Marketers: Is it time to take on the call center?

This week's BusinessWeek published an article Call Center? That's so 2004. Call center outsourcing is down from 85% of India's business process outsourcing in 2000 to 35% today. India is finding call centers to be the least profitable of the outsourcing business and the most difficult to operate. Read the article for more details.

Does this represent an opportunity to improve the customer experience? After all, when you take the time to a call center and wait for a human to answer the phone, you have a problem that's worth the trouble. When you are met with someone that cannot help you, your problem just got bigger.

This could be a win-win. In an early posting, Blogging and Customer Service, I point to a number of other bloggers talking about the impact of customer service on a brand including my favorite, an article from Pete Blackshaw, Consumer Affairs: The New Advertising Department. It's a service economy and no matter what your product is, the customer experience will dominant the word of mouth marketing about your brand.

While organizations have gone through improving operational efficiencies through deployment of enterprise applications, Internet based self service, and offshore services to reduce costs, have they also reduced the value of customer loyalty? The two things, cost cutting and quality customer service, do not work well together.

In today's connected world, word of mouth spreads fast, far and remains perpetual on the Internet for years to come. Marketers will continue to be challenged in promoting products that do not live up to their customers' expectations. Those fortunate enough to have a product that fulfills the brand promise and delivers a superior customer experience will have an opportunity to leverage this powerful communication vehicle to spread the word of their success. Those less fortunate, where the rest of the organization is not focused on the customer experience, but only focused on the bottom line will be hindered by the communication trail left on the Internet for all to view.

In this article, it suggestions that call center work may return to lower-cost areas of the U.S. I say - PLEASE! As a consumer I would appreciate having the phone answered in a reasonable time, by someone who can speak English well, and who can help me with my problem in a timely manner.

Marketer, take control over the customer experience. That's what people are going to talk about more than your latest ad campaign. If Pete is right, a portion of your $286 Billion ad spend may be better spent upgrading your call center than trying to get your voice through the fragmented media landscape.