UK call centres that look east for quality and value may be misguided

According to Scott Watson, Director of Performance at West Yorkshire based Summit Consulting & Training, Indian call centres are becoming a very real threat to the future prosperity of the UK's call centre industry.

And Watson believes that a growing number of Indian outsourcing companies are well positioned to take a significant slice of the UK's outsourcing cake. However, he warns that potential corporate customers could end up doing more damage than good by relocating.

"There is no doubt that the trend towards transferring call centre operations to the East is set to continue," argues Watson. "Norwich Union has just announced that it is moving a further 950 jobs to India and Sri Lanka. The company already has 3,700 staff in India, and is aiming to have 7,000 jobs overseas by 2007," states Watson.

"But, while the lower wage bills, high levels of education and impressive IT systems are attractive, these are coupled with a sensitive political situation, poor telecommunications infrastructure and a widespread inability for Indian-based staff to understand British regional accents. This can severely impact on the customer's experience and perception, as well as damaging the company's reputation," he adds.

Although some commentators are predicting massive growth for the Indian call centre industry over the next 10 years, Watson believes that there won't be a stampede to relocate operations to India. 'There is likely to be a steady stream of small scale projects to test the water rather than jumping straight in with heavy financial investment,' he maintains.

However, Watson warns potential investors of other factors that are dangerous to ignore. TThere is huge potential for a backlash from customers who find they are being dealt with by someone 6,000 miles away rather than in the UK, as well as what they perceive as possible exploitation of low-paid employees in a poor country. Companies also face the problem of attracting adverse media publicity that could damage their corporate image and ultimately, their profits," he states.

"The highly optimistic growth rates for Indian call centres may not be as realistic as some industry watchers claim,' says Watson. 'Many small operations aim to secure high volumes of business quickly to meet tough income targets. However, the fact that many will not exist in a few years time should not be used as an excuse for UK based operations to become complacent. If you want to maximise your performance and safeguard your future, you need to take action now," he argues.

"Focusing on costs alone will not be enough to sustain the growth of the industry in India. As well as being the cheapest, they also need to prove they are the best, and that remains to be seen," concludes Watson.

About Summit Consulting & Training

Summit Consulting & Training is one of the UK's preferred choices of human resources consultancies, specialising in call centre development for management, sales and service.

From offices in West Yorkshire, Summit operates an international consultancy - offering training and one-to-one empowerment sessions for sales staff, call centre operatives and executives in all industrial and commercial sectors.

More information is available on the Summit Consulting and Training web site at www.summitconsultants.co.uk