Call center outsourcing service have been a hot topic in recent months.
Outsourcing is big business. The Philippines contract center industry alone grew 15 percent annually from 2006 to 2010, according to a recent market report from the Contact Center Association of the Philippines. The industry there is expected to grow in the next five years, climbing from approximately $6.2 billion in revenues in 2010 to about $14.7 billion in 2016. And that's just the Philippines.
In a move to sweeten its T-Mobile acquisition proposal, AT&T Relevant Products/Services in August promised to bring back to the United States 5,000 wireless Relevant Products/Services call center jobs that are currently outsourced to other countries, if the deal goes through.
What's more, AT&T said the 5,000 new wireless call center jobs would offer among the nation's most highly competitive wages and benefits. The company did not say where those jobs would be located, but the announcement was the largest commitment by an individual American company to bring jobs back to the U.S. since the economic crisis began in 2008.
Customer satisfaction scores tend to go up when you have domestic talent as opposed to outsourced talent, and customer satisfaction tends to lead to better customer retention. So there are a number of other reasons beyond legislation to actually bring call centers back to the U.S., which is probably why AT&T doesn't have a problem doing that. Depending on the company, there's been a lot of interest in bringing call centers back on U.S. shores, for the most part because there's been a real problem with talent retention overseas.
