Off shoring has been a trend in Customer Service call centers for the past decade, providing companies with low-cost call center solutions, yet with mixed results when it comes to customer service. Offshore operations suffer from communication difficulties and cultural differences, making complex requests difficult to resolve without unneeded customer aggravation. In recent years, the multi-source model has gradually begun to gain prominence and make inroads against the pure offshore model.

The multi-source model builds on the strengths of off shoring while taking into account its deficiencies. Multi-sourcing typically divides a call center into two groups. One group, located domestically, typically focuses on customer communications and issue management, while the offshore team focuses on issue resolution and request fulfillment. Off shore resources can also be used to supplement written customer communications (e.g. Email, chat, etc.). By keeping a customer-centric domestic operation, and a problem-focused, a company can get the benefits of off shoring while avoiding the pitfalls.

My own company has been using the multi-sourcing model for about a year now. The U.S. based personnel answer the phones, call on our customers, and ensure customer satisfaction.  The model has worked very well and allowed us to increase staff without impacting the customer experience.  In fact, by utilizing multi-sourcing, we have provided our own domestic operation to provide an even better customer experience.  Because our staff in the U.S. is able to focus more of its attention on the customer and less on technical issues or rote tasks, customers are more satisfied, happier, and have a better overall experiencing.  Multi-sourcing, when done the right way, is the perfect blend of the domestic and off-shore models.

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