January 04, 2007
Home Calling
While we are fretting and worrying about the outsourcing phenomenon we may have failed to realize that the trend is changing. Nowadays, increasing number of companies are choosing to keep their call centers in house rather than send them elsewhere. Banks in particular have decided that the customer care that happens in the call center is too important to trust to a third party. Yes, it does end up costing more to work from home, but there are obvious benefits to home shoring.
For example, U.S. Bancorp is one company bucking the call center outsourcing trend, despite the obvious financial benefits of sending work offshore. According to Celent, companies spend $6.85 per call to serve a customer compared with $4.95 for e-mail and 50 cents by Internet. Banks on average spend more than $5,000 to hire and train one agent. In the U.S., such workers generally make at least $10.50 an hour, 90 percent more than their counterparts in India. Itbusinessedge.com reports:
Yet U.S. Bancorp has poured $20 million into its five call centers across the U.S. over the past two years and employs 1,400 agents, who handle some 73,000 calls a day. At least one analyst interviewed here says it's a smart strategy because of the importance of the call center in retaining bank customers.
Read more: Bank Bucks Call Center Outsourcing Trend
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