Serving global consumers with a local mind set: an investigation of customers' perception of offshore call centres

This study investigates the attitudes of UK consumers toward offshore call centres. Three research hypotheses were developed to investigate to what extent consumers’ attitude towards offshore call centres are influenced by their attitude towards Country of Service Origin (ACOSO) perceived service quality (PSQ) and perceived risk (PR) that a consumer attaches to offshore call centers. A linear regression model was developed to investigate to what extent ACOSO, PSQ, and PR have the ability to predict consumer attitude towards offshored call centers.
Data were collected by a self administered questionnaire from 283 consumers from three geographic locations of UK. The consumers’ attitude towards call centre services based in five countries namely Canada, Mexico, India, the Philippines and China were evaluated. The findings revealed that the consumers attitude towards offshore call centers tend to be negative and differ according to Country of Service Origin. Thus, even though the overall attitude towards offshore call centres were negative, compared to their attitude towards British call centres, the magnitude of negativity vary as British consumers perceived that British followed by Canadians are best in terms of providing a quality service. Similarly, India and China were rated as poor in terms of service quality. The findings also indicated that British consumers perceive call centres from Asia such as India and China to be more risky. The findings could help SME’s develop consumer centric strategies which could lead to gain competitive advantages.