GCI, the largest telecommunications provider in the state, is closing down its call center jobs in Anchorage and moving the work to a contractor in the Philippines. It joins a growing list of U.S. companies outsourcing their customer service jobs overseas.
The fact that GCI is one of many U.S. businesses to send work out of the country doesn't make it right, nor does it make it wrong. But it is another example of job and economic loss in a state that already is suffering from outmigration. More people have left Alaska than have moved here each of the past eight years.
GCI sells cable TV, internet, cell phone and wired phone services to Alaskans, often in packages that can cost more than $2,500 a year for households that take multiple services. A big part of the company's work is answering customer service calls. For that kind of money, customers should get prompt service.
That has been a problem, the company said. It has been unable to keep its call center fully staffed, often running with 30 or 40 vacancies among the 142 jobs in Anchorage. Wait times for callers have reached 90 minutes, which is unacceptable, GCI said. Anyone who has been on hold would agree.
The company offered sign-up bonuses for new hires, but it wasn't enough to keep the center fully staffed. GCI's solution is to move the work to the Philippines. Moving the call center overseas will lower wait times and provide around-the-clock service, a GCI spokeswoman told an Anchorage reporter.
Even if sending the work to the Philippines results in better customer service from more agents working the phones, the company should have admitted that it will save a lot of money with the move.
GCI declined to say how much it pays its Anchorage call center employees. The Alaska Department of Labor reports the average wage for a customer service representative in the state is just under $20 an hour. The range for the Philippines, according to the websites of several outsourcing companies and reports from nonprofit organizations, puts the average wage for call center employees at $3 to $4.50 an hour in U.S. dollars in a country with a much lower cost of living.
Doing the math for 142 jobs, assuming all are full time, puts the savings at $4 million a year or more. Maybe that is a flawed estimate. Even so, it's money that will stay in the pockets of GCI - the company is not passing on the savings to its customers.
When Colorado-based Liberty Broadband worked on its acquisition of GCI, which closed late last year, seven law firms and financial advisers helped the two companies with tax, financial and legal advice. Maybe Liberty and GCI should have asked those high-priced advisers how it would look to move Alaska jobs overseas.
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