February 11, 2003

8 Reasons U.S. Companies Should Outsource in the U.S.

In recent years there has been a great deal of energy around the value of offshore locations for contact center operations. Perhaps it's time to pause a moment and take a look at the flip side. During this time of economic, political and social uncertainty across the globe, the natural advantages of using domestic service providers may be more important than ever. Let's look at some of the key reasons why maintaining a domestic operation could be beneficial for you.

1. Baseball, hot dogs and apple pies. Domestic agents share many of the same values and experiences of their U.S. callers. This cultural acclimation forms a foundation of soft skills that can be difficult to teach to agents in offshore operations. What this means is that behaviors like building rapport, understanding customer needs, solving problems, and intuitively up-selling may be more natural for U.S. agents. Few would dispute that these skills are becoming increasingly critical in this competitive business.

2. When MapQuest isn't enough. It's easy to look up the address of a designated real estate location, or read about the amenities of a particular hotel property, but it's better when local knowledge can be communicated to create a real picture in the caller's mind. U.S. agents are far more likely to have resident knowledge of a particular location than their offshore counterparts.

3. Service is more than just a smile. Increasingly today service is being leveraged as a key differentiator in all types of businesses. Service can mean many things to many people - problem solving, responsiveness, accuracy, empathy, communication skills among others. Today, with 70% of all customer contact channeling through the contact center, there is an imperative for agents to build rapport and meet customer expectations quickly, or customers will go elsewhere. Remember the ability to speak English and wear a smile does not necessarily mean the ability to deliver service excellence.

4. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. President Bush in his State of the Union Address said jobs are key to stimulating the U.S. economy. Many towns and regions across the country rely heavily on contact center employment as a foundation for their local economic infrastructure. Local municipalities and state governments often welcome and incent these public/private partnerships to keep the jobs here at home.

5. Transparency. The popular practice of giving agents in other countries fake resumes so they can "act" like Americans is dishonest, plain and simple. Most consumers can see, and hear right through this.

6. Political and economic stability. While some would argue that the U.S. is in a holding pattern regarding politics and foreign affairs, the bottom line is that the U.S. is still more stable than many other countries around the world. This means that business is more stable as well.

7. If labor and paradise are what you seek... the U.S., like many of its offshore counterparts, does offer offers wide locational variety when searching for an outsourcer. For example, agents in the paradise of Hawaii generally have extensive customer service experience already due to reliance upon the leisure travel sector as one of the major employers in the state. Salt Lake City has the unmatched beauty of the mountains and metro Chicago offers the energy and accessibility of one of the world's largest centers of commerce. It's all in the U.S. you just have to decide what you want.

8. You get what you pay for. It's fairly well documented that many companies who choose an offshore solution are doing so to save money. Like the old saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and when money becomes their single most critical factor in making an offshore decision, sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Topical content supplied by: Matt Cooley, Partner - TC Kokua, LLC; Max Tsai, President - TC Kokua, LLC; Doris Hannaford, Area Manager Hawaii, Manpower International, Inc.; Kevin Johnson, President - Hawaii Call Center Association