Is India's call centre boom about to burst?

It seems like the outsourcing sector is feeling the heat. Today British finance major Santander said it is moving back its call centres  from India to the UK  in order to reduce customer complaints about offshore employees. High wage inflation in India and rising unemployement in the UK has narrowed down the difference in the cost of training between developed and developing economies. Indian salaries are expected to rise 13 percent this year, while costs in the UK have come down .  It’s no  surprise that Santader has decided to move back home. [caption id=“attachment_38779” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Santander is to move 500 call centre roles from India back to the UK in an effort to improve customer service standards. Reuters”] [/caption] Santander is the second British company to bring back its outsources operations this month after New Call Telecom, which competes with BT and Sky to offer home telephone services, broadband and low-cost international calls, said it was bringing back its outsourced work from India because operating there was no longer cheap. The move is part of  “Santander’s programme to further improve the service it offers and follows feedback from customers who say dealing with an offshore call centre is a frustration that can lead to dissatisfaction”, the company said. All calls that were handled in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore  will now be dealt with by staff in Glasgow, Leicester and Liverpool. Around 500 emplyees have been recruited  to handle the estimated 1.5 million calls per month. The group’s British call centres currently employ 2,500 staff. “Improving the service we offer is my top priority,” said Ana Botín, chief executive officer of Santander UK. “Our customers tell us they prefer our call centres to be in the UK and not offshore.” New Call Telecom is opening a call centre in Lancashire after being attracted by low commercial rents and cheap labour costs. New Call’s chief executive, Nigel Eastwood, said that using British staff will also cut costs in the average amount of time taken to deal with customer inquiries. Eastwood said: “Salaries in India aren’t that cheap any more. Add to that the costs of us flying out there, hotels and software, and the costs are at an absolute parity.  In the UK we will pay workers the minimum wage.” India recently lost its crown as the call centre capital of the world to Philippines but still accounts for 55 percent of the global outsourcing market. With PTI inputs