Outsourcing and Customer Service

Look up customer service on a search engine and then switch to the pictures page. What you’ll see is predominantly photos of smiling faces sitting at a call centre desk. The irony is that this is where the poorest customer service is usually evident. If you were asked what good customer service entails, wouldn’t you agree that it is predominantly about speed, reliability, relationship and trust? Seeing as the call centre is so closely associated with customer service, why is this function so consistently outsourced, and how does this relate to these factors?

Who is that Out Front?

When my son first went to High school, I sat him down and asked him how he would like to be head of the student council in his final year. His eyes sparkled as he said, “Yes, I’d like that,” Now this is where you might want to tilt your head and put on a quizzical frown – I told him that I could virtually guarantee this role or the vice position if he was willing to follow my instructions. Neither the details of the conditions that applied, nor the result of the conversation are important at this point. The question is, can anyone make such an assertion with any confidence? Would it entail bribery and corruption, having the right contacts or mass hypnotism? The answer is that leadership is such a scarce commodity and is so easily taught with the help of a life coach, that I could actually make this claim with a very high degree of confidence.