Chapter 1: Executive Summary

In the area of customer care, which ought to be viewed as a "core" business function, the Caribbean Nearshore market has a major asset. The dominance of the tourism industry and the high international visitors to population ratio of the region has endowed it with a "care dividend." Tourism essentially involves providing personal services to visitors and as such the region has an accumulated service delivery experience. As a core business function, customer care service is an important determinant of firm profits. Contact center operations are essentially providing service care to end-consumers in the outsourcing process or what is called metacare in the Nearshore context. The report finds that firms ignoring metacare in their site selection and partnering process may be making a strategic blunder.