I read today about the findings of a report concerning people’s reaction to call centres. It seems that a backlash against call centres has begun with a growing number of people abandoning calls before they are even answered, according to the Dimension Data survey. Customers are hanging up in frustration after realising that they have been diverted to India or some ‘non UK’ destination, or when they find out that they’ve been placed in a long queue.

Quelle surprise…

In fact, many have become so irritated by customer services that they are prepared to wait little more than a minute - with the surveyed customers now only prepared to wait 65 seconds compared with 71 seconds in 2003.

Does this mean that the cards are on the wall for outsourcing? In the wake of many UK companies’ decision to outsource call centres overseas, are we about to see the man-in-the-street making a stand - which will (perhaps justly) hurt the very companies who outsourced overseas?

Personally, I find outsourced call centres to be a very mixed bag: some are effective, but others fail due to things like cultural and language incompatibilities and also the time delay. In fact, just last night my wife had an ‘Outsourced Agent From Hell’ (OAFH) who was determined to sell her some unnecessary cover for her credit cards. Mrs. C., being normally very polite - well, okay, having the capability to be polite - tried to explain but due to language difficulties, the time-delay and other factors, she couldn’t get a word in edgeways.

To turn it around…

If call centres are ever to move on from their ‘disliked’ status within the public at large, it’s going to be as a result of organisations pulling out of these often derided overseas outsource centres and re-establishing themselves within their own country. It’s going to be as a result of better resourcing, so that queues are minimised, and a result of IVR systems being more effectively designed.

These are things that might just give this industry a chance of turning the general public perception of this industry around for the better. However, most companies seem to be moving in quite the opposite direction.

John