Article : Addressing Some Of The Issues Of Overseas Outsourcing

By using analytics tools such as word spotting, and emotion detection, outsourcers can hone in quickly on critical interactions between customers and agents. After all, the client's customers know best what it takes to keep them, and keep them happy. And if overseas outsourcers make sure that their clients' customers are happy, they can be certain that their clients will also be happy customers.

Mr. Smith, Mr. Ricardo – Meet The Contact Center
Nearly 230 years ago, the Great Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith first described how splitting up jobs into a number of small, repetitive tasks each performed by one person– the "division of labor" – could increase individual and company productivity dramatically. Some 40 years later, British economist David Ricardo formulated his theory of comparative advantage – that there are gains from trade if each nation specializes in the production of goods in which it has a comparative cost advantage over other countries. They would have loved overseas outsourcing.

Because today companies are using Adam Smith's labor theory to increase productivity – and profits – by concentrating on core competencies, on what any company does best. Other tasks – and these can range from marketing to legal to IT management to contact centers – are ideal for outsourcing, for letting companies who specialize in these services provide them more cheaply and efficiently. And for many of these services, particularly contact centers, the cheapest and most efficient way is that suggested by Ricardo - to outsource overseas.

Because outsourcing reduces direct staff and management costs, as well as cutting costly overheads (less floor space, lower equipment and power expenditures). If offshore outsourcers can offer even lower costs for running contact centers, why not take advantage of them?

The founders of modern economics would surely have approved.

The Downside
But there are problems.

Client companies fret that they are losing control over a major asset – their connection with their customers. And they are worried about the ongoing level of service offered by their outsourcers, and how to actively track quality assurance with a company operating in a far-away country with, frequently, a different business code. At a very basic level, company managers cannot just drop in unannounced to see what their outsourcers are doing when those same outsourcers are situated half-way around the world, rather than in the next state.

Overseas outsourcers are acutely aware of the issues involved. Gayatri Anadh, of India's ICICI OneSource, for example, says that as well as having special training requirements (more on this later) the outsourcer operating from another country has to "have more stringent quality assurance requirements to ensure control over processes and earn their client's confidence in the service levels being offered to customers."

John Boyle of UK-based outsourcer RHL also emphasized that "one of the key issues is client confidence…[we]… have to represent their brands in the best possible light, especially as we are dealing with the most critical part of their business, their customers."

Recent cases of fraud in overseas outsourced contact centers have made clients more aware that they need to be fully updated concerning agent quality and screening at outsourcers, since criminal agents defraud the client's customers and not the outsourcer's). So outsourcers face issues of client confidence, of trust in the overseas outsourcer situated in a faraway country; these issues are often translated into questions concerning quality assurance, agent training and maintaining service levels.

Cutting The Outsourcing Risk
Companies can cut the overseas outsourcing risk by taking some simple steps – so simple that they are often overlooked.

Check the outsourcer's training program – ideally, several of the client's candidates should undergo training and report back.
Check the outsourcer's agent facilities, working space and technologies to try to assure as low an attrition rate as possible among agents, and the best possible quality control.
Arrange agreed reporting and consulting meetings, specifying who exactly is to take part – and make sure both sides stick to these commitments.
Define precisely which reports containing what material are to be forwarded to whom, when, and how to use technology to make them as useful as possible.
Check that the outsourcer is updating equipment and technology and providing the best possible service in the industry.

Technology And When To Use It
David Ricardo, like the Rothschilds, made a fortune by using technology (albeit low tech technology, in his case, carrier pigeons) to fly him the result of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, in advance of the rest of the market.

Modern clients and their overseas outsourcers use technology to overcome the daily constraints imposed by the need to cooperate and be updated about activities. The tools that are now available can satisfy both clients and outsourcers, and by allowing efficient specialization (thank you, Mr. Smith) can create a system of comparative advantages that profit all sides to the arrangement (thank you, Mr. Ricardo).

For example, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) can provide a highly flexible communications infrastructure, allowing outsourcers to use distributed sites while still exerting centralized control by means of a hub and spoke topography. Coupled with advanced management tools, this approach can make the outsourcer more flexible – and thus more capable of meeting a client's specific demands.

Remote Quality Management And Monitoring
In the not-so-distant past, client information on calls handled by the outsourcer could only be compiled at the end of a shift and the recordings shipped to the client, with a delay of up to three or four days. With modern quality management and remote monitoring solutions clients can be updated concerning what calls agents are handling and how well in a close to real time as they care to. This rapid response rate gives clients, however distant, a feel for what is really happening with their customer calls.

Modern quality solutions and analytics do more; for example, these solutions can help clients assess the level of success of a new marketing campaign, as Gayatri Anadh explains: "Clients can monitor how agents handle the new campaign; if they feel that customers are not responding as desired, they come back to us saying 'I want you to handle it this way, or that way.' They can turn around a new marketing approach very quickly and save money that could have been lost on an ineffective campaign. This is fantastic for the client, because it's all right in front of them – right away."

Quality Management
Outsourcers must offer clients levels of service at least as good as they would have achieved from their own, in-house, contact center. This means intensive activity in implementing agent training and development. Modern quality management systems enable agents to use weekly training sessions to listen to their calls themselves – and very often they can easily grasp what's wrong with a call. Correlating quality scores to specific calls is a very powerful means for agents to understand and improve performance, and drive up quality.

As John Boyle points out, if an agent receives a low score, the outsourcer "would implement an action plan and monitor the results. If there is no improvement then further training would be given. This type of monitoring, measurement and training approach is very effective. We are seeing service levels increase and agents becoming proud of their quality scores."

Looking Ahead
The next step is to provide clients with more information about their own customers. By using analytics tools such as word spotting, and emotion detection, outsourcers can hone in quickly on critical interactions between customers and agents. After all, the client's customers know best what it takes to keep them, and keep them happy. And if overseas outsourcers make sure that their clients' customers are happy, they can be certain that their clients will also be happy customers.

And that, as Adam Smith and David Ricardo would certainly agree, is the best way to a successful business.