By Mini Swamy, TMCnet Contributor
In a bid to dissuade companies from outsourcing American jobs, Senator Charles E. Schumer has introduced a bill that has invited the wrath of U.S. based companies that have contact centers abroad.
The bill aims to impose a per-call excise tax to the tune of $.25 on companies that choose to transfer domestic customer service calls to call centers located on foreign shores. As a result, the bill would impose strict fees on businesses that outsource customer service operations to offshore providers.
By doing so, Schumer hopes to retain American jobs at call centers across the country and also to bring back the jobs that have been shipped abroad to foreign call centers.
Call center operators have publicly criticized the bill. Hit Rate Solutions, a U.S based outsourcing company with contact centers in the Philippines, was the most recent to denounce the bill and the implications it carried, and said that is was a blatant attempt at protectionism.
Operations Director Adam Shore was extremely critical and indicated that the proposed legislation showed a fundamental lack of understanding of the outsourcing industry and business operations in general.
Schumer’s bill would levy a $.25 per call tax on companies transferring calls to an offshore call center, and would also require the company to notify the consumer of the location of the contact center handling the call.
Retaliating, Operations Director Adam Shore believes that the taxes will be exorbitant, and the impact could be enormous. He faulted Schumer for being unable to understand the sheer volume of phone calls placed to customer service departments.
Continuing on the same line, Shore added that Hit Rate Solutions served businesses of all sizes from large corporations to entrepreneurs and sole proprietors. Schumer seemed to be under the misconception that only the only companies using offshore call centers are large corporations with deep pockets, which was just not the case.
Contrary to Schumer’s apparent perception, Shore said that Hit Rate Solutions’ mission was to create a means for companies small and large to cut costs and increase production, and most of its business had come not from companies looking to replace existing workers, but business interested in trying new methods to expand their services.
The company specializes in telemarketing, customer service, data entry, and virtual assistant outsourcing. The majority of the company’s clients are new to outsourcing and are in the start-up phase of their businesses.
Reiterating his belief that the legislation is misguided, Shore said that the goal of the bill going through Congress was to create a disincentive to the hiring of offshore employees, but for most of Hit Rate Solution’s clients, the alternative to hiring offshore was not to hire at all. The purpose of bill therefore would be deemed to have been defeated.
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