Call Center Outsourcing Trends

Call center outsourcing is one of the most important attribute of the vast world of outsourcing in the United States of America, and the number of US companies resorting to this measure in a bid to improve their business - their relationship with the customer to be precise, speaks in volumes about the same. The fact that outsourcing has increased by massive proportion over the last decade or so has brought this business under the scanner - thus prompting some state administrations to lobby for a ban on the same. Even statistics highlight the rising trend of call center outsourcing in the United States and other developed nations.

Outsourcing Statistics

In 2005, the total expenditure on outsourcing by various organizations at the global level was a whopping USD 1136 million - a number which has been increasing since then. The fact that various companies are willing to spend such enormous amount on outsourcing only means that this process is turning out to be beneficial for them. It has become obvious by now that the most important reason for the US and European companies to outsource their work to Asian countries is availability of workforce at comparatively cheaper rates. This helps these companies save a decent sum of money which is one of the basic benefits of outsourcing. It is predicted that around 3.3 million US jobs, amounting to USD 136 billion worth in terms of wages, will be outsourced to countries in Southeast Asia and Africa wherein comparatively cheap labor is available by 2015. These statistics are quite alarming, and this very fact has made the administration highlight the disadvantages of outsourcing and call for a ban on the same.

Call Center Outsourcing Trends

The process involved in call center outsourcing most often revolves around answering inbound calls - for the purpose of customer service or technical support, and managing outbound calls - for the purpose of sales and marketing. This, however, doesn't mean that the entire process is only about receiving and making telephone calls. The state-of-the-art technologies, ranging from wireless technologies to survey-based functionalities, used in call centers today have improved their efficiency by a significant extent. This has in turn resulted in great deal of benefits for companies which resort to outsourcing. A periodical evaluation of call center metrics - the factors which determine the success rate of the process, helps the outsourcing companies to determine whether the process in practice is yielding good dividends or not. Based on this evaluation the companies can decide whether they have to go with the process or make any changes to it.

Several Asian countries have emerged as major hubs for business process outsourcing, India being one of the best examples of the same. These countries boast of high tech facilities and infrastructure at par excellence which can support 24×7 processes - a basic necessity when dealing with the developed countries of the west. Critics are of the opinion that these developing countries have become pool of cheap labor for the western world. Even though the pay offered for call center executives in these countries is peanuts in terms of the pay scale of developed countries, for the youth of these developing countries it's quite promising and this is what is making them flock towards call centers. This has made outsourcing, the new back bone of the developing economies.

Basically, changing trends of outsourcing are targeted at maximizing its value for the company in a bid to promote overall productivity. These trends have not just helped the companies solve many challenges which they face when they resort to some third party vendor to carry out their operations, but also helped them provide better customer service - thus turning out to be beneficial for the company as well as the customer.