Safe outsourcing

Outsourcing all or part of a company's customer service operation helps to lower costs, better focus in-house resources, and even improve customer relationships - but entrusting customers to an outside vendor can also create a "gap" which damage those customer relationships.
Executives who hire an outsourcer to make customer service problems "Go away" often find that the projected cost savings are quickly swamped by increased customer dissatisfaction and expensive customer attrition explains a managing director.

Effective outsourcing means eliminating the service gap by intelligently and actively managing outsourcing relationships.
It was the topic of my internship last year: how a litte company can manage its outsourcing? What are the limits? Is it less expensive?
This question is very interesting because of many parameters which can change the debate.....