Reality Check
Six months ago I wrote about a topic that has generated more reader response than anything I've written in any magazine brave enough to publish my work over the last 13 years. In the April 2006 issue of this magazine, I wrote a column entitled, "Outsourcing to Indians -- Makes Sense to Me!" In that column I presented the idea that we as an industry should perhaps look in our own backyard for alternatives to sending our contact center jobs to offshore contact centers in countries like India. I wondered why no one had thought of establishing contact centers on Native American reservations and providing that population with career opportunities in the customer care industry. In other words, instead of outsourcing to Indians, why don't we consider outsourcing to Indians?
I guess I stirred things up pretty well with that column and with that idea because reader response was what we analysts like to refer to as being "significant." That's when something's really big but there's no other point of reference, so we call it "significant." I received e-mails from readers that made me scratch my head in wonder, like the one from the reader who wrote that putting call centers on reservations might work but wondered who would bear the expense of rehab for the employees. Huh?
I also had a number of respondents who could best be described as cage rattlers, chain pullers and tire kickers write to me following publication of that column. These were the people who feigned interest in learning more about locating a call center on the Navajo reservation. I did my best to get them in touch with the right people and to give them an idea of what to expect from the process. I thought we might actually make some progress, but when it came time to put up or shut up, every one of them shut up and disappeared.
Among the most interesting of the responses I received came from Y. Kathy Brown of Bella Bella, B.C., Canada. Bella Bella is a village located on Campbell Island on the central coast of British Columbia, north of Vancouver Island. Campbell is a very small island accessible only by air or sea, has a population of about 1,500 people and much of the island belongs to the Heiltsuk Nation. Bella Bella is relatively isolated and doesn't offer many of the amenities that we take for granted like movie theaters and shopping centers. Bella Bella has a fisheries plant, a school and a community center. It also has a call center.
Bella Bella's call center had humble but noble beginnings six years ago in the small community as a means to provide job training and experience to members of the Heiltsuk Nation. Ms. Brown, who is of Nuu-chah-nulth descent and married into the Heiltsuk Nation, was given responsibility for the call center program that Bella Bella launched. Her vision was to create a program that would get people off social assistance and into the job market by providing them with entry level experience and the opportunity to learn new skills. Tailor made for a call center.
Ms. Brown went to work and secured a government contract to put the call center together. It was located in the unused second story of the Community Development Society building, where it remains today as the Bella Bella Business Service Center. Telus ran fiber optic lines to the island to support high-speed data communications and training was done in-house. In a relatively short time, Bella Bella's call center was up and running.
Keep in mind that the purpose of this call center was to provide job experience and skills training to Heiltsuk band members, so an agent rotation was created. At any one time there were three full-time agents, three part-time agents, three agents on call and three people in training. The objective was to encourage people to move on to other jobs or to continue their education once they had gained enough job experience in the call center, so creating a call center career path wasn't an issue when Bella Bella's call center was established.
Bella Bella's first contract came from Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Development (DIAND) in support of the Corbiere helpdesk. The DIAND needed a call center to answer overflow calls from First Nations across Canada regarding the Supreme Court decision that allowed band members residing off reserve to vote in band elections. Overflow calls from central government offices were routed to Bella Bella and according to Ms. Brown, callers to the Bella Bella customer care center had no idea that they weren't talking to someone in Ottawa, the center of Canada's government and service centers.
The first service contract quickly led to another and after only eight weeks of operation, the Bella Bella call center had 24 contracts in hand. The trick, according to Kathy Brown, was to never refuse an opportunity. The better the job they did, the more work came their way, the more tribal band members got job experience and in many cases went on to get other jobs on or off the reservation, or left to attend school in the lower mainland.
According to Wilfred Humchitt, Heiltsuk Hereditary Chief, "It has been uplifting to see members of our community get off social assistance, take advantage of their training and secure employment that ensures lifelong career opportunities. I have seen individuals leave the call center with greater self-esteem and a positive outlook for the future. The call center has accomplished its objectives."
Judging from some of the correspondence I received after the publication of my April column, there are still a lot of stereotypes that have to be overcome regarding Native Americans and their ability to work in a contact center. This problem is further exacerbated by the contact center industry's general fear of doing something different than what everyone else is doing. Ours is not an industry known for its ability to color outside the lines.
At Saddletree Research's annual gathering of clients and friends in the high Sonoran Desert of Arizona this past May, known as the Saddletree Desert Forum, I invited Charles Young, Navajo, to speak to the attendees about the Navajo Nation and the potential for establishing a business on the reservation. Mr. Young is vice president of a construction company in Flagstaff, AZ, and is also active in the Navajo government. As he told us at the Saddletree Forum, he was born and raised on the Navajo reservation and like many kids everywhere in North America, he grew up watching the Disney Channel. The point he was making was, Navajo workers understand American culture, speak perfect English and are likely to be as good as any other American contact center employee today. The only thing holding them back is the opportunity to find careers without having to leave their close cultural ties to the reservation.
Kathy Brown recently told me that her call center in Bella Bella is actively seeking additional work and is currently looking for additional facilities for expansion. If you are interested in speaking to Ms. Brown about contract opportunities for her call center, let me know and I'll get you in touch with her.
If you thought about looking at the Navajo reservation as a potential location for a call center but dropped the idea after the flurry of initial enthusiasm waned, give it another thought. The town of Kayenta in the Navajo reservation of Northern Arizona, for example, is making it especially attractive for businesses to locate there. Town leaders are actively pursuing the opportunity to speak with business leaders who have an interest in locating a call center on the reservation.
I hope I'm able to stir things up with this column the way I did with the April column, and I hope I've once again provided the readers of this magazine with a different perspective. Not only is the idea of establishing call centers on the reservation a good one, it's an idea that works as proven by the experience of the Heiltsuk Nation call center in Bella Bella. It's an idea whose time has come and, beyond that, it's the right thing to do.
-Paul Stockford is Chief Analyst at Saddletree Research.
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10/1/06, Issue # 1910, page 18.
