Outsourcing is anything but a foreign concept to U.S. manufacturers. Production and design went offshore to leverage lower labor costs many years ago, and they aren't coming back any time soon. But what about front-office functions like customer support?
Following the lead of high-tech companies such as Dell Inc., manufacturers of all stripes are outsourcing activities of all types, such as call center operations, to overseas specialists. "Cost is the leading driver," says Forrester Research Inc. analyst Elizabeth Herrell. "[Manufacturers] believe the outsourcer can manage their business processes more effectively than they can."
In addition, outsourcers may be able to offer a richer array of support options for customers than manufacturers can, including online knowledgebases, chat capability, click-to-call and other cutting-edge techniques. Outsourcers can spread investment in these tools across a wide array of accounts, making the outlay much more cost-effective and justifiable than it would be for an individual manufacturer.
Ever eager to slash costs to the bone, high-tech manufacturers began outsourcing customer service several years ago -- and nearly scared off some of their customers in the process. Dell and PC rival Hewlett-Packard Co., for example, came under fire for engaging Indian outsourcing firms to perform first-tier technical support without providing requisite language and cultural training. This caused major disconnects with some initial customers, illuminating the painful downside of call center outsourcing done wrong. (Both companies have long since straightened out their services.)
So, if you haven't already taken the leap, should you hand your contact center over to an outsourcer? One good rule of thumb: The more complex the product that you need to support, the trickier (and riskier) the move will be. For example, companies that make highly technical products such as robotics or machine vision equipment may choose not to take the plunge.
"Companies with that type of product require a lot of very specialized knowledge to address their particular needs," says Roger Sumner, senior vice president, technology office at Aspect Software (Wood Dale, IL). Therefore, they are less likely to trust a third party to provide the level of expertise needed for customer support. Aspect, formed after the September 2005 merger of Concerto Software and Aspect Communications, sells contact center hardware, software, and services.
Some manufacturers in this boat tap their existing distribution channel to provide tier-one support rather than going out on a limb and trusting an untested party. That's a good compromise if the channel can provide that support more cheaply and efficiently than the manufacturer, Sumner says. But when it comes to more complex support needs, this type of manufacturer often gives outsourcing the thumbs-down. "These companies tend to like to own the customer relationship."
That's not necessarily the only prudent path anymore. Advanced contact management technology such as Siebel customer relationship management (CRM) can help the manufacturer and outsourcer stay on the same page. Outsourcer EDS (Plano, TX), for example, uses a single instance of Siebel CRM that captures all interactions with a customer regardless of contact type. EDS also directly connects to its customers' enterprise applications (ERP, MES, etc.) in some cases.
While that may sound risky from a security standpoint, "EDS has a long history of managing our customers' critical information in a very secure fashion," says Fariba Rawhani, global vice president for CRM for EDS.
In any case, security considerations should be high on your list when evaluating any outsourcer. Tour the outsourcer's facilities, if possible, ask to review their policies and business procedures and speak to other manufacturing customers, ideally in your own industry.
Training Is Key
Before making the move to outsource a customer contact center, take some steps to lessen the risk. Getting the call center agents the right training is the most important consideration. "You might have to work with a third-party training provider to train the outsourcer's agents," says Forrester's Herrell. "It's important to work with an outsourcer that adheres to quality-assurance programs and certification programs, that provide continuous training."
This training must encompass not just content (technical expertise with the products being supported), but cultural matters such as accent (to avoid the problems that plagued Dell and HP) and even in some cases adopting American-sounding first names to steer clear of bad PR.
EDS, for example, puts its tier 1 and tier 2 agents through four to six weeks of training before they begin work on a particular client account. According to Rawhani, the training program is a mix of outsourcer orientation, customer service skills and client/product-specific training. "We break up the training into several modules, including the user of technology and specific customer processes being supported," she says.
Another tip: Don't forget to analyze the stability of the outsourcer's agents. "They will want to work with an outsourcer with a demonstrated low attrition rate," Herrell says. The outsourcer should be accustomed to providing this information and should also have a proven plan for managing attrition.
While the outsourcer generally will not allow the customer to hand-select agents with documented performance, according to Rawhani, the customer should work with the outsourcer to define agent profiles that have a higher propensity to be successful in their type of contact center environment. Make sure your service-level agreements (SLAs) specify customer satisfaction levels (including metrics and a timetable for review) and document improvement plans (and financial penalties) if that level of customer satisfaction is not achieved. The outsourcer should also offer some sort of quality monitoring service, including the ability to do remote monitoring and reporting, usually via Web portal.
In some engagements, the outsourcer takes the manufacturer's support personnel onto its own payroll. That arrangement is likely to appeal to manufacturers with existing highly trained staff. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?
That doesn't mean the outsourcer's personnel can't be trained up to the level of the manufacturers' own employees. Rawhani of EDS often observes EDS agents in action on client locations. "I recently visited a large contact center of a large manufacturer. I was walking the floors and talking to the agents and supervisors. These people have immense knowledge of the company's business processes and products," Rawhan says. EDS provides outsourcing services of various types for General Motors (which at one time owned the information services company).
Many outsourcers, including EDS, have a specific methodology for transferring knowledge from the customer to the service provider. EDS has a 30- to 60-day transition training period and generally offers monetary incentives for existing support staff to stay through the transition.