Indian Outsourcing
Interesting article from The Register this week - a major UK energy company is looking to “re-shore” it’s customer contact center. This is excellent news, companies are starting to see the effect of the backlash from customers at having to deal with off-shore call centres.
So along with Natwest, who use their UK call center as a marketing point in their advertising, now we have Powergen reversing the trend.
On top of that, a major Indian outsourcing company is creating a call-center in Northern Ireland, so that companies can still outsource, but not send the work to India.
Hopefully this is the start of the reversal of the off-shoring trend, and seeing sense that customer satisfaction comes above the lowest cost base. There’s no point having a low cost base if your customers start leaving in droves because the quality of care isn’t there any more.
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The utility market is so competitive and reliant on it’s brand image to attract customers then this is a good move for Powergen, its getting them the type of press they want: Positive press, I bet quite a few people are now considdering a Gas/Electric switch now.
Unfortunately though it’s not only the location of the call centre which matters, it’s also the training the staff answering the phones are given. Natwest may use their UK call centre as a big positive in their marketing push, but it’s got the worst trained staff I’ve ever had to deal with. Some of the advice they give is shocking.
James, you are so right - but it still helps a great deal if you and the operator can understand what each other are saying!