I recently read that the Indian outsourcing Industry has hired a management consultancy and launched a campaign called Credible India to rebuild its reputation. The work is funded by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

India’s image has certainly taken a battering recently. Massive corruption scandals, quality problems, unhappy customers, high staff churn, rapidly rising inflation are just some of the issues its outsourcing industry has faced.

Therefore, it is to be expected that the Indian outsourcing industry would put considerable effort into repairing the damage, but I seriously doubt that a marketing campaign will suffice. What I believe would really make the difference is the behaviour of individual firms in the country.  They all need to show what they are capable of. If Future Processing was an Indian company, I would be demonstrating to all prospective clients that we have stringent ethics policies, showing them our financial accounts and then honing in on quality – of course – and improving cultural compatibility. I would do my utmost to ensure that what we delivered to customers was over and above their expectations.

And I am sure that many offshore providers in India that are doing just this. But they face major challenges, which I don’t think a marketing campaign will be able to successfully address.

It only takes one or two companies who don’t have their house in order, can’t get a grip on churn or don’t deliver quality results, for this poor image to continue.

For all of us, our personal experiences impact upon our professional views.  Research shows that if an IT director or a procurement director has a negative experience with an Indian call centre, or other outsourced operation,  it is likely to make him, or her, more reluctant to offshore their own work to the country. With some large UK businesses bringing operations back to the UK because of customer dis-satisfaction, and these being reported in the press, it feels like Indian customer service providers in particular, are facing an uphill battle.

While India has been trying to get back on track, other destinations have been making hay. Central and Eastern European countries have been gaining ground, with customers citing cultural compatibility, EU membership and smaller time differences as factors in their choices. But the most important trend is towards quality – it seems that while customers want to save money, they also want a quality product and this is pushing many away from destinations that they see as low cost, low quality. No country, including Poland, is going to pass up a chance to catch up with its competitors. Other offshoring destinations are not going to lie back and make it easy for India to regain ground, instead we will be maximising any advantage we currently have. And that will make it harder and slower for India to rebuild its reputation.

The management consultants working for the FICCI certainly have their work cut out for them……