Outsourcing customer service through call centers

The rise in globalization has compelled companies to become more competitive. Competitiveness is not bound to better production, indeed it goes beyond this and value added services have now started to become the hallmark of competitiveness. Subcontracting (outsourcing) non core business processes have become a major source of competitive advantage lately. Customer services is a non core business function but plays a major role in creating good will of a company as well as accumulating a pool of loyal customers. Companies finding an edge in competitiveness are going for outsourcing their customer services through call centers. This research is aimed at studying the outsourcing of customer services through call centers. The call center components explained (i.e. strategy, technology, processes, human resources (HR) and facilities), were to be tested for their selection and adoption. To achieve the research purpose, case studies were conducted examining two telecommunications companies that have outsourced their customer services. The study found the differences and similarities between the companies as regards to the theories provided. The study also found that companies depending on their market situation and positioning differed on selecting the processes to outsource and the technology to adapt but showed somewhat similar patterns in terms of other call center components. It was found that the choice for formulating the strategy for outsourcing and selection of the customer support process is challenging as well as need to be molded to the situation of the company at question. While outsourced customer services through call centers is a way to be cost effective and maximize business performance, at the same time it also presents significant new management challenges, such as continuous improvement and effective control over HR and facilities for outsourced call centers. Lastly, the participating companies were in full agreement regarding the benefits that outsourcing gave their productivity and overall business operations.Validerat; 20101217 (root