Are Service Organizations Simply Outsourcing Inefficiency?

Zachary McGeary | March 26, 2007, 11:15 AM

While many companies are increasingly ceding full control of contact center operations to an outsourcer, Lillian Vernon is bringing it back in-house. In this article, representatives cite several areas of efficiency that allowed them to do this.

--Reduced call handle time by 36 seconds
--Eliminated third-party sales promotions
--Reduced IVR interaction handle time by 20 seconds
--Reduced product SKUs by 20 percent

This raises an important question for call center mangagers who are considering outsourcing operations to meet customer demand (inquiry volume): Are there existing inefficiencies that can be addressed that would eliminate the need to outsource service operations?

Based on their expectation of a 30 percent increase in inquiry volume in it's Virginia Beach-based contact center, just 23 percent of inquiry volume was being handled in their Philippines-based call center.