Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Sound Telecom Explains Why Call Center Outsourcing Should Not be Encouraged

There have been several debates on the topic of contact center outsourcing in the U.S. While the contact center industry has argued that cheap call center outsourcing will help the industry thrive, opponents refuted their claims saying outsourcing will kill jobs in the U.S. There have also been concerns about the quality of outsourcing customer care jobs to a non-native population.

Sound Telecom, a provider of contact center solutions, telephone answering services and cloud-based phone systems, has offered reasons why call center jobs should not be outsourced overseas.

Company president Michael LaBaw said it is typically a bad idea to outsource call center needs to a call center located overseas.

One of the main claims is lack of language skills shown by overseas agents. There have been complaints about communication failures in customer interactions. This is because callers are often reluctant to talk to people who can’t understand them or they can’t understand.

Cultural barrier, of course, is another reason preventing the acceptance of outsourced services by natives. Cultures of popular outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines differ from the U.S in many ways. They have no comprehension of the culture, language expression of Americans the same way Americans don’t have about theirs. This leads to communication gaps and sometimes irrevocable mistakes.  

Another serious issue that is often debated about call center outsourcing is regarding the sharing of confidential information to agents abroad. No one will want to share their confidential information like social security number, financial and medical information to somebody located abroad. The article suggests it is vital to consider the gravity of these factors while deciding to offshore such services.

The article also explains how it’s easy to identify bad telephone branding and what not to do when branding the telecommunication channel by simply assessing the many irritating situations encountered daily while using the phone.

While these experiences are commonplace, businesses fail to remember that branding encompasses every impression they make on their customers. Leaving phone answering and the call center component out of the branding equation is a crazy thing to do, according to the author.  

 

 

Edited by Stefania Viscusi