What are the benefits to setting up your own call centres vs offshore?

Some customers prefer a local service. Offshore centres unfortunately have a bad reputation. Some customers hang up as soon as they hear a foreign accent. The only bad point would be the cost. I have worked in both offshore and onshore - (UK) centres. There will always be mixed messages and no definate answer, but from a business perspective, the cost of going offshore is miles cheaper. You get longer hours of work offshore, cheaper rental, cheaper electricity etc. The only downside of having an offshore centre (in my opinion) is the West's stereotypical nature of the service from offshore.

Hi Pete,

True, the type of call centre does depend on whether it is outbound or inbound, the type of product eg lawnmowers or medical and the region/hours to be covered.
But there are more than the typical "Call Centres" with a number of people sitting in a building with head sets on.

There is now technology out there that opens up all sorts of opportunities for start-ups and SMBs eg: VoIP. An example, you purchase/lease a VoIP system and put it on a server in your office, you lease a number of phone lines from your Telco.
Now, you can have a number of seats in the building working as would any other call centre BUT you can also have a number of Home Based workers (1% - 100%) - as long as they have a PC and Broadband they would appear and function, as just another extension.
Your hiring profile now changes, you can hire people with experience and attributes but unable to do ‘normal’ hours for whatever reason. Although the initial setup may cost slightly more the ongoing cost will be far less. For example Pay per Call i.e. staff get paid pay call they make/answer.

And most importantly for your situation - it is scalable. If you need another person, you buy another PC and set up your new employee at HOME, add an extension to the system and you're done. Nothing changes at the office.This is a hybrid form of a call centre –also known as home based work, teleworking or telecommuting, but they are not outsourced as they still work for you, they are cheaper in the long term and can be considered ‘locals’ plus you get value for money regards any training.

There is too much for me to cover here but the VoIP suppliers can help with technical information, I can help with an RFP and Working from Home Policies/Procedures.

Cheers – all the best in your endeavours
Mark

Pete,

There is little doubt that outsourcing your call center will most likely save you money as opposed to setting up a new internal center from scratch. This is especially true with an offshore provider who can typically offer pricing discounts over US solutions anywhere from 10% to 40% depending on the offshore location. There are also various US outsourcers than can offer you a cost competitive solution with increased quality which still allows you to save money. The real cost savings not only sits with labor costs...you have to consider the cost of toolsets utilized such as ACD, Workforce Management, Quality Assurance, Incident Management, etc. All of these tools can come at a pretty high price tag not to mention the IT labor you need to manage the toolsets. Outsourcing your call center allows you to leverage the toolset investment already made by the outsourcer at a fraction of the cost.

The other question you need to ask yourself is how close is call center operations to your company's core competency? It may make more sense for you to spend your "cycles" focusing on your company's product/service, and let the outsourcer concentrate on what they do best.

The drawback with outsourcing, especially with a company that is just starting to grow, is that many outsourcers will want to charge you a pretty hefty fixed monthly fee to provide the service if your volume will not be high initially, or they may wan to leverage your business with other clients which can work, but could also allow them to lose the personal touch that you may be able to provide with an internal solution...at least initially.

Feel free to give me a call if you want to discuss further. Good luck!

Sincerely,

Scott McKinley
Vice President
Computer Generated Solutions, Inc.
Office: 813-249-3281
Email: smckinley@cgsinc.com

Using an offshore outsourcing provider can have a negative effect on customer service, as others have mentions, a communication break down caused by accents, etc can frustrate customers. However, there are plenty of outsourcing companies based in the USA or the UK, so you don't have to go offshore. As Daniel mentioned, this can hopefully provide the best of both worlds.

http://www.callcare247.com are a call centre outsourcing company based in the UK.

Hope this helps.

If you are looking at setting up a system offshore, make sure you know what you are doing re international money transfers. You don't want to be stung by poor exchange rates

Check out www.mycurrencytransfer.com

All the best!

