A Case For America

Will American businesses return to domestic sourcing when this pandemic subsides?

Today, we have most of our staff working in a very secure environment from home doing their jobs thanks to strong procedures and continual testing. Twenty-one years in business has its advantages. I am of proud of my staff and our executive team for the immediate action plan they implemented over the last ten days to protect our clients and our company. We have not missed a payment or a phone call. Sometimes, we are simply providing assurance. There is a strong commitment and energy our staff has put forth to perform above and beyond. I am sure many of you feel the same way about your organizations.

Debt collection, customer service and many other CSR activities are greatly outsourced today. Our company has resisted these offshore sourcing opportunities throughout our history because we simply believed that a well-paid employee with good benefits would create better results and lower turnover. We subsequently have focused our energies on clients that were not simply price driven. We have given up many opportunities in low margin, high volume business as a result. That being stated, we believe that a well-educated domestic staff can always outperform others and we have proven that over twenty-one years.

It is virtually impossible to go to any store today and not buy food, clothing, products or services that are not sourced from China, India, Vietnam, South Korea and a host of other countries. We have become too dependent on India and China for generic drugs including all anti-biotics. We have also become dependent on India and other countries for customer service and call-center activity. This globalization has had many benefits such as cheap goods and lower costs, but it now threatens our continued global expansion as other countries do not have the same standards or support systems that we do. The FDA, for example protects us in many ways and has very high standards compared to other countries. Will the average American trust goods be coming in from other countries to a large extent once this pandemic subsides. I have heard people expressing all kinds of fears as it relates to obtaining goods or touching boxes in recent days. This makes a strong case that there will be a significant shift in our buying habits and a greater domestic expansion moving forward that will be driven by consumer demand and business protection. Enter COVID-19. India currently has less than 1,000 cases of coronavirus as of today (3/27/2020) but their attempts to contain 1.7 billion people are falling short. India spends just $75.00 per person in healthcare compared to almost $900 for other emerging industrialized countries. In comparison, the US spends over $11,000 per person (2018) and we treat that as if we are grossly negligent.

My point here is simply that I believe that in the next five (5) years, there should be a shift away from the dependencies on other countries out of necessity and a renewed manufacturing and servicing explosion here is the states. That dependency includes outsourced call center activities and debt collection. Access Receivables will continue to provide the best quality, dependable services to discerning clients. We are prayerful that this pandemic can be contained and eradicated throughout the world as quickly as possible. Be safe.