As Steve Irwin would say, “Crikey!” Birds aren’t the only things that have been migrating lately as call centers are flocking elsewhere. What has prompted this? It’s the changes in an environment that could even be bigger than the B2B telemarketing industry.
But what exactly are these changes and how exactly have they drastically changed the behavior patterns of call center companies? Let’s take a look and find out.
New Predator
In the animal kingdom, natural predators can be one cause. And for call centers, theirs come in the form of consumer behavior that’s been increasing its adaptive intelligence.
Worse still, this new predator comes with a partner: Social Media. Put these two together and it’s no wonder call center activities have been dwindling in the consumer space.
New Environment
With U.S. call centers shrinking, migration is also occurring in terms of geographic location with offshore outsourcing proving itself cheaper without sacrificing efficiency and quality.
Today American call centers number only about 10-20 main employees while nations such as India, Philippines, and Singapore number in the hundreds but without the heavy labor costs. The same countries are also preferred because of their reputation for hospitality, fluency and practical awareness of marketing knowledge (as well as American culture).
Critics have constantly condemned this trend, claiming that it takes away jobs from the citizenry. Some companies have already responded by returning outsourced processes like manufacturing. Others however find that the problem lies within. For instance, how many Americans would be eager to take full-time call center jobs and compete with their offshore counterparts in terms of tone and compliance?
New Resources
You can’t have new environments without the new resources that are drawing in the migration. And like all new resources, there is an urgent call to compete for them. Call center companies aren’t just focused on quality and quantity of performance but also cultural barriers like tone, accent, and overseas work ethics.
Take the case of India and the Philippines (with the latter gaining more favor in recent years in spite of a greater cost compared to the former). Cost savings are becoming a less frequent reason for offshore outsourcing but that has certainly not kept the migration.
So to summarize, you have predators that have diminished their population in the consumer space. A new environment has also called plenty to send their call center operations overseas. And finally, it’s in those overseas locations that competition for the new resources is being fought. It’s no surprise then that with call centers still having a role in a B2B marketing strategy, any forms of migration for them should be something to discuss with your CMO.
