Boost for Scotland as contact centres seek skills not low costs

Offshore call centres face tough challenges, with half of businesses claiming access to skills as the primary driver for the location of their call centre, rather than costs, according to a new report from Dimension Data. With Scotland striving to stop the exodus of call centres from its shores, the seventh Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report offers hope by revealing that 50 per cent of businesses cite staff skills over cost reduction (42 per cent) as a primary driver of their location strategy.

Cameron Welsh, account director with Dimension Data in Scotland, said: ìThis is undoubtedly good news for Scotland, which has, through its rich supply of skilled workers and savvy use of new technology, successfully evolved into a world-class venue for quality, high value customer-facing facilities. These findings confirm that, while direct cost remains a factor, businesses considering their call centre strategies are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attitude to staffing and quality issues. Successful businesses have realised there is no ëone-size-fits-allí solution to overcoming customer service challenges and that the low cost, high volume model, which has driven offshoring activity in recent years, is not for everyone.

ìThis trend will not only stem the flow of contact centre business away from Scotland, but boost the countryís profile as a competitive venue for international companies looking to offshore.î

Staff issues are highlighted as other main factors influencing the eventual choice of a location once a business has decided to go down the offshore route. The primary issue is the availability of staff (45 per cent of centres), followed by staff skills (35 per cent). Interestingly, only 27 per cent of centres highlight staff costs as an influencing factor, which again emphasises the primary challenge being placed firmly on assuring quality of service.

Businesses have overcome many of the technical challenges of managing a contact centre overseas, with only 28 per cent pointing to data linkages and 19 per cent citing telecommunication amongst their top three challenges. However, businesses continue to be faced with significant staff and service concerns. Over half (56 per cent) stated quality of service and 51 per cent named staff culture amongst their top three issues in managing a contact centre in an alternate location from their head office or regional operations. Another key area of concern was the issue of retaining control over remote operations, which was cited by 44 per cent of businesses.

Factors influencing companies who decide against outsourcing include potential damage to brand (43 per cent of businesses), risk factors too great (32 per cent) and insufficient cost savings (22 per cent). Unsurprisingly, the overriding reason given by 68 per cent of companies for not going down this route was because the function was perceived as being core to the business.