I’m writing this from the perspective of both a client who wants to outsource inbound, outbound and customer service call centre work, and also from a customer’s viewpoint and i’ll explain why below.

Firstly, in my previous job I was client side and worked for a pan-european business that outsourced all ‘telemarketing’ activity including customer service. As a result of my job title ‘European Telemarketing Director’ my name and phone number appeared on many call centre business development manager’s call list and I received calls every week from folk wanting to pitch for business.

The one thing that annoyed me most about the initial conversations and pitches was that ALL companies approached the discussion with the assumption that as a client my primary concern was about cost which then led to discussions about off-shoring.

In truth, cost was an issue BUT not the number one concern - that was quality. I actually cared about my customers and genuinely wanted them to have a positive customer experience EVERY time they contacted us even if that was to raise a complaint or to cancel their membership. I believe that the best quality of service available is here in the UK for UK customer i.e. in local market so France for French customers and Germany for German customers.

For many years the direct marketing world has been consumed with CRM and maximising relationships with customers. Whilst for many this meant simply spending a fortune on software or analysis but no implementation we took a different approach. We didn’t invest millions in analysis software (we did spend something) but first simply put ourselves in the shoes (or ears) of our customers and asked ourselves how would we want to be treated? What would our expectations be? How did we define good service?

From the call centre perspective we should remember this and reference it in the pitches we make to prospective clients.

Secondly, from a personal point of view I had a very enlightening conversation with a chap from HSBC (who I’m sure you all know offshore to India and beyond). I’d phoned the telephone banking line to ask why a transaction for less than £10 had been refused when there was more than sufficient funds in my account. The agent asked me what shop i’d been in and when I explained I had shopped on-line at Amazon, she immediately tried to transfer me to the internet banking team.

After much huffing and puffing (and I hate doing that) I managed to explain that she should be able to deal with my enquiry. Unfortunately the call ended with the agent saying she had no idea why the charge had been refused either! I then sent an email for the attention of the CEO of HSBC (if you’re going to complain - make sure it counts!) and I got a call back (not from the CEO). I spoke with the guy who is responsible for the quality of service for the UK and he was really keen to know what I expected as a customer, wht I thought of the call (as someone from the call centre world) and what did I think could be done better. He explained that the reason they’d gone offshore was availability of good quality staff in the UK. He also explained that Offshoring is giving the bank real problems and that finally they’re taking this seriously. They’ve now started an initiative with M&S on quality benchmarking and taking external advice. He felt this was the last chance for continuing offshoring and if it failed, they may come back to the UK.

Does this mean that there’s hope for the future? If HSBC is reassessing their decision to offshore and making a final attempt to improve quality - will that make others sit up and listen? Could it mean that work will come back to the UK?