06/12/08 Outsourcing

Wikipedia states that outsourcing "is subcontracting a process to a third party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering firm costs, or to make more efficient use of labor." That may be the official definition of outsourcing, but unofficially I find myself defining outsourcing as a practice in futility that leaves both the call center agent and the customer in a state of complete irritation and frustration. To reach most service companies today your call is routed via India, Romania, and many other countries. To say that there is generally a language barrier is an understatement. Off shore outsourcing where the first language and culture are different results in a linguistic nightmare with accents and different phraseology making call center agents difficult to understand and vice versa. Different languages and cultures are definitely something to be enjoyed and explored but not when you are trying to figure out why your computer, telephone, or cable service is on the fritz!