subject: Outsourcing Public Answering Service [print this page] The public exchequer is not bloated with funds anywhere in the world. State coffers are lying empty and state-run departments are deep into cost-cutting measures. The pet department that gets the first cost-cutting axe is the call center section! The moment the public servants realize that they don't have enough money to carry on their operations, they shed manpower from the answering service team, bringing them to such a ridiculous low that callers find it really tough to get job done.
At present, the Los Angeles Revenue Department is cutting down its costs by deciding to outsource the public phone answering to an external, private BPO. The reason is, of course, cost cuts. The administrators know that hiring a business outsourcing unit will ensure that their calls are processed at lower expenses.
Is it just the cost cuts that matter? Apparently not! The LA Revenue Department reportedly receives 42,000 calls every month. That's a staggering amount for a state-run call center, with limited equipment and skills. The answering service team can successfully receive and process only 27,000 of them. The rest of the calls go unanswered.
The Revenue Department wants these calls to be answered. They want an inbound call center team to make sense of these calls because they are losing money when citizens can"t get through to them on the phone lines. The thought of hiring an external BPO appeals to them also because they want the skill and the expertise of trained telephone answering agents. They want the professional treatment of their incoming calls.
The story on the side of the call center employees of LA Revenue Department is something different. The inbound call center agents feel slighted that their work is about to be outsourced. It's a gesture that tags them as incompetent. Most importantly, they stand to lose their jobs. The agents are confident that they are perfectly capable of handling the high volume of calls, provided they get the required technological back-up.
For instance, handling calls of that range will need web-enabled answering service equipment. The Department allegedly has obsolete tools which make the task tougher for the phone answering agents. The calls are left unanswered because they don't have the gadgets and the technological support that can make them process those calls. The employees feel that it would make more sense if they were allowed to handle the calls but with better equipment. Outsourcing doesn't seem a wise idea, at least not to them.
They have a point here. The LA Revenue Department deals with some sensitive material and data. Outsourcing the call center work would mean having to share the data with an external BPO agent. That may not be going down well with many of the taxpayers whose money runs these call centers. It remains to be seen how the commoners of LA react to the news of the inbound call center calls leaving the borders of LA Revenue Department. But it does make sense to outsource the work. Wouldn't it be better that a business process outsourcing unit makes it possible that all the calls made gets due justice? Don't think the taxpayers would object to that!
