Firms need to "repatriate" call centres, says report

Rising staff costs are pushing up the price of offshore call centres

The UK's financial services companies could be losing money and harming customer relations by moving their call centre operations offshore, according to a new report by Compass Management Consulting.

The firm analysed onshore and offshore environments and found that poor perceptions of customer service and rises in personnel costs of up to 15 percent a year in certain countries reduce the advantages of moving their call centre jobs offshore.

In addition, language problems – more prevalent in offshore call centres – could lead to longer call times with customers, lowering productivity, explained Compass’ head of business development, Simon Scarrott.

"It's fairly simple macroeconomics, coming together with productivity issues, which says the business model around business process outsourcing is flawed in some areas," Scarrott added. "A high percentage of companies, especially financial services, believe in the hype that offshoring is the swiftest and most painless route to cost savings."

Firms could also benefit from improved consumer brand perspective if they moved call centres back onshore, but many fail to do so because of the perceived risk of repatriation, said Scarrott.

"It's on the agenda but few people know how to do it and are cognisant of how to mitigate the risks," Scarrott explained. "There's an immaturity in modelling and scenario planning and there is also an insufficient amount of this being done."