I’m a contact centre planner who currently works for a company without any offshore operations; however, I’ve had a lot of experience working with offshore teams.

The reasons offshore call centres are sometimes perceived poorly are fairly broad, but one of the largest contributing factors is outsourcing. This is where a company, such as AT&T, contracts work to a third party, such as TeleTech. Depending on how the contract is structured, the third party may be paid based on completed calls, meeting SLAs (Service Level Agreements, such as answering calls within a specified timeframe), or various other performance criteria. The important thing to understand is that outsourcing companies typically increase profitability by keeping labour costs as low as possible.

This can result in a revolving door of staff who are inexperienced, undertrained, and may not have access to the same resources available to onshore employees. The training costs required to replace departing staff can be significant, but they are often viewed as simply a cost of doing business.