The Off Shore Call Center Invasion

Every company thrives through providing excellent service and superior products. For businesses that are service oriented, being able to address the needs and grievances of the customers is of utmost importance. Even for those in the industry of sales and retail, good customer service is the first step in a company's success. But because of the importance of good customer service, people who are experts in this field are highly paid, making it difficult for companies to cope with their expected salaries.

It is with this reason that businesses have been taking their customer service to another level. Since most people are very busy with their everyday lives, it is rare that a customer would personally go to an office or store when there's a need to inquire or complain about something. Most people would just pick up the phone or use their mobile phones to call the hotline number of these companies they need to talk to and air their concerns. It is with this consideration that companies have decided to focus on strengthening their customer service call centers. This has been a budget saving strategy for companies, since paying people to answer the phone costs a lot cheaper than hiring experts to personally talk to customers.

So what started as a customer service call center located in the same state or country of their primary business, companies have decided to tap into other countries who can provide the same quality of service they provide in their own country. Take the United States as an example, most companies here have their customer service department off shore. Why is this so? Although it is a lot cheaper to pay people to answer calls, it would be a lot cheaper to pay people in countries where the value of their currency is high. This is why Americans choose countries like India and the Philippines to build an off shore customer service arm. The salary expense in these countries are extremely low compared to that off their salary expense in their own country.

The normal salary range of an entry level call center assistant in the Philippines would be between Php 15,000 to Php 20,000 or $294 to $392 monthly and in India, $400 a month, whereas, in the US their salary range can go as high as $2,084 a month. Hiring in the Philippines and India would automatically cut their operating cost to one- fourth of their usual salary expenses. But even if the salary range is lower, the quality of service is not sacrificed. Most if not all of these off- shore call center agents are degree holders from highly reputable universities in their country. Filipinos are also well known for being fluent and articulate in the English language. Also, they have the uncanny ability to imitate the accent that Americans are familiar to. This is probably the edge of the Philippines over India since they have a harder time masking their hard- edged native accents. Filipinos on the other hand are able to maintain a neutral accent that convinces Americans that they are not talking to a foreigner.

This set-up is not only beneficial to foreign companies but to the chosen location or country as well. The country they will choose to locate their business in would be able to create more jobs and more opportunities for their people. Every year, the unemployment rate balloons, forcing most people from third- world countries to work abroad and migrate in pursuit of a better opportunity. The rise of the call centers has given graduates and professionals who are jobless the opportunity to work in highly paying companies. Aside from the increase in job opportunities, the call centers have brought to us superior technology in terms of communication and IT. Now, third- world countries would be able to enjoy the latest computers, software and the like, without having to purchase them.

But with the high attrition rate that call centers had in the recent years, the call center invasion could be put to a halt. Since most employees are fresh graduates, they would only work for call centers because of the high salary or for lack of a better opportunity. Once a better offer arises, they would leave their call center jobs without hesitation. Even those agents who have been with call centers for years would leave their company once a higher paying call center presents itself. And because of these, there comes a saturation point where the call center is located. The high turn- over of employees makes the selection and hiring process difficult as the years pass. Thus, the quality of the hiring process could be sacrificed, defeating the mission of call centers of providing excellent service. Also, the attrition rate results to higher demands of salary and benefits in order to hire and retain the best agents.

The dissatisfaction of customers, especially American customers, is another issue. In recent surveys, two-thirds of consumers and businesses cited the agent's accents, their unfamiliarity with idioms and their lack of cultural affinity as factors that deter them from providing satisfactory customer service. Most consumers also resent the fact that off shore agents mean lost jobs for their countrymen. Some customers even go to the point of telling off agents and requesting them to be transferred to "agents who can speak in American English."

The question is: will these off shore call centers last? According to experts, they will last since there are already a lot of strong and established off shore call centers. But they don't see new companies locating their call centers off shore. And since the top off shore destinations like India and the Philippines have almost reached the point of saturation, other locations such as Eastern Europe, Latin America and even Malaysia, are being tapped for this industry. With all these considerations in mind, off shore call centers can last because the high demand for customer service is something constant and eternal, but there is also a possibility that companies will want to go back home and tap their own location once wages and benefits are almost the same as those found in off shore call centers.