THE CONSTITUENTS OF JAPANESE CUSTOMER SENTIMENT TOWARD OFFSHORED CALL SERVICE CENTERS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

How do customers whose inquiries are being handled by offshored call service centers (CSC) feel about the services with which they are provided? Previous researches suggest that CSC offshoring has negative effect on a customer's perception of service. These research results, however, are derive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences 2020-04, Vol.32 (1), p.43-62
Main Authors: Ito, Ryoji, Gehrt, Kenneth C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Consumers
Culture
Customer services
Ethnocentrism
Labor costs
Offshore
Outsourcing
Perceptions
Quality
Service centers
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Summary:How do customers whose inquiries are being handled by offshored call service centers (CSC) feel about the services with which they are provided? Previous researches suggest that CSC offshoring has negative effect on a customer's perception of service. These research results, however, are derived from data about offshoring conducted by U.S. businesses as it affects U.S. consumers. Therefore, this paper aims to discover the factors that comprise Japanese consumer perceptions toward CSC offshoring. The results indicate that Japanese customers are expecting a similarity to themselves, a 'Japanese -ness,' from the agents with whom they interact, including agents who are located offshore. The results also indicate that the level of 'Japanese-ness' perceived by Japanese customers could be categorized into at least two extreme types: lower standard and higher standard. In addition, the results find that the act of 'going easy due to distance' of the offshore CSC agents can play an important role in constructing a more detailed scale to measure the 'Japanese customer sentiment toward offshored call service centers'.
ISSN:1099-5374
1946-8113