New research done by Gartner has shown that customer satisfaction must be a key factor when making a decision relating to outsourcing of IT help desk services. Gartner research says that such outsourcing of IT help desk services to an offshore location may yield as much as 30 to 40 percent cost savings but customer satisfaction must be the primary consideration for the same.

"Although offshoring an IT help desk may produce significant cost savings, IT management needs to determine whether that decision is right for the enterprise," says Richard Matlus, research vice president for Gartner. "For most IT organisations, the help desk is the primary end-user-facing organisation, so if end users are not satisfied with it, then it will have a negative effect on the IT organisation."

Based on informal client interviews, Gartner analysts have found that offshore help desk services involving voice support services have experienced many problems focused on poor quality that can lead to significant customer dissatisfaction. The four main factors that have been identified as the main contributors to customer dissatisfaction include client knowledge and access to internal communications, high turnover, cultural differences and language dialects.

"Although quality in the first year of offshoring is likely to be poorer than domestic help desk solutions, if an enterprise can be patient, quality and customer satisfaction can reach acceptable levels that are on par with domestic service," elaborates Matlus.

Gartner says that enterprises should validate the offshore provider’s services, review them for cultural understanding, language proficiencies and employee turnover ratios, talk to references using offshore help desk resources and ask what issues they may have encountered and evaluate low-cost onshore alternatives as well before taking the offshoring plunge.