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Foreign exchanges: in recent years many UK companies have relocated their call centre operations overseas in an effort to cut costs. But there are concerns that customer service suffers as a result. (Special Report: Telemarketing).

Article Excerpt
It's just what you'd expect from a call centre in Middlesbrough. Operators are answering a steady flow of calls, one dealing with a technical query from a customer in Bedford, another taking a debit card payment from a customer in Camden. Above the hum of activity you catch snippets of conversations between operators and customers: one operator is laughing about last night's episode of The Office, another is agreeing that the rise in gun crime is worrying. In fact the only odd thing is that this isn't Middlesbrough at all -- it's Manila.

Over the past few years many UK companies have moved their call centres from the UK to countries with lower wage thresholds, predominantly the Caribbean, India, the Philippines and South Africa. These businesses have come under sustained criticism from those who believe that lower costs lead to lower levels of customer service. However, others, such as Rob O'Malley, chief operating officer of Asian Call Centres, a 160-seat operation based in Manila, argue that the reverse is true.

Money talks

O'Malley says: "Undoubtedly cost is the primary motivation for moving offshore. It is at least 30-per-cent cheaper to...