Earl Honeycutt, Martha and Spencer Love Term Professor of Marketing and director of the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, has co-authored "Solutions for Customer Complaints about Offshoring and Outsourcing Services."
The article appears in Volume 55, Number 1 (January) 2012 issue of Business Horizons and is co-authored with Vince Magnini, associate professor of hospitality marketing at Virgina Tech, and Shawn Thelen, associate professor of marketing and international business at Hofstra University.
The abstract of the paper is provided below:
“In order to provide the highest quality services at lower costs, global firms have shifted their customer service functions offshore. Despite the apparent advantages of offshoring services, customers tend to object to the practice based on concerns about private/personal information being sent overseas. Additionally, executing service exchanges with overseas providers can be challenging because of perceived communication difficulties and cultural differences. The purpose of this article is to offer managers of firms that offshore services a clearer understanding of consumer concerns and provide guidance for alleviating these concerns. Specifically, suggestions are proffered regarding how to (1) minimize communication and cultural misunderstandings between customers and service providers, (2) assure customers that personal/private information is secure, and (3) restructure service activities to alleviate customer dissatisfaction. Unless such customer concerns are successfully identified and addressed, companies may not benefit from pursuing a services offshoring strategy.”