Public opinion against outsourcing might spoil the great Indian business process outsourcing party.
According to a recent research, one of the biggest problem that the companies would face while outsourcing to India is a bad corporate and public image.
"We anticipate that moving customer support to India could provoke a backlash unless handled very carefully," says a recent research by Outsourcing Insight, a UK-based market research firm.
According to the research, corporate responsibility is a hot issue at the moment and companies which fail in this regard can be severely punished by the media and its customers.
"If there is any perception that a UK company is exploiting cheap labour in India or running a sweatshop, then there could be trouble," it points out.
Besides, consumers are likely to feel devalued by a company if they think they are trying to save money or cut corners in serving them, points out the Outsourcing Insight survey.
Outsourcing to India also carries other dangers, not least the potential backlash arising from job losses in the international markets.
"Jobs from UK call centres, located in areas of high unemployment, will inevitably come to India and the companies that cause those jobs to go could find themselves in the line of fire. By 2008, India expects to be employing 300,000 persons in call centres, that's almost as many as the current UK call centre workforce," points out the survey.
Pointing out that the union involvement markets such as UK could exacerbate consumer unrest, the survey says, "They are already lining up to do the battle, largely from a point of ignorance about Indian call centre operations. From the evidence we have seen so far, it is clear that Indian call centres are easily stereotyped as sweatshops and any organisation that wants to speak out against jobs being lost from the UK is likely to use its inaccurate image to stir up consumer opposition."
The study also says that attempts to westernise Indian call centre agents as a part of the training to serve overseas customers could expose the client companies to accusations of racism.
The Outsourcing Insight study, however, says that if the customer finds value and efficiency in handling calls here, the companies would be willing to move work to India.
"Customer resistance to India will be far less a problem, if the customers find that they can get their calls answered quickly and efficiently," it says.