راه حل هایی برای شکایات مشتریان در مورد خدمات برون سپاری و برون سپاری به کشورهای خارجی

In order to provide the highest quality services at lower costs, global firms have shifted their customer service functions offshore. Despite the apparent advantages of offshoring services, customers tend to object to the practice based on concerns about private/personal information being sent overseas. Additionally, executing service exchanges with overseas providers can be challenging because of perceived communication difficulties and cultural differences. The purpose of this article is to offer managers of firms that offshore services a clearer understanding of consumer concerns and provide guidance for alleviating these concerns. Specifically, suggestions are proffered regarding how to (1) minimize communication and cultural misunderstandings between customers and service providers, (2) assure customers that personal/private information is secure, and (3) restructure service activities to alleviate customer dissatisfaction. Unless such customer concerns are successfully identified and addressed, companies may not benefit from pursuing a services offshoring strategy.

Recently, after a frantic call to the pediatrician, the parents of a 4-year-old boy rushed their son to the hospital on a Saturday evening, fearful that he had suffered a concussion. The hospital reacted quickly by getting the young boy through triage and initial screening, before performing a CT scan to assess whether there was any intra-cranial hemorrhaging. The ER doctor was able to report to the parents that the scan was clear and that their son did not appear to have a concussion. After thanking the doctor, the extremely relieved parents asked if they could speak to the radiologist who read their son's CT scan, in order to ask some follow-up questions and relay their gratitude. The doctor sheepishly admitted that this wasn’t possible; in some instances, as was the case during this weekend evening shift, scans were evaluated by radiologists located offsite—either domestically or internationally, he wasn’t sure. The parents expressed surprise and the doctor assured them this was the way things were supposed to work. In this situation, it was unclear to the recipients of the medical treatment—that is, the young boy and his parents—whether they had participated unwittingly in an offshore service experience. The hospital neither informed the family in advance nor confirmed afterward if the scan was read by a domestic or offshore radiologist. This scenario raises three provocative questions:

It is becoming increasingly commonplace for firms to offshore services activities. While a firm's primary motivation for making this decision is financial, many consumers feel uneasy about various components and implications of services offshoring. Herein, we have identified sources of consumer discomfort with services offshoring and provided strategies for overcoming related objections. First, regarding concerns related to interaction quality, accent neutralization training and education regarding idiomatic expression should prove useful for offshore customer-contact service providers. In such cross-cultural exchanges, it is not wise to attempt to deceive consumers about the geographic location and/or identity of the service provider with whom customers interact. Second, in terms of consumer concerns about job and data security, measures can be implemented to address these issues. Service providers may, for example, offer reassurance that personal and transactional data are safe and also communicate the number of jobs the company supplies in the home country. Third, structural alterations at the firm level should also be considered. That is, disparate service levels can be made available to customers based upon customer lifetime value calculations. Such calculations are driven by expected revenues of a given customer minus the cost of serving the individual. From a theory development perspective, the practice of service offshoring in today's global business environment appears to be outpacing the level of attention it receives in the academic literature. Thus, there are abundant opportunities for research with strong theoretical and managerial implications. The academic literature of the 1980s and 1990s is replete with investigations that involve consumer attitudes regarding foreign-made products. However, the theories and findings in that area do not generalize to the study of service offshoring for two principal reasons: (1) consumers can decide whether or not they wish to purchase foreign-made products, but in the service arena, consumers are often switched to offshore providers without their a priori knowledge or consent; and (2) service offerings entail credence qualities. Consequently, a trusting consumer-provider service relationship is more critical here than in a product-centric relationship.