Offshore call centers provide cost-effective 24/7 support to customers, but can lead to frustration due to language barriers and lack of product knowledge. Brand loyalty can also be affected. Some countries that provide these services include Panama, the Philippines, and India.
An offshore call center is a type of outsourcing where a company employs people in another country to answer customer service or support calls. In the United States, many companies selling computer products or services abroad these services. The benefit to the company is the savings – it is cheaper to hire a company outside the US to answer calls than to employ technical staff in the US. Many customers, however, find it to be a frustrating experience when trying to resolve technical issues.
Sometimes called “follow the sun services”, the use of offshore outsourcing is a cost-effective way for a company to have 24/7 support available to customers in a highly competitive market. Savings in overhead costs can reach 40% when compared to providing the same services in the domestic market. An offshore call center also has the advantage of being able to offer multilingual support to many non-English speaking customers.
A potential downside is that the company must rely on a third party to handle its customers. Arguably, offshore call center employees have less interest in customer satisfaction than they do in the company they are working for. Brand loyalty is built through product and marketing satisfaction, and ineffective customer service, whether outsourced or in-house, can easily destroy that investment. Some call center providers point out that, for this reason and others, the best countries to outsource are those that are culturally aligned with the company’s home country.
From a customer perspective, at least in the tech world, offshore call centers are often viewed unfavorably. Too often it means trying to communicate with someone the customer can’t easily understand. Worse, it also usually means getting routine answers from a “cue card” problem-solving system. If so, go to A. If so, go to B… It’s not uncommon for the person providing the technical help to know little or nothing about the product or system the customer is calling about and simply follow the steps in the guide. While this approach can address very basic issues, there is typically no advanced support through personal experience with the product or service.
Some countries that provide offshore call centers to the United States include Panama, the Philippines and India. Many US industries benefit from these call centers, with some of them finding it better than others. If you are interested in looking into this business solution for your company, many successful service providers can be found online.
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