November 11, 2014
Call centers may become obsolete in just a few years. Online services such as help desks and intelligent websites could shift all aspects of customer service to the Web. So much for a multichannel approach; what businesses and customers may face in the coming decades is a reduction, a return to simpler times.
This seems to be the prevailing mindset at the Australian telecommunications company Telstra ( – ). Its CEO, David Thodey, notably commented that traditional call center jobs would become obsolete within a few years. The company has been outsourcing much of its call center work overseas, and its customers are reportedly unhappy with that move. However, Thodey’s comments in August to ABC.net The issues surrounding Telstra's future may have raised even more concerns.
“Think about how you interact with a bank today,” Thodey said to ABC.net. “You don’t go to the bank branch that often, and I think that’s going to be the reality for many traditional service-related jobs. It’s going to be handled more and more digitally, and I think as difficult as that is to face, we have to… offshoring is a temporary step.”
As right or wrong as he may be, his comments may have been somewhat premature. Business Insider Australia reports that, , he said call center agents must be good at their jobs—no matter where they are located. He said many of Telstra's jobs are in Perth and that these positions are justified “because we’re a multicultural society and the criticism often centers on language or communication skills.”
That is arguably a valid point that any call center owner could make. Agents should be able to communicate effectively with their customers; it’s unlikely anyone would deny that. Thodey isn’t completely backing down, however, and recently reinforced his August comments with this statement:
“I do fundamentally believe that contact centers will decline in the future,” he said.
“More people are going online, and they prefer it because it offers a better experience.”
Thodey’s words are not the final word on the subject. Business Insider It also states that David Tudehope, the CEO of Macquarie Telecom ( – ), has taken the opposite position and argues that offshoring call center positions is not always the best idea. He explains how an internal bidding process allowed the company to view its call center operations as a core part of its overall operations.
“We thought that contact centers were noncore, but when we thought about it, if we believed customer service was the key to our business, how could we not run our own contact centers? It’s a very important part of how we engage with our customers. Outsourcing it just didn’t make sense,” Tudehope said.
There are likely many business managers across all industries who will take one side or the other in this debate. For some companies, offshoring may be the right course of action; for others, it will not be. Either way, if Thodey’s prediction proves accurate, many call center employees could lose their jobs in the next couple of decades. Customer service operations could shift entirely from traditional call centers to remote workers who operate exclusively through online portals. Ultimately, though, it may be up to the public to decide the future of those positions because they are the ones who demand exceptional service. They may continue to demand services that only call centers can provide.
