The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Outsourcing
Friday - April 14, 2006 09:53 AM in
I've not talked much about outsourcing customer service, even though it has been the hot trend (and then anti-trend) of the past few years. But I can't resist passing along this tidbit: hidden costs, it turns out, make outsourcing much less economical than some have claimed. It costs money to manage the relationship with the outsourcer, and there are significant costs to make the transition from in-house to outsourced services.
Some things make sense to outsource. Payroll processing is an excellent example, since staying current with tax law changes is expensive, and one paycheck is pretty much like another as long as it doesn't bounce.
Outsourcing customer service doesn't seem like quite such a slam-dunk, since customer service is about the relationship between a company and its customer. That strikes me as about as close to the core of a business as you can get. Hiring someone else to handle customer service is a little like hiring someone to go on a date for you: it misses the whole point.
Customers (and dates, for that matter) rightly view this behavior as insulting.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Outsourcing customer service doesn't seem like quite such a slam-dunk, since customer service is about the relationship between a company and its customer. That strikes me as about as close to the core of a business as you can get. Hiring someone else to handle customer service is a little like hiring someone to go on a date for you: it misses the whole point.
Customers (and dates, for that matter) rightly view this behavior as insulting.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 09:53 AM by | | | |