Americans aren’t the only ones fed up with offshore call centers. In “Luring Customers with Local Call Centers,” Newsweek reports that British firms are finding that the cost savings of offshoring are offset by losses in client retention and satisfaction, and companies are moving support operations back home. These firms are making the (wise) assumption that the substantially higher cost of operating domestic call centers will more than pay for itself with better customer satisfaction and retention. The same is true in the U.S., where we’ve also seen many technology and financial services firms pull back from using foreign call centers.

These companies, which are now taking on higher operating costs to help with customer support (and ultimately retention), are beginning to incorporate “domestic call center operations” as a key message in marketing and advertising. And why wouldn’t they do that? After all, this is a move that is good for consumers, right?

But even this commonsensical approach is not without its critics, who “decry these advertising campaigns as xenophobic, saying they play on nationalism and prejudices about call centers in the developing world.” Am I prejudiced because I’m frustrated that many foreign call center agents don’t speak English very well? Or that there is constant latency in the conversation due to VOIP technology? Or that there are very legitimate privacy and fraud concerns that are often associated with foreign call centers?

(Thanks to DoublePositive’s Brad F. for bringing the article to my attention.)