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Customer Care Across Borders
Part 1: Location Opportunities
We have a great opportunity to expand our sales to Chile and Uruguay. My sales people have been prospecting for leads and have convinced me that the customers there are ready for our products. How do you plan to support new customers in those countries? (Vice President of Sales at a recent staff meeting)
Many Customer Care Managers today are hearing this question. Answering it starts with a cost-benefit analysis that ultimately includes research into country politics, tax opportunities, and neighborhood resource provisions. This article will discuss what you should keep in mind for each aspect of the answer as you develop your strategy for expansion across borders.
The cost-benefit analysis As always, cost plays a huge role in these decisions. Working with the Marketing and Sales department, do a thorough cost-benefit analysis. Consider the difference in costs between a new location and the expansion of an existing location. Line items to consider include labor, facilities, telephony, network, and travel costs. To ensure safe forecasting, both the Customer Care Manager and the Sales and Marketing Manager must present realistic and verifiable numbers. These should be tested and retested for accuracy. Only in this way can you provide the basis for a sound business decision. Do you have to expand? One of the first questions to answer is whether these new customers could be supported from one of your existing locations. If you can leverage investments already made, of course you should. But time zones, national customs, or even local dialects may require you to expand. Two such cases follow. In the first case, a multinational company with a Customer Care Center in Mexico City needed people with Columbian accents to support their Columbian customers. The company was fortunate enough to find new employees in Mexico City who met this requirement, but they had also considered establishing a small support center in Columbia to meet this need. In the second case, a credit card company with its support center in Singapore found itself supporting a high percentage of Japanese-language customers. These customers wanted to talk with native Japanese speakers due to the sensitive financial nature of their calls. To accommodate this need, the Singapore company decided to transfer these calls to their Japanese call center—even though the additional telephony costs were high. Is the political and economic situation right for expansion? In a world changing politically and economically by the hour, decision makers must consider the political conditions in both their existing and proposed locations. This may require some in-depth investigation. For example, it may at first seem unwise to invest in a country whose economy is depressed. Upon further investigation, however, such an investment might be the best decision a company could make. Despite current hard times, if the country has good potential for your expansion, it may well be worth an investment for the future. This is a long-term strategic approach, not a quarterly, market-driven one. Customers and local business partners will appreciate the fact that your company made investments in their economy at a time when they needed the stimulus. If you wait for the good times, you will not demonstrate a long-term commitment, and that attitude will be recognized. Nevertheless, you must investigate political stability for fiscal and even safety reasons. You need to be sure the money you generate can be taken out of the country and that you and your staff, both local and foreign, will be safe. Considering both political stability and the early-investment opportunity will allow you to make a sound decision. Which city? In considering the city in which to locate you customer support center, you will need to consider staffing, infrastructure, and customer locations. Since the quality of customer care is based on the quality of customer-agent interactions, your first consideration should be availability of qualified staff. If you find several cities with comparable populations, you can then consider the cost differences of salary and benefits in each location. For example, cities with prestigious universities, other than country capitals, will probably offer good personnel opportunities at affordable salary rates. You should also consider the availability and cost of systems in each location. This applies both to telephony and to internet infrastructure. While many countries and communications companies have invested heavily to provide services in capital cities, they may have invested little or nothing in second-tier cities. Or they may charge prohibitively for the services they do provide there. On a positive note, many federal and municipal governments offer tax incentives, as well as grant allowances, for investing companies. The Korean government, for example, encourages foreign high-tech investment with incentives up to a five-year deferral of taxes. Some cities will defer building costs or allow a company to write them off on their taxes. Because of the Latin-American trade organization Mercosur , the development of "Zona Francas" has begun. This means tax benefits. The Free Trade Zones Act (Act 24331) adhesion arrangement provides tax exemptions for basic services such as gas, electricity, city water, sewers, and telecommunications, which reduce operational costs. Two such zones are the Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina (http://www.zonafranca.com.ar/index.html) and the Zona Franca de Montevideo in Uruguay (http://www.zfm.com/). Which neighborhood? As you narrow your choice of locations, you'll want to consider various neighborhoods and sites. What transportation and services would be available for your staff? Do the city's services extend to this site? Where are your customers located? Access to personal services will be important to your employees and therefore to the success of your business. Your considerations should include transportation by bus, taxi, and underground; restaurants, laundries and dry cleaners; and day-care. If you operate on an extended work schedule, such as 7 days/week and 24 hours/day, you should determine if services are available to all shifts. If they are not, you should plan other accommodations such as a shuttle service, vending machines, or a cafeteria. You might also consider where your customers are located. One financial institution, for example, found that most of their customers were concentrated in the downtown business district. They eventually chose to locate in the same area, even though costs were higher, because easy access was important to their customers. And again, telephony and internet services vary by location—down to the neighborhood level. As you evaluate these services, be sure to closely question the communications providers. And the answer is… So, we return to the expansion question with which we began: How do you plan to support customers in new countries? A good answer will take time to research. But you can outline for your VP of Sales and CEO what the right questions are, how you will go about answering them, why they are financially important, and how you will contribute to the bottom line if the company does decide to expand. Author: Edward Romson, President and CEO, Rocair Corporation Rocair Corporation is a globally focused consultancy that delivers high quality and timely assistance in establishing and enhancing customer care, as well as operational guidance in international business development. The company was founded and incorporated by Ed Romson, a 20+-year veteran, world traveler, and President of Rocair Corporation. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA. Currently, Rocair uses its broad network of contract resources and partners around the world and plans to expand its corporate staff as needed. Rocair is focused on companies that wish to establish, or enhance their customer care program, or expand to Latin American, European, and Asian countries. The team distinguishes itself by its sensitivity to the unique cultural and business aspects of the countries they work in. Its ability to build and drive programs that improve customer satisfaction has been proven to lead to increased profitability and brand loyalty. © Copyright Rocair Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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