Exploring the benefits of contact centre offshoring: a study of trends and practices for the Australian business sector

Abstract

A globalised knowledge economy has seen organisations restructure their delivery of customer services to take advantage of an open and competitive labour market. Gains achieved in developed economies such as the USA and UK from offshoring of business processes to developing countries are pressuring Australian businesses to offshore. This paper explores the practices of Australian businesses with offshore contact centres and considers emerging trends in offshoring in terms of potential risks and benefits for Australian organisations with broad customer contact. Findings suggest that Australian organisations are not only cautiously adopting offshore contact centre solutions to a range of onshore challenges including recruitment and retention of local staff and comparatively high local costs, but also achieving gains beyond cost savings in quality of service and enhanced business flexibility.

Past, present and future of contact centers: a literature review

“…CCs have been studied in various industries and countries which demonstrates their importance. For example, previous studies have examined a diversity of international and national industries including: health (Guillot and Fung, 2010; Rohleder et al , 2013; Malm et al , 2013; Liebow et al , 2012; Bowers and Fish, 2013), pharmaceutical and medical, mobile telecommunications (Anaman et al , 2008), water utilities (Olstein, 2009), academic libraries (Murphy and Cerqua, 2012), car rental (Takeuchi et al , 2007, 2009), Amazon.com (Keblis and Chen, 2006), banking (van Dun et al , 2012; Hakan Özkan, 2012; Surana and Singh, 2012), telecommunications (Tate and van der Valk, 2008), internal IT helpdesks (Padmanabhan and Kummamuru, 2007), telecom service providers in Europe (Visweswariah et al , 2010), the service industry (van der Aa et al , 2012) and call centers in Bangalore (Ghosh, 2013), India (Surana and Singh, 2012; Poster, 2013; Taylor et al , 2013; Das et al , 2013; Aneesh, 2012; Nandialath et al , 2012), the Philippines (Hechanova, 2013), Germany (Gerpott, 2012), South Africa (Hunter and Hachimi, 2012), Hungary (Dezső et al , 2010), Australia (Owens, 2014), Malaysia (Abdullateef and Salleh, 2013), Egypt (Kamel and Hussein, 2008), and the Netherlands (van der Aa et al , 2012).…”

“…The role of CSRs is to maintain a suitable relationship between the center and the customers. CSRs are largely responsible for the customer service experience, through responding to customers’ enquiries, empathizing with their needs, solving their problems, and handling their complaints (Owens, 2014):CSRs provide an intermediary role in the contact center between the customer and the system. They must not only maintain a coherent conversation with the person on the other end of the phone line but must also cope with a number of interfaces and interaction styles contained within the (often) multiple databases that they need to get information from and to(Millard et al , 2004).…”

Engagement and identification

“…The lower susceptibility to the repercussions of financial crises enjoyed by Australian organisations has thus far rendered transactional and low-risk services the predominant offshoring practises in this country (Owens, 2014). However, Australian businesses are increasingly aware of the value gains associated with offshoring to countries characterised by low attrition rates (enabling significant labour cost savings) and highly qualified labour markets (allowing offshoring of complex, high-risk processes and services, such as HR), and the Philippines have become a preferred offshoring hub for Australian organisations (Owens, 2014;Susomrith and Brown, 2013). In addition to low turnover rates and availability of a sizeable talent pool, noted advantages of offshoring HR and other functions to the Philippines include small time zone differences between SO 7,3 the countries, and the English language proficiency that typifies the Filipino workforce (Owens, 2014).…”

“…Our research-based knowledge of the challenges and dynamics associated with offshoring practice is primarily based on the strategic outlook of senior-level managers regarding business operations (Owens, 2014;Penter et al, 2009), on onshore staff members' attitudes towards their offshore counterparts (Zimmerman et al, 2013) and, to a much lesser extent, on the assessment of staff perceptions concerning workplace characteristics and their relationship with key performance drivers (i.e. the motivation and attitudes of offshore employees) (Mattarelli and Gupta, 2009).…”

“…India, China, Russia and the Philippines have become prime offshore locations, given the combination of lower wages -in line with cost-cutting strategies -and highly skilled professionals (Owens, 2014;Penter et al, 2009;Willcocks et al, 2002). The talent calibre and service quality observed at those offshore locations have led firms to realise that there may be opportunities to source new organisational capabilities, rethink business models and leverage innovative processes through offshoring (Penter et al, 2009).…”