The PSF Economy
There’s this idea (which isn’t mine - I’ve been sold it by a fella called Tom Peters) which suggests that in 5-15 years time none of us will be working for the companies that we do at the moment. We’re all likely to be working either for ourselves, or for a much smaller organisation that provide professional services.

I bought into this idea so heavily it’s landed me where I am at the moment: as a consultant. I’m trying to get a headstart on the rest of the world.

Why should this happen? Because it’s now understood that lightweight companies are good. They can react to changes in markets quickly and are easier to account for. The suggestion is that everytime a company wants to execute a project it’ll bring in a series of contractors who will work together to complete the project. The key point is that these people are unlikely to be strangers. They would have worked together on different projects for different companies.

Just do something
It may sound silly, but it happens at the moment. Consider an international sportswear manufacturer. They don’t really do anything but own the brand. They contract designers, factories and advertising agencies. Hardly any of the work that gets the product made, on the shelves and selling is done by the core company.

How does this apply to call centres? Surely this is what we see already? Many of you will be working in outsourced (and possibly offshored) call centres.

The changes you’ll see
There’ll be more rented labour. Many more CSR’s will work through agencies, although these agencies will have to modify their pricing models to make this viable. Organisations will re-use CSR’s that have reputations for being good call handlers, or are known for picking up training easily.

As well as seeing more rented labour, you’re going to see more rented assets. I’m talking buildings, desks, computers, telephones. More on this another day…but this is key to making the PSF economy scaleable.

Management of telephony and IT systems will change. It may be that responsibility for all systems are outsourced to one PSF. Or it may be that your company decides to employ young, keen and cheap contractors on a full time basis to be managed by somone with more experience who operates on a part time basis.

What does this mean?
The important thing about the PSF economy is that we’ll see companies open up. People will be used to working for more than one organisation (possibly at the same time), and management will learn that this is a good thing and be able to deal with it.

Management will also learn that keeping employees loyal to your company will be about making them want to work there. It won’t be about making them feel like they’ve got no other option. The PSF economy will make recruitment quicker and easier - meaning people will more happily leave jobs that are no fun. If your call centre has a problem with staff turnover at the moment then brace yourself - it’s likely to get worse.

So what can you do to get yourself ready for this change? I’ll think I’ll save that for another day!

Regards,
DB

Does outsourcing customer service represent an admission by a company that customer service is simply not a priority? That’s the question that raises its head today.

The case against the outsourced customer service department:

Delegating the customer/company relationship to an external firm is viewed by many as shirking the responsibility for good customer service. Cultural and language differences mean that customers find it more difficult - indeed, frustrating - to communicate their issues to the third party. Customers find it frustrating to have to repeat themselves, or find it often impossible to communicate a particular query or concept to someone who really doesn’t know or understand the nature of the business. Outsourced agents frequently have no real understanding of the products or services of their partners’ businesses. The very fact that the person on the other end of the telephone might well be relying completely on an inflexible script, with inadequate training and infrastructure to really deal with the needs of the caller. Not good.

The case for:

This seems to boil down solely to one of money. Outsourcing can be both less expensive to an organisation, and more tax efficient.

Customer Service - if you can call it that…

Outsourcing is a difficult call, particularly in customer service. Creating a seamless transition between an organisation and it’s outsourced partners is a non-trivial matter, and one which frequently does not meet expectations. Whilst I accept that financial concerns are a very real part of organisation planning, and a compelling reason to take the outsourcing route, I am seeing an ever-increasing negative reaction from the customers of those organisations.

Heck, I’m in that boat myself: though I know better, I often feel my heart sink when I find myself speaking to someone in a different continent, who struggles to understand my Fife twang; quite often, my query is of a technical nature and the script that the agent is using is neither flexible nor detailed enough to help me; invariably, I find that it’s the communication aspect that lets the whole process down. I feel deflated, saddened. No closer to a resolution of my plight, and the cost of a phone call (of probably twenty minutes or more) poorer…

I thus get the impression that the company doesn’t really care too much about me or my plight. If they did, I think, they’d have someone efficient, well-trained and a real member of their organisation at the other end of the phone. Someone who speaks my language well, understands the context and the level of my query, and has enough knowledge of their company to be able to find an answer even if a script is found wanting.

Sadly, this is not the norm. I won’t name names, but we’ve all encountered the kind of organisations I’m talking about: quick to take your money, reluctant to provide you with the necessary level of customer service. Quite often it appears that they just don’t care, and outsourcing is the cheapest option for them.

More and more, I forsee customers rejecting such organisations in favour of the kinds of companies whose approach is much more tuned to the needs of their customers. I know I am increasingly feeling this way, and if it’s true of me it will be true of many people.