National Public Radio – February 23, 2006

Call Center Outsourcing Slows

“For companies that want to stay close to home and still save money, one alternative is a practice called ‘homesourcing.’

“In his bedroom in Poughkeepsie, New York, John Miller is on the phone taking orders for a large office supply retailer. Miller was trained as a chef but now works for a company called WillowCSN, which contracts him out to other companies for call center work. He can do the job using his home PC and a separate phone.

“’Well you don’t have to leave your house, you don’t have to worry about getting dressed and all the clothes for work and dry cleaning bills and food bills and being stuck in traffic and you can wake up ten minutes before you go to work, turn your computer on, grab a cup of coffee and just get to work.’

“…Angie Selden is CEO of Willow, one of a handful of homesourcing companies that have opened in recent years. She says using home-based workers costs companies a lot less than building their own call centers.

“’First and foremost there is a significant cost savings over internal call centers for companies in the U.S. Second is that the quality of people that we can attract is far superior to any bricks-and-mortar call center whether its offshore or whether its onshore in the United States.’