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Blog Post: The Verdict is Out: Americans Prefer American Call Center Agents August 30, 2010

Posted by OnProcess Technology in Customer Care, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research.
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http://riverstar.com/blog/id/3052/the-verdict-is-out-americans-prefer-american-call-center-agents

(edited for punctuation –sk)

Survey on Riverstar Customer Experience Blog

My first article on this topic seemed to bring about a good number of discussions in various LinkedIn groups. So, I aggregated all of the comments across multiple LinkedIn group discussions, our web site and a few other sites where we post. There were 41 total responses and here’s what I found:
American Call Center Agents
Of the people that made comment, it was clear that the overwhelming majority determined that Americans prefer to speak to American Call Center Agents. Nearly 64% felt this way, while 27% disagreed. While these results would not be considered conclusive evidence obtained from a wide spread study utilizing responses across various genders, age groups and nationalities, it is still a viable indication of opinion from people in our space. Ironically, the numbers seem to be in line with a recent (hot off the press) study conducted by CFI Group just a few days ago, citing the move of call center agents back to the United States for the second year running. In fact, CFI Group outlined that “The biggest argument for repatriating a call center is the almost unprecedented level of dissatisfaction associated with offshore agents. The study finds that call center satisfaction is only 58 out of 100 when the call is handled by an offshore agent, compared to 79 for U.S.-based agents.”  The Sample size from CFI Group is much larger, but the results are obviously in sync.
Additionally, I broke down the responses by source and found some interesting data. I’m not certain that any conclusions can be made from it, but found it to be interesting that certain LinkedIn groups swayed in different directions. Here’s what I found:
  • The Customer Experience Management group comments clearly sided on there being a preference toward Americans: 67%,
  • In the Customer Service Professionals group, the split was 50/50,
  • And finally, in the Worldwide Contact Center Professionals group, 75% disagreed that American’s prefer American agents.
In each of these cases, the response rate was at least 8 respondents. Again, not a large sample size by any means, but interesting data nonetheless.
The second half of my analysis covers feedback from the population of responses. In addition to claiming yes or no on the preference, there were opinions as to why this is the case or what can be done to offer a better overall experience to the customer. It was apparent in all of the discussion threads that the following list of items would increase the probability of offshore agent acceptance:
  1. Better overall employment screening.
  2. More training to the agent on products, processes, language and culture.
  3. Hiring individuals without an accent, or at least one that matches the locality of the customer.
Point #2 hits squarely to the findings by CFI Group which states that “U.S. agents are 34% more likely to resolve the problem on the first call than those handled offshore.”

“The biggest argument for repatriating a call center is the almost unprecedented level of dissatisfaction associated with offshore agents. The study finds that call center satisfaction is only 58 out of 100 when the call is handled by an offshore agent, compared to 79 for U.S.-based agents.”

So, in conclusion, I’m not alone in my past experiences and opinion of the matter. I do want to make it clear that an outstanding customer experience can be achieved regardless of where the agent is located or what language they speak. However, it is a growing debate that is gaining press in all forms (fall TV series), attention by the masses, and a move back to the U.S. by major organizations looking to increase their overall customer experience.

Bringing Your Customer Experience Wish List to Life March 12, 2009

Posted by OnProcess Technology in Asset Retrieval, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess, Warranty Management.
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Wouldn’t it be great if you could know for certain which of your customer touchpoints are the ones that are key drivers of their satisfaction with you?

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to focus investment in those particular areas that your customers care about most, and not waste time and expense on those that don’t affect their satisfaction?

If you could identify the critical factors that drive the highest levels of customer satisfaction and recommendations, how much would that be worth to you?

Do you think it would be valuable to know what levels of customer satisfaction are adequate to retain the most customers, and what levels are most likely to drive defection, and to have that information in an intuitive visual format?

know what satisfaction levels drive what behaviors

 

Like, uh, for example, this one?

In your warranty replacement programs, for example, would you like to be able to optimize shipping methods and shipping charge assessments to provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction AS WELL AS minimize shipping cost exposure?

 

You probably know where this is going, don’t you?

Yeah, you guessed it. Our clients get this kind of thing now. From OnProcess Technology’s CE360™.

Not just a call center, or a survey company, or a software company.

A total solution that provides program design and execution, answers, data-driven insights, huge cost savings, and differentiation on service, instead of price.

Let us know if you’d like to talk.

 

–sk

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