Firms are in danger of neglecting the value and knowledge contained in their customer interactions if they outsource their contact centre operations remotely. The latest Peppers and Rogers newsletter provides examples of companies that recognise the customer interaction is king:
The trend of moving outsourced operations back in-house is gaining momentum. Insurer Conseco recently made news by bringing call center jobs back to the U.S. from India, and companies including Capital One, Dell, Lehman Bros. and AXA have "repatriated" similar work, says David Butler, an assistant professor at the University of Southern Mississippi's College of Business and Economic Development in a recent USA Today article. Conseco cited "the need to exercise close control over the processes that most directly affect its relationships with current customers and distribution partners" as a main reason for bringing its call center back home.
The article goes onto descrbe the practices of North Fork Bancorp. a $26 billion multi-bank holding company.
Its chairman, John Kanas "keeps a close eye on the important call center touchpoint. He has a line in his office that allows him personally to audit telephone conversations between service reps and customers. "The call center is obviously one of the first lines of communication with the customer," he says. "It's much the same as a branch or somebody walking into one of the executive offices. We want to be aware at all times what people are happy with or having difficulties with, and we want to stay close to that stream of information."
Chris Selland, vice president of sell-side research for Aberdeen Group, says such attention to customers at the top-level is unique. "There are absolutely companies that appreciate the value of the customer service centers, their customers and running their operation to maximize the value of the customer relationship, but I still think that's a minority," he says."Everyone is all excited about 'call centers' and 'offshoring,'" Kanas says, "but this is just customers calling into a company with a problem or question...So we try to hold the call center as close to our heart as we can and monitor the results as close as we can, because it's one of the most important functions we do and contributes to our reputation -- our face-to-face communications -- every day."
Further, Kanas argues that the perceived benefits of sending jobs overseas -- many of them financial -- have been vastly overstated. "A couple of years ago when offshoring was becoming popular, there was lots of talk about a 50 to 60 percent savings," he says. "Everyone has a different number, but most people today think it's much closer to 15 to 20 percent, if it's even that high." For his company, the value of maintaining close customer relationships outweighs any short-term benefits of an overseas call center.
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