India Outsourcing Problems
Businesses in America began heavily outsourcing work to India in the 1990's. It was a way to save on overhead and production cost. Jobs such as manufacturing to telemarketing and customer service centers became a booming business in India. Outsourcing to India has not come without issues. Problems have surfaced in both customer service and product quality. Outsourcing has not come without heavy criticism. Many people believe that outsourcing has contributed to unemployment and security risks to Americans too.
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Lower Quality Standards
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Quality standards in the US are regulated and are much higher than in India. Many items produced in India are inferior to products produced in the US. Counterfeit products are a major concern for many manufacturers since quality standard regulations. Furthermore, the lack of labor laws, leave employees working longer hours reducing the quality of items.
Longer Product Lead Times
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Many manufacturing businesses have sent production to India and are dealing with longer lead times due to inferior products and counterfeit products. Some manufacturers with three shifts use the first and second shifts to produce products for the vendor and the third shift producing "knock off" products. Attrition has increased as workers in India learn a trade and then leave the company for higher salaries increasing turnover rates that cause production slow down.
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Unexpected Costs
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Unexpected costs from outsourcing can include fuel increases that raise freight charges and unexpected attrition. Businesses spend money-training workers and the worker after receiving a new skill will leave for higher paying jobs. Businesses have to, train new workers and it becomes an ongoing problem.
Customer Service
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Customer Service issues have risen in many businesses that have outsourced job to India. Service calls placed are either not handled properly due to the language barrier and Americans do not understand the person on the other end of the phone line. This leaves customers feeling frustrated and increases customer complaints. For example in one situation a customer may call requesting to cancel their credit card and then continue to get billed fees for it. Other common problems are computer repair issues that are not resolved because of the difficulties in understanding the customer's question.
Security
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Some Americans have voiced concern about security risks due to outsourcing. Information relating to credit, payroll, and medical information leave them uneasy with information gathering from foreign services. Processing this type of information in India leaves them at a greater risk to identity theft with access to their social security number and other personal information. According to Lou Dobbs on CNN "tax experts estimate between 150,000 and 200,000 American tax returns were prepared in India this year." and that "SolidWorks Corp. found that a worker employed by its Indian outsourcing partner tried to sell its property to a competitor. These are huge issues for some Americans and
Job Losses
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Many Americans believe job outsourcing to India has taken jobs from the US. Businesses argue that jobs sent overseas do not affect the US economy since new jobs are created. Further, there is no evidence to support that it has affected salaries. Many service center jobs that have relocated to India were unfilled in the US since there is an abundance of these types of jobs..
Many Indians, unless they have a degree, do not speak English and call center jobs require English. Although, they are better educated, Indians lack the English skills required to communicate with American consumers. The bottom line, for call center jobs is not education. It is spoken English skills. Americans may not be better educated in these types of jobs, but an American's first language is English. An Indian, regardless of how advanced their education, cannot compete with an American in spoken English. Many businesses like Delta Arilines and Sallie Mae are bringing back call centers due to continual customer complaints.
Outsourcing writing to India is a problem since may writers differ culturally. The lack of experience with American culture puts them at a disadvantage and writing is influenced by the writers culture. Nevertheless, American freelance writers are feeling the crunch competing with Indian writers. More writers are losing to low bids by Indians. Many Indians will make big promises, but the finished content is subpar and late. Indians use wordy sentences, and the content may leave a reader confused. Other issues can be plagiarism and some Indians do not accept negative feedback well and refuse to edit work.
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