Prior to Deregulation

Back in 2000, prior to telecommunications deregulation in Jamaica, there was little or no opportunity to compete successfully in the global outsourcing marketplace. Today, through deregulation and the concomitant reductions in telco costs, e-Services competes and wins in the global outsourcing market. Today, e-Services Group employs 2,600 people between Jamaica and St Lucia and handles on average 70,000 phone calls per day and over 30,000 back office transactions.

Retention -vs- Attrition

Although wage arbitrage plays a significant role in the decision matrix for the outsourcing corporation, there are other areas, where the Caribbean nations have a distinct advantage and play an important role. First, for complex operations requiring over eight weeks of training, a number of our clients view staff retention to be as important, if not more so, as the wage savings that may accrue from outsourcing.

For reference, one such customer experienced 80 per cent attrition annually and, as a result, continually suffered from the expense of training new staff, and poor customer service that results from having a continuously inexperienced agent population.

In the Caribbean we have experienced the reverse, that is we have attrition rates of less than 10 per cent per annum and as we have seen, result in improvements in the quality of services.

Caribbean Culture

Another important factor in the decision to outsource is the agent cultural profile. The agent cultural profile of the average employee in the Caribbean is not that dissimilar to the average call centre employee in the USA. That is, the media and education system that influence the way of life is decidedly North American and or British.

The effect is that the average agent in Jamaica or St Lucia can culturally connect with the caller, leading to a more satisfied customer service experience. This factor should not be discounted, by any means, as in free form conversation it is necessary to have a cultural understanding of the caller's daily life and experiences as they influence the interaction.

Proximity - Nearshore

Proximity and ease of access play an important role to a number of outsourcing corporations. As such, the Caribbean has come to be defined as near-shore, versus the blanket term of off-shore. This sub-definition clearly reflects the two previous attributes. Not only are the countries of the Caribbean geographically close to the North American market, they are also culturally close.

Marketing the Caribbean as a Business Destination

The only disadvantage that we now suffer in the Caribbean is a lack of understanding of this industry and its potential. Outsourcing is not new. The difference is that technology enabled outsourcing, which means that any job function requiring a phone or computer can be moved anywhere in the world.

And so the Caribbean, in the same manner that we have successfully sold tourism, and tailored our region for it, must now market our countries for business, not only pleasure. We must learn to market the intellectual capital of our people, as at times we have become the victims of our own success in focusing in one sector only.

For many people in North America and Europe, it seems unimaginable that the Caribbean could be anything than sun, sea and sand. Despite this, we are having success in market penetration.