Outsourcing not common practice

OUTSOURCING call centre business functions to a third party organisation is not a common practice in the Asia Pacific region, the recently released 1999 Call Centre Research (a division of ACA Research) Asia Pacific Call Centre Study revealed.

Only 12 per cent of call centres in Australia currently use an outsourced organisation, with “lack of communication; lack of control over errors” a reason that may account for their low utilisation levels.

Another complaint was that the third party did not have the detailed knowledge that in-house staff had of complex aspects of the business.

A surprise find of the study was that only 58 per cent of call centres in Australia currently have a Quality Assurance program in place.

The study revealed that 17 per cent of call centres were monitored for first call resolution, with 49 per cent of these claiming that they were achieving or exceeding their goal.