Offshore Company Call Centers a Concern to U.S. Consumers - Purdue University Study Sponsored by Kelly Services
21 Septembre 2004 - 8:10PM
PR Newswire (US)
Offshore Company Call Centers a Concern to U.S. Consumers - Purdue
University Study Sponsored by Kelly Services TROY, Mich., Sept. 21
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A consumer's experience with a company's
customer call center has a significant impact on their future
purchasing behavior toward the company, and perceptions concerning
offshore call centers play a role. This is according to the latest
Call Center Study led by Dr. Jon Anton, of Purdue University's
Center for Customer-Driven Quality, in conjunction with researchers
at BenchmarkPortal, Inc. The Call Center Study was sponsored by
global staffing provider Kelly Services. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991208/KELLYLOGO ) "The study
reveals that 85 percent of U.S. consumers felt their most recent
contact with a call center met or exceeded their expectations --
with the vast majority also believing that their call was being
handled by a domestic call center," according to Dr. Anton, the
Director of Benchmark Research. Of concern for U.S. companies
considering offshore outsourcing is that 65 percent of American
consumers would alter their buying behavior toward a company if
they knew or had the impression the business was using an offshore
call center, regardless of the level of satisfaction the customer
received from the call center experience. This response was found
to be consistent across all call categories -- high value calls
(product information, purchases, reservation), low value calls
(account or order status), technical support, and complaint calls.
According to the Call Center Study, sentiments of nationalism and
loyalty to America play a strong and more influential role in the
purchasing decisions of American consumers than does their overall
indifference towards the issue of offshoring. Although this
business practice has been in effect for decades, offshore
outsourcing continues to spark debate as the interrelation of jobs,
productivity, global competition, and free trade continue to grow.
"The decision to implement offshore outsourcing of call centers is
about companies being allowed to make choices in the best interest
of their business," said Teresa Setting, vice president, Kelly
Services. "Some will choose offshore outsourcing as a solution;
some will not. Regardless of which option companies decide to
implement, an important element to consider which is often
overlooked is patriotism." U.S. consumers surveyed noted technical
support issues as their primary reason for contacting a customer
service center. The majority of customers seeking this type of
assistance noted that their purchasing behavior toward a company
would be adversely impacted based on the offshore location of the
company's call center. Conversely, the research shows that more
than a quarter of the respondents indicated there would be no
impact on their purchasing behavior if their technical calls were
handled by an offshore call center. Dr. Jon Anton explained, "An
interesting cut of this data further reveals that with respect to
technical support calls, college educated respondents and
individuals age 18 to 35 were even more likely to indicate that
their buying behavior would not be impacted if these calls were
handled by contact centers located outside the U.S. This suggests
that perhaps members of generation X and Y and those with higher
levels of education are more apt to embrace a global economy."
Offshore outsourcing is an option that many U.S. companies are
exercising, but one they cannot take lightly. According to Dr. Jon
Anton, "As American companies consider opening call centers in
other countries to serve and sell to U.S. customers, they would be
wise to weigh their expected cost benefits against the possibility
of potentially alienating their American customers." A key
challenge with outsourcing call centers in general, but especially
when considering international locations, is maintaining consistent
service quality. The Call Center Study reveals that more than half
of the respondents who were dissatisfied with their recent customer
service call cited agent- related issues, both general and
communication. General agent-related issues included
representatives lacking professionalism, and/or customer service
skills, and long wait to resolve problems, as well as service
agents reading from and/or not deviating from scripts, and those
who were ill informed. Reasons related to communication skills
included language difficulties (poor English, difficulty
understanding) -- although this individually ranked among the
lowest factors, having little effect on a customer's call center
experience -- agents who mumbled and/or spoke too quietly or too
quickly, agents who were constantly asked to repeat themselves, and
poor communication skills overall. "The results of this study
confirm that the call center experience has a significant impact on
how American consumers perceive a company, and how likely they are
to repurchase from U.S. companies that outsource their customer
service calls to offshore locations," said Setting. "With this in
mind, companies would be prudent to view their customer support
call centers as crucial elements of their customer strategy, akin
to marketing and loyalty programs." The Purdue University Call
Center Study was conducted to better understand how the American
public's attitude and perception of companies is shaped by their
experience with call centers as a point of contact for companies as
well as to provide insight into how American consumers have reacted
to the offshore outsourcing of service calls and if it had any
impact on their purchasing behavior. A survey of 721 U.S. consumers
was conducted. Selected from a broad database, this sample
accurately represents all U.S. consumers (age 18 and older) at a 95
percent confidence level with an error rate of plus or minus 4
percent. Nearly half of the respondents had contacted a call center
within the month prior to participating in this survey. About
Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality Purdue
University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality is the only
University-based research center focused on understanding,
researching and educating undergraduates, graduate students and
business leaders on how building and enhancing customer
relationships is the core competence of the 21st century. About
BenchmarkPortal, Inc. BenchmarkPortal is the custodian of the
Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality database of
contact center metrics, the largest in the world. It provides
reports, products and services for contact centers in the areas of
operational metrics, customer satisfaction measurement and agent
satisfaction measurement. For more information about
BenchmarkPortal, call 805-614-0123, or visit
http://www.benchmarkportal.com/ . About KellyConnect KellyConnect
is an exclusive Kelly Services program made up of the "best
practice" tools necessary to recruit, assess, train, and retain
top-performing call center agents worldwide. KellyConnect provides
individuals skilled in customer service, sales/telemarketing,
collections, market research, and help desk functions to inbound
and outbound call centers/contact centers. Kelly's comprehensive
understanding of the call center industry and environment is unique
in the staffing industry and has helped Kelly to staff nearly 4,000
call center locations in the U.S. Visit
http://www.kellyconnect.com/ . About Kelly Services Kelly Services,
Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYANASDAQ:KELYB) is a Fortune 500 company
headquartered in Troy, Mich., offering staffing solutions that
include temporary staffing services, staff leasing, outsourcing,
vendor on-site and full-time placement. Kelly serves 200,000
customers through 2,500 company owned and operated offices in 26
countries. Kelly provides employment for nearly 700,000 employees
annually, with skills including office services, accounting,
engineering, information technology, law, science, marketing, light
industrial, education, health care and home care. Revenue in 2003
was $4.3 billion. Visit http://www.kellyservices.com/ .
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991208/KELLYLOGO DATASOURCE:
Kelly Services, Inc. CONTACT: Deana Patritto of Kelly Services,
Inc., +1-248-244-5477 Web site: http://www.kellyservices.com/
http://www.benchmarkportal.com/ http://www.kellyconnect.com/
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