3.9 Outsourcing the call center

Setting up an outsourcing vendor for a corporate call center is a complex task. Putting all of the company's corporate eggs in an outsourcing basket may give many call center managers some uneasy moments. It's difficult enough to ensure that a company's own employees are managing customer relationships correctly. The outsourcing organization is being asked to handle an extremely valuable corporate asset: the customer relationship. The importance of this aspect of a corporation's business operations cannot be overemphasized, as will be shown in greater detail in Chapter 6, "Building Customer Relationships with Call Centers."

Market studies and analysis of the views of call center managers regarding outsourcing reveal widespread concern over the benefits of outsourcing. In one recent user study, users reported higher satisfaction levels with in-house call centers than with outsourced call center services. Nevertheless, another report from IDC on the worldwide call center services industry indicates that it will grow to $58.6 billion by 2003 based on three segments of the call center services market: consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing. Outsourcing was reported to be the largest segment, with 74% of the total market, or $42 billion by 2003.

Call center outsourcing will continue to grow at a strong pace; however, the growth comes with a price tag. Users of outsourcing services are concerned, as they should be, with "staff competence," "flexibility," and "the caliber of operations" at their outsourced centers. The outsourcing business has grown rapidly over the past several years,...