Indian
call centres may cut costs, but they also cut quality, a new study claims.
The
survey shows call centre workers in the UK are more efficient than their
counterparts in India – and claims this places a questionmark over the decision
taken by many companies to offshore thousands of UK jobs.
Trade
union Usdaw has urged call centre bosses to take note of the trends highlighted
in the report by research firm ContactBabel.
The
study of more than 300 UK- and India-based call centre operations found that,
on average, UK agents answer 25 per cent more calls each hour than their
counterparts in India, and resolve 17 per cent more of these calls first time.
UK
call centre workers also tend to stay with their company for well over three
years, while Indian call centre workers move on after an average 11 months.
Commenting
on the study, Usdaw general secretary Sir Bill Connor said: “The call centre
industry must recognise the depth of quality we have in this country. Salary
costs might be cheaper over in India, but that seems to go hand-in-hand with
poorer quality, less efficiency and more customer frustration.”
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