5 Outsourcing Predictions for 2013

The world environment is constantly changing and those changes may affect your company’s decisions for the next 12 months. Let’s take a look ahead at some of the expected trends in outsourcing industry for 2013.

1. Social media connections keep rising.

The business of relating and connecting to customers through social media keeps expanding rapidly. Customer feedbacks and complaints are not only limited to phone calls and emails. Social media comments and requests are becoming more and more relevant to companies while marketing strategies shift toward building social communities of customers rather than just making standard sales.

As this trend becomes stronger, it is becoming more attractive to outsource these social media interactions to efficient Contact Centers with tech-savvy employees that can keep customers connected through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks while quickly reacting to any comment on the company’s communities.

2. China and India become less attractive for outsourcing.

The constant salary increases in countries like China and India will continue during 2013 (WorldatWork estimates 8.8% for China and 10.7% for India). These constant increases impact the pricing on Outsourcing and make these countries less attractive for outsourcing each year. Additionally, due to their shaky economies; outsourcers need to be very cautious while choosing vendors since very small vendors may close businesses at any given moment if the situation remains challenging. This condition will be even more aggravated since…

3. EU will reduce outsourcing

Economic recession has impacted strongly many countries in the European Union. Unemployment rates average 10.6% in the Eurozone, with countries like Spain reaching 25.8% in September 2012 (The Guardian)

As economy settles, directives will take great actions to keep jobs within the EU, reducing offshoring dramatically in the following years. Gartner predicts offshoring in the UE will keep contracting up to 20% in 2016.

4. Enhanced Data Security

In the last years we have seen an increase in the number of devices connected to IP networks. As more and more devices connect to cloud-based environments, the internal networks become more vulnerable to virtual attacks and information theft.

In order to protect the private information of your customers, outsourcing partners will need to improve data security standards and protocols. Strong, reliable firewalls as well as compliance with standards like ‘PCI Security’ for credit card handling will be a key factor in outsourcing decisions during 2013.

5. Businesses continue to shift from ‘Cost Savings’ to ‘Value Generation’.

Both scenarios should not be mutually exclusive, but big companies have learnt (the hard way) that in the long-term, added value services such as a great Customer Support, prevail over cost savings.

Neglecting customer needs in order to reduce costs was a practice that each year has become more obsolete. Companies in 2013 will invest more in outsourcing services that will enhance the customer experience and generate more value to drive new customers instead of sending them away.