Amex to end outsourcing local calls
posted in Outsourcing News and Top Outsourcing deals |Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/amex-to-end-outsourcing-local-calls/2008/04/09/1207420493860.html
CALL centre operators in India or the Philippines will no longer field queries from American Express customers in Australia.
Credit card giant American Express will once again service all Australian calls locally, and has created 150 new call centre jobs in Melbourne and Sydney to do so.
Luisa Megale, the head of Public Affairs at American Express, said the company started to outsource Australian calls to their centres in Mumbai, India, and Manila, the Philippines, four years ago. She said the decision to reverse offshore outsourcing centred on customers’ calls becoming more complex and requiring local knowledge. “The reason we did it was because our card members have totally shifted the way they work with us,” she said.
Ms Megale said that as consumers grew more technologically savvy in recent years, more simple inquiries were being answered through the company’s website. As a result, most inquiries put to call centre operators were complicated, she said. “The calls we were getting to our call centres were multifaceted and really quite complex … some required local knowledge and just the depth and length of the calls meant it was probably better for us to service our customers locally,” she said. “It was right for the business then and the decision to bring the call volumes back is right for our business and our customers now.”
Ms Megale said that no jobs were lost in the company’s call centres in Mumbai, India, and in Manila, the Philippines. But she said over the past two months more than 80 new jobs were created in Melbourne and 70 jobs in Newcastle.
Finance Sector Union director Rod Masson welcomed the company’s decision to end offshore outsourcing. “We think it’s a good decision that stems from the wish to have people locally to deal with complex financial issues. I would think it is likely to be in direct response to what Australian consumers want.”
