The company which pioneered the “Press 1 for India for faster service” option says it will soon introduce cost benefits on its menu. E-Loan, the U.S. lending firm which created a stir earlier this month by declaring upfront to customers that calls were being routed to call centres in India, says transparency is the best policy. “Outsourcing is the way of the future,” Chris Larsen, CEO of E-Loan says in an. “But why not allow the customer to make the choice?”

In fact, E-Loan’s experience has been that empowered with information about their calls being routed to India with the quicker response option – 10 days to process a loan instead of 12 days – 86 per cent of customers chose the India option.

The response is now encouraging the company to tell customers about the cost benefits -- that having their loans processed in India will be cheaper.

“The U.S. industry will be very short-sighted if it opposes outsourcing only on account of jobs,” Larsen says. “The opposition to outsourcing is coming from labour groups, not from consumers.”