Outsourcing Times

Future Perfect: No More Accents

--By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Handling customer calls is a Catch-22 situation for most companies. You have to either lose a major chunk of your resources by continuing with your in-house client handling operations or have the client breathing down your neck when you outsource or have an IVR system in place. Come to think of it, it seems more like a no-win situation. Either you lose money or you lose clients.

Is a call center operation all that simplistic? Actually no. There are a lot of cultural and emotional factors at play here and a company must understand and respect customer sentiment. S/he must also find a cost-effective method of dealing with this problem. First the facts:

Nearly 70 percent of customers would rather deal with an IVR system than talk to an agent with a foreign accent.

Over 92 percent of customers are frustrated with present-day IVR systems. Given these figures, there is probably only one good option left to companies – supercharge their IVR system and avoid outsourcing unless absolutely necessary. Yes, this is a very radical approach. But this is probably the best way to retain clients without losing valuable resources.

In the long term, a strong IVR system can be beneficial to a company. All the system needs to do is provide customers with what they need and when they need it. For instance, an organization could install a personalized automated system that deals with individual needs rather than a generic one. And no, this ideal doesn’t belong to the realm of hi-tech imagination. Software that’s recently been developed helps the IVR become caller-specific; have personalized menus, personalized voices, personalized prompts and even dialogs.

Now, the only problem that may arise is that customers may find this solution too perfect – and to that, probably there is no solution. What’s your opinion?

Painful Problems, Difficult Solutions

Outsourcing is a pretty difficult subject – both for a firm as well as for the customer. For some reason, despite having been around for quite some time now, outsourcing is still viewed upon as a necessary evil by the firm and by the customer as something that is leading to the erosion of his/ her relationship with the firm. Is it really so bad? Well, we don’t need to look into the macro picture because we only want to deal with one issue right now – customer relations and outsourcing.

A recent survey found that an American consumer doesn’t mind dealing with a rude or even condescending customer service agent from the homeland. But s/he definitely doesn’t like one that speaks with a foreign accent. The survey conducted for NetReflector, a provider of customer feedback applications, showed that respondents were not so put off by agent rudeness or even by unnecessary wait time. What they couldn’t stand was the accented English. That makes one think if the problem really is the accent or something deeper, more foreboding.

The problem could lie in the fact that the outsourced rep may not be equipped to solve the customer’s problem. That’s not to say the rep is not qualified for the job, it’s just that s/he doesn’t understand the customer’s problem and hence cannot help the customer. Result – customer dissatisfaction. So how do you solve this simple yet pertinent issue? One thing is to better plan your outsourcing operations right from scratch. It isn’t enough to save money by operating out of a cheaper country. You have to make your reps competent enough to deal with clients.

If your firm has not yet begun outsourcing work, you must do a soul-search and check if you really need to outsource. Is there an absolute need for it and will the firm gain from it are questions that need to be answered.

Visanet and EDS: Outsourcing deal through decades

Over the next ten years, the Plano-based tech company EDS will continue to provide ITO and BPO services to Visanet, a credit card services provider based in Brazil. The new contract is worth $209 million, and is an extension over the existing agreement between the two parties.

What is interesting to note is that the two companies have been associated over the past ten years; this is certainly turning out to be a long-term association. Global Services reports:

In addition to existing services, EDS also will provide call center support to assist Visanet merchants with point-of-sale equipment-technical support. The call center handles more than 450,000 merchant calls per month.

Growth in Contact Center Outsourcing Market

Offshore outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has driven the growth in the contact center outsourcing market in Asia-Pacific. The trend is expected to continue to be the key growth driver. Since the contact center outsourcing market in Asia Pacific continue to witness strong growth, the demand for skilled workers is increasing day by day.

Market research studies revealed that revenues in the Asia Pacific Contact Center Outsourcing Market industry covering 13 major Asia Pacific economies totaled to USD 7.2 billion in 2005. It is estimated to be worth USD 25.1 billion by 2012. Today, many enterprises from the US and the UK have outsourced significant portions of their customer care operations to countries like India, China, Philippines and Malaysia. Recently, I had written a post titled “China to Promote Outsourcing Business” about how China is emerging as one of the hot outsourcing destinations in Asia-Pacific region.

