The limits of outsourcing

Say you call L.L. Bean, the Maine-based outfitter, to order the loden-green PJs you need for a camping trip.

Bean may or may not have your size in stock. Either way, you'll hear the news straight from an employee of the Freeport firm.

Doesn't sound revolutionary. But by keeping a tight, in-house rein on their customer relations, the company is bucking a trend.

To keep pace with consumer demand for goods and services - and demand chugs along even in a "cool" economy - many firms now farm out the task of facing customers who communicate over the telephone or the Web.

Worldwide, firms spent more than $18 billion on call-center outsourcing in 1999, according to IDC, a Framingham, Mass., research firm. It predicts spending will hit $51 billion by 2004.

The basic idea: Customers are best handled by "service experts" armed with technology designed to track orders and manage vast volumes of calls 24 hours a day.

Covering that kind of work is just too tall an order for many small and mid-sized companies.

Even some large companies buy this concept, because service centers can also help them gather data to help with marketing.

But do call centers share their client companies' missions, or have a real stake in preserving the loyalty of customers?

A lot of consumers are already up in arms about lousy service. And they're not the only ones.

A new study of employees at 55 American companies found 40 percent of workers feel their own firms make it "very difficult" to do business with them. Why?

The firms "lack customer focus," according to The Discovery Group in Sharon, Mass., which conducted the survey.

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