According to a blog post on USAToday, the US Congress is debating a bill that would require call-center workers in foreign countries to disclose the country that they are from.  This will likely gouge this bill under a “right-to-know” argument.  I’ve heard many complaints about people not being able to understand foreign call-center workers and vice-versa. Mixed up airline bookings, wrong mailing addresses, incorrect credit card numbers are all part of the lore of the call made to the call center.

However, I believe that this is a problem that will work itself out.  If a company has employed a call center in India, Mexico or Philippines that leads to constant customer dissatisfaction, the company will be forced to make changes either by:

1. Finding a different call center that will result in fewer dissatisfied customer
2. Move the call center, or certain core parts of it, back to the US
3. Give the customer an option to either have the call routed to a foreign country or (for a certain tradeoff), have it taken in the USA.

If a company does not care to take note of their customers complaints, they will simply move elsewhere.

E-Loans is a compnay that is actually employing this third option.  It is an interesting twist to the whole outsourcing controversy. The customers are told that if they choose to have their loans processed the through a US call center, it could take longer than if they got it done in India.