Wage hikes and poor customer service damage appeal of offshoring call centres for financial services companies

Wage hikes and poor customer service damage appeal of offshoring call centres for financial services companies

Spiralling wage costs and language barriers in offshore call centre hot-spots such as India are denting their price advantages.

Research conducted by Compass Management Consulting found that increasing wage prices of up to 15% annually in these countries was reducing the cost benefits for UK financial services companies.

According to Compass, financial services firms were experiencing poor customer perceptions about service and language barriers, which was leading to lower productivity and extended call times at offshore operations.

The study pointed to listening or understanding failures occurring in an average of 18% of offshore call centres, while misunderstandings and lack of clarity extended from 39% to 105% beyond the average.

The average figure for calls to onshore call centres was 4%.

Simon Scarrott, head of business development and marketing at Compass, said: "It is not enough to simply offload problem operations and inefficient processes to other countries in the hope they will improve.

"The key issue is to what extent savings are real, sustainable and continue to enhance the consumer experience. In too many cases, service quality is being compromised by an offshoring decision that fails to deliver the level of savings anticipated," he added.