy or 2. a complete imbalance of comparative costs.

In the case of #2, free market economonics only works in the short term for the company owners, and for the shit-poor human-rights-poor slavers who can afford to undersell spoiled, rich, America.

If the goal is that it corrects costs, it only ever corrects them downward so that American workers trying to compete have to come back into the market earning half or less what they earned before outsource incentivizing became so commonplace.

I am all for making it cost more to offshore than to hire local. Let those other economies adjust UPWARD instead of us adjusting down.

[OhioChick]

5. .....

Quote: "I am all for making it cost more to offshore than to hire local. Let those other economies adjust UPWARD instead of us adjusting down."

Bingo.

Also....Good analogy.