Business Articles

When setting up a call centre for a company, there are several important things to consider, which include the location, the size and equipment. A lot of companies choose to locate call centres in foreign countries to take advantage of the lower labour and set-up costs. However there seems to be a growing discontent with this form of customer service amongst the general public leading companies to consider their own country as the location.

Many companies have chosen to move their operations to countries such as India, where there is a lot of cheap labour. Telemarketing centres are normally highly labour-intensive, which is why companies choose to relocate in order to lower costs. Foreign countries tend to have many people that are able to speak English and can therefore operate as a call centre employee dealing with English customers. There are also call centre providers who have everything already set up including the premises, equipment and ready and willing employees. Therefore all that is needed is the relevant information, which employees must study to be able to offer good customer service. This is clearly very attractive for a company who is looking to lower costs, especially in the current economic recession where it is important to stay afloat.

However a growing amount of people are becoming frustrated with experiences of poor customer service from foreign telemarketing centres. The main problem tends to lie in the employee's language skills, occasionally an employee can be hired that lacks the fluency to communicate well with a customer. This can lead to a very frustrating experience on the phone and in some cases has led to a customer cancelling their account with the company. This has led to some companies even choosing to highlight the fact that their call centre is based in England as a selling point. These companies are hoping that despite the higher labour costs, they will attract more customers through having a customer service provided by people from England.

There are advantages and disadvantages of having a telemarketing centre in England and given the current economic climate, a company must choose wisely. Customer service and support is vital for any successful company, people must be able to call up and ask for help whenever it is needed, without encountering any difficulties. No matter where the call centre is based, it is important that the employees have a strong command of the language and speak clearly and fluently