"... INCREASED GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS , EVEN WAR CONDITIONS LIKE WE ARE NOW SEEING ... ARE GIVING CONTACT CENTERS PAUSE WHEN CONSIDERING OFFSHORING THEIR OPERATIONS ."
Second , we are also seeing more uniform policies being rolled out as we get further and further away from the disruptions caused by the pandemic .
That is to say , the hybrid model is not being embraced by our contact center clients to the extent other office clients are , say in financial services and tech , which are rolling out hybrid schedules that are typically three days at home and two days in the office ( Tuesday – Thursday ).
Instead , in the contact center world , it tends to be one model or the other : WFH or RTO . That is to say , in the majority of the centers that we deal with , agents either work all the time in a WFH format or at the call center model , but not both .
RESHORING
LET ’ S DISCUSS RESHORING . ARE YOU SEEING BUSINESSES RESHORE THEIR CONTACT CENTERS , TO WHAT EXTENT , IN WHICH VERTICALS AND FUNCTIONS , AND WHY ?
A : The answer is yes . Historically , the contact center industry has been well-known for offshore and nearshore outsourcing : sending jobs overseas to places like India , the Philippines , and the Caribbean as well as to Canada from the U . S .
The Province of New Brunswick was a classic case study in Canada led by its high-profile former Premier Frank McKenna some 30 years ago . The province , along with telco provider NB Tel , attracted a “ Who ’ s Who ” of contact centers from the U . S . like IBM , Xerox , Marriott , RMH ( now Alorica ), and others to provincial cities of Moncton , Saint John , and Fredericton .
However , offshoring to Asia and in less developed countries often comes with hidden costs of poor work habits and low customer satisfaction , not to mention very high turnover rates . Also , these workers are rarely subjected to the same vetting requirements as U . S . and Canadian employees , raising concerns about data security and privacy .
At the same time , increased geopolitical tensions , even war conditions like we are now seeing in Ukraine and in the Mideast are giving contact centers pause when considering offshoring their operations .
All told , these issues create huge operational and even branding reasons for companies to reshore and nearshore ( like to Canada ) their contact centers : particularly for data-sensitive industries like banking , healthcare , and leading-edge tech .
8 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
YOU MENTIONED CANADA . BUT ISN ’ T CANADA NO LONGER POPULAR FOR U . S . CONTACT CENTERS GIVEN THE TAXES THERE AND THE FLUCTUATING CANADIAN DOLLAR ?
A : In this new era of reshoring and nearshoring , we see Canada getting a second wind in attracting contact center investment from the U . S . and Europe .
While the favorable exchange rate for Canada has its fluctuations , other fundamental site selection factors hold strong . These include Canada ’ s educated workforce , its lower turnover rates ( a fraction of many offshore locations , and 10 % to 20 % on average lower than in the U . S .) and cultural affinities with the U . S . consumer which cannot be matched overseas .
Canada is also seeing reshoring , with Rogers Communications as an example . Rogers is known for its stance on operating Canada-based contact centers : in fact , it has become part of the company ’ s brand . Rogers is extending that approach to those Shaw facilities that had been outsourced and are now under its umbrella with significant new hirings planned in Manitoba , Alberta , and British Columbia .
In sync with Canada ’ s more open immigration policies , the Canadian federal government has opened an operations center to enhance immigration processing in the Indo-Pacific region .
The new facility of Canada ’ s Immigration , Refugees and Citizenship Department is located in Manila in the Philippines : which houses one of the world ’ s greatest concentrations of call centers . And as a result it will be a likely source of incoming agents , managers , and tech support to Canada with experience in call center operations .
The call center industry is highly entrepreneurial in nature , does not require vast amounts of start-up capital and is comprised of thousands of small , privately held companies .
CONTACT CENTER FACILITIES IN THE NEW NORMAL
With some contact centers continuing to have their agents work on-premise , we asked Jack Boyd “ are there any changes in the site , connectivity , building design , density , layout , security , and parking / access in the new office contact center post-COVID-19 pandemic as compared with pre-pandemic ?”
“ We are seeing a greater emphasis on continuity of operations considerations and avoidance of both weather-related natural disasters and man-made disasters associated with crime and agent security on-premise , in the parking lot , and the environs of the contact center ,” says Jack .
“ Overall , post-pandemic New Normal centers are also more amenity-laden with the goal of keeping on-premise agents safe , happy , healthy , and focused . State-of-the-art fitness offerings , coffee bars , wine bars , designer art , and fine and healthy dining options are all becoming more common in the modern contact center setting .”