Australian Telecom Outsourcing to India

Despite the protests from unions and public to send back-office and calling center operations to India, a major part of Australia's telecommunication work is being outsourced to India. The government-owned Telstra has recently entered into a major deal with Indian IT giant, Wipro. Another leading Australian company Optus is also negotiating with Indian BPOs to handle its IT development and management operations. Both Telstra and Optus have been under tremendous pressure to cut costs as the telecommunication sector in Australia is showing signs of slowing down.

According to The Hindu -

The inkling of Optus India move has reportedly come from briefing by the management of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed company to thousands of its call centre staff about increasing the numbers in India from 500 to 800 on immediate basis.

Egypt looks to divert Call business away from India

When you think of Egypt, it is likely that you will jump to an image of pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile, and tourism. But in this age of global competition for outsourcing business, Egypt might soon reap the benefits of an educated unemployed population, good English-speaking skills, and a modern telecom system and attract call center business.

Studies have shown that India is nearly at saturation point, and it is likely that Western employers will seek new destinations. Egypt is geography well stationed in relation to the American and European time zones, and at least four BPO/call center providers are already attracting clients to Egypt: C3, Raya, Egyptian Contact Center Operator or Ecco, Tamima Teleseen, and Xceed. Xceed already has customers like Microsoft, GM, Oracle,  and NetOne.

According to Datamonitor, Egypt still has a few barriers to cross before becoming a challenge to countries like India and the Philippines. However, the country is sending the right signals, and proper marketing can push Egypt on to the outsourcing path in a big way.

Communication Dilemma with Indian Call Center Workers

It is a well-known fact that India has become the hot destination of outsourcing business. India and its efficient workers stand high on the global arena. When the outsourcing industry grew further, companies tried to adopt the Western culture and accent and trained their workers to use American and British accents while speaking to customers. However, that perception has witnessed a sea change now. Outsourcing managers are urging Indian call center employees to use direct communication instead of using fake Western accents. Indian workers always become extremely polite and humble while talking to clients or bosses. According to analysts, that may not go well with the customers who are based in the US.

As the opposition to outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries is waning now, companies are trying to get workers to improve the projects, which is a change from the traditional way of completing a simple assignment. While handling back office work, Indian workers are being encouraged to suggest options to improve software programs or simplify procedures. Indian workers are told to take notes and observe customer behavior so that they can report trends and patterns to clients.

Top Global Outsourcing Companies

According to a recent report released by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, Indian software companies have a strong presence in the top 20 Global Outsourcing 100 list. IBM has topped the list followed by Sodexho Alliance, Accenture, Hewlett Packard and Capgemini. Wipro Technologies bagged seventh spot on the list. Some other Indian companies such as HCL Technologies, Mastek, Genpact and Patni Computer also found themselves in the list.

More Information: Read Here

The 100 firms on the list represent $68.9 billion in 2005 revenues and 1.03 million employees worldwide, providing services to companies such as GM, Ford, Citigroup, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, and Verizon.

Dispute between Sprint and IBM on Outsourcing

When Sprint started business with IBM, it was confident that outsourcing IT jobs to IBM would improve the company's software, increase productivity and ensure cost saving for the company. However, situation has taken an interesting turn with Sprint suing IBM over the loss incurred by the company because of outsourcing to IBM. According to Sprint sources, IBM failed to meet contractual promises for productivity improvements. Kansas City reports:

In its simplest form, Sprint executives contend that IBM owes them for about 119,000 hours of uncompleted work. That is the equivalent of 57 years’ work for a single employee.

Uganda, the new kid to taste the outsourcing pie

InterGlobal Services (IGS), a US call centre operator, is initiating a world class call center that will change the outsourcing landscape of the region. Although the project is behind schedule, it is most likely to be up and running by the end of May.

The call center will provide employment to 450 operators working in three shifts. The government has done its part by providing low cost education geared towards employment in the outsourcing arena. EasyLearning, as the program is known will make life much easier for employees in the outsourcing sector as they will come equipped with the knowledge to handle the demands of such a job. Uganda already has educated but unemployed youth and the outsourcing sector will give them the opportunity to earn a living for themselves. AllAfrica.com reports:

InterGlobal Services (IGS), a U.S. call centre operator in conjunction with the Busoga Kingdom are in the final stages of setting up a 150-seater world-class call centre in Jinja, 80 kilometres east of Kampala.