Customer service is an absolutely essential part of almost every successful business. For many years, call centers have been one of the most efficient and effective ways to provide customer service, and during the 1990s and early 2000s, it became increasingly popular for companies to outsource their call centers to countries like India, where wagers were lower than in the United States. However, there were significant disadvantages to outsourcing outside the United States, including language barriers and customers who were increasingly frustrated with calls into customer service call centers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to outsource your customer service department outside the United States, and an increasing number of companies are taking advantage of the many benefits that come with leaving their call center in the U.S. Some of those benefits include:
Your customers get to speak with people who have a cultural understanding of “American English”
The fact of the matter is that there are countless nuances, cultural references, and informal language components in everyday American English. Even the best customer service agents in call centers abroad will have a difficult time understanding all of these nuances, which can make the experience of calling in unnecessarily frustrating for your customers.
On the other hand, outsourced call centers based in the United States will be staffed by men and women who either grew up in the United States, or have presumably been here long enough to have a robust understanding of the language.
Reduction of repeat calls
One of the many benefits of having call center agents that have a strong understanding of American English is the fact that customer issues are significantly more likely to be resolved the first time that customers call in for assistance. The problem with call centers located abroad is often the fact that the call center agents only know enough English to read off of a script, and do not actually have a strong knowledge of the product or service they are providing assistance for.
Higher customer satisfaction rate
It almost goes without saying that solving your customer’s problems the first time they call in will result in higher customer satisfaction rates, but it is such an important point that it bears mentioning. Customers who are able to call into your customer service line, speak with someone who clearly understands the problem that the customer is having, and also clearly has knowledge of your product or service, is typically going to be far happier than they would if they had to speak with someone who had only an elementary understanding of American English, and little to no actual knowledge of the product itself.
You can still outsource the call center to experts domestically
With all of the benefits listed above, it begs asking whether it is possible to outsource your call center to a company located in the United States while still being cost-effective. Fortunately, the answer is a resounding “yes”. Companies like MAP Communications offer specialized and customized service while still keeping your company cost effective.
It is the emerging trend
While it is true that outsourcing customer service call centers to countries like India was popular in recent decades, the trend is overwhelmingly turning back in favor of domestic call centers. In fact, according to some recent reports, only 12 percent of high-tech firms are outsourcing their customer service call centers to companies outside the United States. While other sectors of the economy still have a higher percentage of call centers outsourced abroad, the trend is clearly turning back towards “insourcing”. The high-tech industry often leads in metrics such as these, so it is reasonable to expect that insourcing will become increasingly popular in the coming years.
With all of these reasons to keep your customer service call center services and operations located within the United States, now is the time to take a good look at your customer service strategy, and to see if outsourcing within the United States is the right move for your company!
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