A $3B technology company came to me with a familiar complaint:
Their offshore team wasn’t performing.
– Quality scores were lower
– Efficiency was lagging
– Handle times were longer
– Problem resolution was worse
Their conclusion: offshore just couldn’t deliver the same results.
But a new leader had just joined the company who had offshored successfully before.
He knew the offshore team could be better.
He was right.
It turns out, the real problem was oversight, not performance.
The offshore team had never been set up to succeed in the first place:
– Leadership treated them as a vendor, not part of the team.
– No one internally was managing their performance or training.
– When the contract needed renegotiating, the provider was unwilling.
So we fixed the foundation first:
→ Brought in a contact center leader who treated offshore as part of the team
→ Built a vendor management function with proper training and accountability
→ When the existing vendor wouldn’t renegotiate to better terms, we found one that would
→ Implemented accent neutralization software to remove communication friction
→ Deployed agent assist software to improve speed and accuracy on every call
Then we shifted the support mix gradually using natural attrition, not layoffs.
From 250 onshore / 150 offshore.
To 75 onshore / 200 offshore.
The results after 12 months:
→ First call resolution up 12%
→ Customer satisfaction up 9%
→ Overall spend down 38%
Most of the operational changes happened in the first 90 days.
The rest of the year was about building muscle memory.
Making the new standard the status quo.
The cost/quality tradeoff is a myth.
This team is now performing better than before, at 38% less cost.
I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.
Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.
