Business travel costs are increasingly having a more significant impact on the budget of many companies, both in the United States and the rest of the world.

According to global estimates by Harvard, corporate travel expenses will exceed 1.7 million dollars in 2022, representing a 35% increase in 5 years.

The most significant economic impact in the United States market is related to long-distance travel, especially to other continents and remote locations such as India and the Philippines. 

Companies usually offshore to these destinations to reduce expenses. However, travel costs are steep, particularly for monitoring the quality of their contact centers.

There are 400 million long-distance business trips annually, and the costs of air tickets, lodging, accommodation, and travel expenses should be considered. For monitoring and quality control in customer service, this reality drastically reduces the profitability of the offshoring process and the outsourcing strategy.

To avoid that, keep reading and learn how to deal with this problem and reduce the impact of travel expenses on your company’s budget. 

Try nearshoring

If you’re willing to change your focus, consider this: although there was a preference for India and other remote locations to outsource Contact Centers and Call Center services decades ago, these have proven to be far from the most profitable options.

In addition to thick accents, completely different time zones, and other factors that limit the quality of service, the cost of travel – even infrequent – is unsustainable.

With flights lasting more than 10 hours, with stays of around two weeks, the costs for quality controls in foreign contact centers will be inevitably higher.

Nearshoring can mitigate these pain points, outsourcing services to regions closer to the United States. 

Nearshoring comes with essential advantages, such as sharing similarities in time zones and culture, and cheaper travel expenses. 

Mexico and the strategic market for nearshoring

Luckily, there are many nearby countries where you can do nearshoring and keep customer service closer to the company’s headquarters, such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.

With the latter countries, although close, they require a minimum stay of 3 days, and quality is subpar at best due to unsatisfactory customer service and scarce bilingual talent.

Mexico on the other hand is cheaper with high-quality standards and the capacity to adapt to the demands expected of the US market.

In addition to offering rates 40% lower than those in the United States, in Mexico, you will find Contact Center and Call Center services in strategic cities so that you can save substantially on business travel costs. Some of these locations are:

Tijuana: the border town

Tijuana shares the Pacific time zone with California, Washington and some locations in Oregon and Nevada.

For travel, it is unbeatable: it is a 3-hour drive from Los Angeles and half an hour less if you leave from San Diego.

Added to considerable savings in travel expenses is the bicultural talent in the area, people who are constantly exposed to American culture due to the proximity between both countries. The migratory movement also plays a significant role for obvious reasons. 

Mexico City: imposing and productive 

The dense capital, with a population of around 8.5 million people (similar to that of New York), is a strategic point due to its business environment and ease of access from the United States.

Miami, Chicago, Houston and New York are the cities with direct and constant flights to Mexico City, with tickets fares just over $250 round trip.

Guadalajara: the “pearl” of business 

It is one of the three most important cities in Mexico regarding business and economic productivity, followed by Monterrey and Mexico City.

The growth of businesses in the technology sector and the constant arrival of qualified labor from other parts of Mexico and abroad make the so-called «Perla tapatia» a business epicenter. 

As with Mexico City, multiple US cities have direct and inexpensive flights to Guadalajara, which are preferred by executives in charge of quality control to avoid large expenses and complexities.

In short, Mexico is a strategic destination, intending to provide commercial standards as high as those of the United States. Currently, they have the most qualified Spanish-speaking professionals in Latin America.

If you want to continue learning about Mexico and its advantages for nearshore in BPO, we invite you to read the following post:

Mexico Is the Most Competitive Country in Latin America’s Call Center Industry