May 3, 2006
Unintended Impact of Outsourcing on Law Firms
If you have one of those telephone systems designed to protect the law firm’s attorneys from their clients, you will be happy to learn that there is finally something that clients and customers hate even more—Outsourcing customer services is the new bane of the customer!
From ordering a take-out hamburger through India to Larry Bodines’ recent experience ordering a part for his HP printer, outsourcing is turning customers off. Outsourcing may reduce customer service costs, but companies need to remember that given a choice, clients and customers are going to do business with the providers who are more concerned with service than cost.
Our sales team has reported that the question of outsourced support services now comes up when dealing with new prospects. They ask, “Do you outsource support services?”
Outsourcing is becoming important for law firms. Outsourcing lowers the cost of high volume case-related processes. More importantly, it enables a law firm to handle those large volume requirements. Using outsourced services as the customer’s contact point, however, is an altogether different issue. Law firms and law firm clients are suffering from it. In some cases, companies that have turned to outsourced services are being held accountable for the actions and lapses of the organization to which they have outsourced segments of the company’s business activities.
This is an issue to watch. The consumer and business buyer world may not take the negative aspects of outsourcing lying down. Law firm’s clients who have turned to off shore outsourcing as a cost saving tool could be at risk from mistreated customers. Likewise, other law firm clients and prospects could be among those who consider themselves to have been damaged by outsourcing. Regarding its own business activities, the law firm should be concerned about this issue when selecting its vendors and service providers.
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Filed under Blog by Tom Collins