Offshore call centres more costly than in UK

The UK's financial services (FS) companies are failing to save money and are undermining customer relationships by sending UK call centre jobs overseas, according to a recent study by consultancy Compass Management Consulting.

Onshore FS call centres average 10 sales per month while offshore centres have an average of four sales per month. And savings from lower labour costs are disappearing as rates rise in offshore locations, with staff costs increasing by up to 15 per cent per year in countries such as India, the study shows.

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Language difficulties can also lower productivity and lead to calls lasting up to twice as long as home-based operations.

Listening or understanding failures occur in an average of four per cent of calls in onshore call centres but for offshore call centres, the figure rises to 18 per cent - and each of these failures can lengthen the call by up to 105 per cent beyond the average due to misunderstandings and lack of clarity, the research reveals.

Simon Scarrott, head of business development and marketing at Compass, said pursuing the "latest management fad" of offshoring in a far-off country makes no business sense in the long term.

Despite the trend toward offshoring call centres, a recent report claims the UK call centre industry grew by six per cent last year and is now worth £20.6bn.