A U.S. 24-Hour Answering Service or an Offshore Call Center: Which One is Right for You?

A U.S. 24-Hour Answering Service or an Offshore Call Center: Which One is Right for You? With companies trying harder than ever to cut costs and quickly recover from the 2008 financial meltdown, many groups that need a 24-hour answering service have moved their operations out of the U.S. Though many companies outsourced their phone answering services to countries in Eastern Europe and Asia in recent years, the tide is beginning to turn. Those in need of answering service phone support have been forced to reconsider call centers based in the U.S. for a variety of reasons.

Companies have found a decrease in loyalty and satisfaction among customers when they learned that calling a support line meant speaking with someone on another continent. The initial cost savings of using offshore answering services clearly does not outweigh the cost of losing customers because they perceived the company as “cheap.”

In particular, banking and insurance companies have been bringing their 24-hour answering services back to the U.S. These institutions have found that customers speaking about sensitive financial matters prefer to discuss them with someone in their own country. Many companies have even gone so far as to make sure the client knows they are on the line with someone in the U.S. when the answering service phone support employee picks up the line. It has become increasingly clear that partnering with the right 24-hour call center can mean the difference between a company retaining a client or losing him or her to a competitor.

Offshore call centers can be beneficial to a company when the owners are trying to cut costs. Offshore call centers can also work if the support line does not need to answer a plethora of technical questions. Because these outsourced call centers often do not know much about the products featured by the companies they represent, issues can arise that severely affect a company’s reputation with their customers.

Language barriers and minimal product support knowledge are key areas of frustration many customers experience when dealing with 24-hour phone support that is based overseas. Beyond banking and insurance, cable and wireless companies that frequently use outsourced support services often hear complaints from the U.S.-based clients. Generally, these sectors require representatives with a good deal of technical knowledge. When a customer service representative is not abreast of the types of cable or wireless systems available in the U.S., it can often be tough for him or her to truly relate to the problem. It is possible that these highly technical companies can never truly train their offshore phone support centers accurately enough to provide a smooth customer service experience.

While there certainly are benefits to offshore call centers, it has become increasingly clear that U.S.-based customers prefer speaking with representatives in the U.S. when dealing with most of their issues.

Since companies are taking a serious look at how much they’re saving by using offshore call centers, they are noticing a higher level of approval and loyalty from their customers.