The reign of India as the leader of the outsourced call center operation has ended as salaries soared and the average cost of contact center outsourcing climbed too high to justify the destination. Now, even Indian businesses are moving to a contact center outsourcing strategy to take advantage of lower costs abroad.

This phenomenon was the focus of a recent Washington Post piece, highlighting the ongoing trend in contact center outsourcing as U.S. companies turn away from possibilities in India to establish operations in cheaper destinations in Asia. In addition to lower costs and a large pool of English speakers, these locations also offer improved infrastructure and better government incentives.

Sujit Bakshi, the Tech Mahindra president of the corporate affairs and business services group, told the Washington Post that India can no longer take the voice-based contact center business for granted. Even as the country remains the primary destination for IT support and other high-end work, the contact center outsourcing destination lost its title as the call center capital of the world. In fact, India has been outpaced by the number of individuals employed in the Philippines and Malaysia combined.

These changes have not been ignored within Indian companies as some have tried to adjust through hiring less expensive workers or switching their strategy to focus on high-end back office work, such as education, paralegal services and accounting.

Other strategy changes have included a contact center outsourcing movement within India. Just in the past three years, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies, 13 call center companies in India have moved operations to set up large offices in the Philippines. In the process, they have hired and trained local workers.
The association’s senior vice president, Sangeeta Grupa, told the Washington Post that the growth of the contact center outsourcing space is being driven, to a large extend, by the Indian contact center outsourcing companies that are setting up operations there.

With the commonalities between Filipinos and Americans, the Philippines is attracting a number of U.S. companies. Filipinos are known to think like Americans, sing American songs, drive on the right side of the road, play basketball and even watch American boxing, according to Bakshi. Likewise, the Malaysian government is taking steps to promote its contact center outsourcing strategy by building infrastructure and subsidizing one year contact center outsourcing salaries.

Even with this movement in the Philippines and Malaysia, contact center outsourcing is not dead in India. The country’s economy continues to boom and consumption is rising as customer care has become a vital function. All of these elements are helping to fuel growth in contact center outsourcing for local businesses.

Regardless of the trends taking place right now, contact center outsourcing is still a dynamic industry. India reigned for a long time in this space and now new and more competitive opportunities are popping up. Does this signify a new focus in the global industry? It’s possible the contact center outsourcing environment will remain changed forever for all countries involved. More likely, these changes won’t be due to simple location, yet the innovative technologies that continue to emerge to reduce the cost of customer care across the board.

Source: Call Center Services