Analyst predicts offshore contact centres will come back into favour

Some 80 per cent of businesses have no plans to offshore their call centres, but this could change when the economy picks up

The business case for using offshore contact centres is set to grow and the recent trend for bringing this work back to the UK may soon be reversed, according to Ovum analyst Peter Ryan.

A new Ovum report based on a survey of senior executives from businesses in North America, Europe and Australia found that 80 per cent of businesses had no plans to offshore their contact centres, and only 10 per cent said they would do so within 36 months.

Ryan believes the current aversion to using offshore contact centres is misguided, but understandable. He said the general perception that offshore call centres provide a shoddy service is far from being a true picture, and that in his extensive experience they provide a "fantastic" service.

He argued that concerns about the stability of offshore locations, ongoing pressure from consumers to keep work in the UK, and data security fears help to explain why businesses are shying away from moving call centres offshore.

Another reason, according to Ryan, is that onshore providers have been able to offer cheaper deals to tempt businesses away from offshorers said businesses. However, this may not be the case for much longer.

"At the moment, there are good deals to be found in places such as the UK and US due to the economic crisis pushing down labour and premises costs, and reducing agent churn. This has helped some businesses to move their contact centres back onshore, but the question is, how long will the market stay this way?

"When the job market and economy recover, those decisions will need to be revisited," he said.