Currently, there is a growing trend in the outsource call center industry to relocate many US jobs offshore to countries like India and the Philippines. It seems all too frequent that we see articles, reports or news stories about companies in our local communities closing facilities and moving positions offshore. This movement hits us all at a localized level with firms in our own cities, as well as on a national level as major US-based corporations with broad scale operations look at ways to reduce their costs and achieve shareholder expectations. At first, the logic and reasoning behind this seems obvious. Most think, the cost of labor must be far lower in third world countries? Therefore, by reducing domestic worker capacity, US-based companies can spend less on labor costs by hiring foreign workers offshore, raise revenue and profits, increase ROI and shareholder wealth etc. However, to the surprise of many, the truth is that this is not always the case.
At Education at Work, we’ve created the ideal solution for the outsource call center sector that is most valuable to the US economy. In our model, we’re able to keep outsourced customer service jobs onshore at rates that are competitive with offshore providers. Executed properly, we believe this business concept that will become an industry leading approach as we extend out our reach nationally. Why take these jobs overseas when our own US citizens can fill them on our own soil?
Our business model addresses cost by matching competitive rates offshore, but we also increase customer experience and call quality by employing agents that speak the English language and dialects clearly, and that have a depth of US consumer experience to solve problems on the first call. This reduces customer frustration and the need for callbacks or call transfers to managers in order to get answers. Further, we’re making an ongoing investment into our nation’s next generation workforce (America’s college students) by improving their critical job skills, expanding US job creation, and resolving pressing domestic social and economic issues. We believe that customer service outsourcers should no longer be incented to sacrifice US jobs by taking them offshore in an attempt to appease shareholder profitability requirements. We offer a significantly viable domestic option that executives of US corporations, and their shareholders alike, can rally around.
Education at Work strives to create a social mission that will reshape the outsource call center industry, and have a direct positive impact on the social well being of the American people. This includes our goals of developing our nation’s college students by helping them earn generous tuition assistance while at the same time teaching them essential job skills, keeping US jobs onshore, and promoting a culture of student debt management and responsibility.
To learn more about why we do what we do, visit our site: http://educationatwork.org.
To see the most recent article detailing the continued boom of offshore call center outsourcing, that which inspired us to prepare this note, check out the original Business Courier article below.
Article link: Business Courier