Dan

@pete; I apologize if I repeat, but in my haste to add a thought, I haven't read each entry fully. Also, my comments pertain more to B2B and not-for-profit situations. That said:
It seems impossible not to save money if one chooses to outsource.
If, however, the call center is transformed into your "Customer Management Center - or, centre for you continentals - the addition to your corporate asset pool always should bring you significant value. The Customer Management Center can expand its roles and services. If you choose both outbound/inbound integrated sales, marketing and service and combine that with incoming complaint resolution and service, with the addition of planned outbound at the right times or to emphasize that which needs to be emphasized both your customers and your firm will benefit. I apologize to all your outsourced centers: I just recoil at outsourcing, but then others will extol the virtue of saving money over building value and customer relationships. best, ngp

“False Economy” is defined as an action that saves money at the beginning - but which over a longer period of time results in more money being wasted than being saved.

On a “level playing field” – onshore Call Centers are financially competitive with offshore Call Centers – and the quality of work is vastly superior.

In a Sept. 2010 survey by the State of Nebraska - experts estimated that hiring someone in Nebraska to work at a Call Center costs only 15% more than hiring that same employee in India. When you also take into account tax-breaks for hiring new (American) employees - as well as the impact that employee’s paycheck has on the local economy – the economic benefits of a US based Call Center add up.

American consumers also express much more favorable feedback when they perceive their call to be handled by a Contact Center located in the USA – and American consumers are also strongly opposed to sending Call Center jobs overseas to begin with.

Results of the 2010 Contact Center Customer Satisfaction Index from the CFI Group www.cfigroup.com:

First Contact Resolution: onshore 67% offshore 50%

Ease of Understanding: onshore 85% offshore 54%

Overall Customer Satisfaction: onshore 79% offshore 58%

Additionally, Average Handle Time (AHT) has been reported to be 39%-105% longer with offshore Call Centers than with onshore Call Centers handling calls of the same type.

Opting to “come home” for their Call Center employees is making sense for more & more companies seeking to enhance their Service Levels & Brand Reputation while delivering a higher degree of overall Customer Satisfaction.

In the past 2 years a few of the companies that have moved Call Centers back onshore include: United Airlines, AT&T, Dell, Expedia, HP & Monster. Another company that’s moved overseas Call Centers back is Delta Airlines. According to CEO Richard Anderson: "One of the ways to mitigate the impact of the recession is to insource work. It provides job protection and it is consistent with what the administration wants companies to do in the US today - which is to bring back work from overseas and do our best to increase employment."

When cell phone company Jitterbug brought its Call Center back to the USA from India it began to boast in its ads that all of its operators are based in the U.S. "We really believe that our customer satisfaction saves us more money in the long term than offshoring," said Jitterbug CEO David Inns.

From Site Selection Magazine: “Offshoring calls to India works in very limited situations. Interaction with clients and understanding the culture & environment of clients doesn’t work very well at all. The direction of the industry is to bring these customer facing jobs back to the USA.”

From the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development: “UK companies are bringing back call centre operations to the UK from India. Most of the companies that we deal with are looking to keep customer service staff in the UK because there is a significant increase in the level of service and customer satisfaction provided by those call centres based here in the UK."

Shipping Call Center jobs overseas in a ‘race to the bottom’ for Labor Costs is a “False Economy”.

Top performing Contact Centers drive their Revenue & Performance through superior hiring tactics. We help employers gain better insight & more accurate predictions as to which applicants from a pool of Candidates would perform up to, or beyond their established standards. You can find out about a Free Trial of SPAS Call Center Agent Pre-Employment Screening Software at http://www.telesoftsystems.ca/64201.html

Hi all,

Interesting debate, one which I've been involved in many times! I'm positive that offshoring is not the way to go. Not only is it bad for our own economy, but it simply cannot deliver the customer service that our customers require. Communication barriers frustrate customers. Of course, there are cost savings in offshoring, but with the amount of calls customers have to make (problems may not be resolved in the first call due to aforementioned communication barrier), costs soon rise again.

Mel,
http://www.alldaypa.com/call-centre

There is another option ... you can outsource your calls locally for an affordable rate and get the best of both.

Try http://www.jetvirtual.co.uk

Best of luck!
Daniel