Live from Future Call Center Summit: Choice Hotels Reveals 6 Reasons Outsourcing Fails

Outsourcing can be immensely valuable and not only for the vendors that sell outsourcing services.

By providing access to existing training systems, technologies and global locations, outsourcers enable businesses to shift focus from the tedious realm of logistics to the lucrative domain of big picture strategy.

In addition to enabling businesses to rapidly scale up and down, contemporary outsourcers also strive to seamlessly replicate clients’ cultures and mindsets.

When done right, outsourcing enables businesses to realize the full potential of the contact center. It enables them to use the customer support function as a ticket to sweeping business growth.

It is not, however, universally endorsed by those within the customer management community.

Deemed archaic by some and outright detrimental by others, contact center outsourcing is one of the most polarizing topics in the business world. Its clear value proposition and long history of empowering organizational customer experiences are not enough to overcome disgust, let alone skepticism, from a vocal portion of the business community.

Choice Hotels is not part of that segment. Willing to attribute significant success to its outsourcing strategy, the organization’s Dee Dee Gray-Weaver and Hui Wu-Curtis detailed the positive experience in a session at Call Center IQ’s Future Call Center Summit.

Aware, however, that some attendees would scoff at the very mention of outsourcing, the two identified the elephant in the room: outsourcing is not popular with every executive or organization.

But it can be.

According to the Choice Hotels leaders, negative perceptions are fueled by a few key tenets.

Those tenets—the six reasons outsourcing fails—are highlighted below:

Key stakeholders anticipate impact and thus have conflicting perspectives on the optimal strategy

Alternatively, businesses inadequately prepare for outsourcing and are caught off guard by the strategy’s impact

Business leaders fear the outsourcer operates in isolation and thus pays little mind to client feedback

Business leaders fear a detrimental impact on service

Leaders are deterred by political views towards outsourcing (particularly offshoring)

Leaders are deterred by fear of the accents and cultures common to the regions that host outsourced call centers