Surprise! Study Shows Americans Hate Offshore Customer Service

While the outsourcing of jobs has long been a source of frustration for Americans, nowhere has that ire been more obvious than in customer service. But have you noticed fewer of your customer-service calls being routed to someone overseas recently? It seems that companies are listening.

CFI Group has released its annual Call Center Satisfaction Index report. It finds that just 9 percent of consumers had their customer-service questions fielded by offshore agents. Thats a decline from 15 percent in 2008.

The decline in offshore call centers shouldnt come as a surprise,” said Sheri Teodoru, CFI Groups CEO. Offshore agents not only serve as fodder for late night comedy sketches, theyre a painful reminder that American jobs continue to be outsourced during a period of high unemployment.”

And while thats true, dissatisfaction with foreign help is most likely the biggest driving factor behind moving call centers back to the States. CFIs survey shows call satisfaction is just 58 out of 100 for calls handled by offshore agents, while 79 out of 100 for CSRs based in the U.S. Satisfaction with the IRS 55/100 ranks almost as high as satisfaction with foreign agents.

If a customer hangs up mad, it isnt the agent they are going to blame, its the company that put them in that position in order to save a buck by sending their call overseas,” warns Teodoru.

The study says customers biggest frustration with overseas calls is the language barrier. U.S. agents are 34 percent more likely to fix your problem on the first call than those handled out of the country.

Service providers should consider two factors when deciding whether to put a call center offshore, Teodoru said. One, how often customers will need to use the call center, and two, the level of stress likely to be involved in the call.

Its one thing to go offshore to handle simple balance inquiries, but its quite another when success or failure in solving a software problem determines if your customer is able to meet the deadline for a proposal or get a term paper in on time,” said Teodoru.