During the fledging years of the offshore outsourcing industry, 24/7 phone lines were the most widely used technology tools for carrying out outsourcing operations. Phone lines may still be considered the primary service delivery channel, but their contribution levels have certainly come down, because many new technologies have emerged over the years. Most of these emerging technologies are relatively more affordable and provide both users and service providers a richer experience in terms of communicating the need on part of users and satisfying that need on part of the service provider. Examples that best fit the description of emerging technology tools include online databases, web chat, email support, virtual representatives (V-Reps), etc.
There are many factors that influence customer satisfaction levels and the availability of multiple options is one of them. The emerging technologies listed above work in a similar fashion, in that they provide end-users multiple options to contact support services. This automatically boosts customer satisfaction levels, something that has become one of the most important outsourcing objectives, apart from the conventional cost savings and efficiency improvements. Through increased customer satisfaction, these emerging technologies are also helping the industry to achieve greater heights of success with each passing year. They can thus be rightly termed as the new growth drivers for the offshore outsourcing services industry.
