The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a rule aimed at bringing call centers back into the U.S. While the agency is still in the early stages of the rulemaking process — and needs to respond to the public's comments by June 22 — it has raised the prospect of onshoring contact center operations.
It’s too early to treat the FCC proposal as a true regulation, according to Manish Shah, managing director of customer advisory at KPMG U.S. However, it is never too early for organizations to start planning potential strategies — and regulations aren’t the only reason to bring customer service onshore.
Companies can minimize data risks and optimize the customer service experience when they bring contact center operations back home.
But companies need to consider the unique needs of their customer service operation and where they want to locate their new call center or business process outsourcing partners. The transition itself can pose a challenge and requires a strategy for swapping contact center locations without disrupting service for customers.
One factor that may be losing some of its weight is whether offshoring is cheaper, Shah said. Domestic and foreign BPOs have access to the latest technology, including AI, which “drastically impacts the way that a lot of the vendors do their pricing and contractual agreements.”
When does onshoring make sense?
Companies that may be impacted by an FCC rule should start planning a customer service onshoring strategy now, according to Shah. Even if the agency doesn’t act, it doesn’t hurt to understand the risks and options.
“They shouldn't start thinking about just swapping vendors or hiring more people,” Shah said. “I'm sure, as I said, the proposal isn't really final, but I think it's time to really do an exercise around what your regulatory exposure might be.”
Companies may also want to consider the kind of data that flows through their contact centers, according to Shah. If agents are handling sensitive customer information like account information or payments, bringing operations onshore can minimize handoffs and enable tighter control over the process.
This is particularly true in industries like financial services or healthcare.
For some businesses the reason to onshore may be a matter of cultural context, according to Nick Murphy, COO at Optomi Professional Services, parent company of Provalus, a U.S.-based BPO. Customer service agents can better represent a company if they have first-hand experience with the brand.
“When you think about our client organizations, a lot of them have very concrete and identifiable company cultures, and that emanates out to the public persona as well,” Murphy told CX Dive. “And so, if their services are offshored, they may not know intimately what this particular retailer or restaurant looks like, acts like, feels like, tastes like.”
Companies also need to consider how much of their operation they want to bring back onshore, according to Shah. Depending on regulatory requirements, security challenges and CX priorities, it may make sense to bring support for certain customer service elements onshore while leaving others overseas.
“I don't think the answer is like, ‘Hey, bring everything back on shore,’” Shah said. “I think the answer is going to be offshore where it's appropriate, nearshore where you think it's going to be useful, and onshore where that risk or customer value justifies it.”
Location still matters domestically
The differences between regions in a country may not be as vast as the gap across oceans, but the kind of service and employees available in a given domestic area can still vary significantly.
For instance, a contact center near a university might have better access to a population with strong communication skills, according to Shah. And locations in states like New York and California will be more expensive due to higher local wages, which can be a potential negative.
Cost and skillsets aren’t the only criteria, according to Shah. Locating customer service in the right region can affect how the contact center represents your brand.
“Is it the right fit for the type of customers you have?” Shah said. “If most of your customers are in the Northeast, for example, are they going to be okay with folks that are not familiar with the local geography if your product or service requires them to be familiar with that?”
Other service jobs could affect the worker pool, too, according to Shah. Areas with lots of options for similar work could see higher turnover due to the availability of other jobs.
In the U.S., rural areas are often ideal for contact centers, according to Ryan Ruwe, EVP at Provalus. These areas often have plenty of talent, but not enough jobs.
“In rural America, what they're not lacking is skill,” Ruwe told CX Dive. “What they're not lacking is drive, motivation. What they are lacking is opportunity. So when you're able to bring these jobs to rural America and provide opportunity where opportunity has not been provided before, you get this amazing workforce who think you are the employer of choice in the region.”
Many of the available jobs in rural areas involve employees spending the vast majority of their time on their feet, according to Murphy. Work like retail, mills and processing plants usually entails a fair amount of physical labor — making a contact center job more enticing.
“What you find is individuals may physically age out of their capability to work in those kinds of environments,” Murphy said. “That is because they don't have the same kind of offering set that an air conditioned, seated office environment does.”
Knowledge makes the transition work
Whatever reason a company has for moving its customer service operations, the switchover is not a simple task. However, the right steps can make the change feel seamless for customers.
When Provalus takes on a new client, the most important thing a client can provide is information, according to Ruwe. The BPO needs the right knowledge base to ensure it is training agents properly for the job in the weeks leading up to the switch.
“In our opinion, the most important thing is that you have your knowledge and your processes and everything covered properly, so everyone can respond to the client properly,” Ruwe said. “That way, when there is a transition, not only do people maybe not notice it, when they do they notice that it's for the better.”
This includes cultural and customer information as well, according to Ruwe. It’s important that agents understand not just the company they are working for, but the people who will be calling in for support.
“If it's an internal desk, then we learn all about their employees,” Ruwe said. “If it's an external desk, we learn all about their customers. And we spend a lot of time on that. And that's super critical to us, because they need to understand who are the people calling in, and why are they calling, and what help do they need with?”
Whether a company is looking at onshoring ahead of a potential FCC rule or to improve its service, they should start speaking with potential partners well ahead of time, according to Shah. Asking about important factors like capacity, location and cost can help teams have the right partner for the switch already identified when the time comes.
“It's important to have that kind of conversation for planning purposes,” Shah said. “In our scenario planning, those are some of the things I'm thinking about.”
