Outsourcing customer support functions to India doesn�t work for every company, no matter how inexpensive the labor is there. Just take a look at Boston-based Carbonite, which has decided to shift its call center operations to Maine after five years in India.

Carbonite CEO David Friend said the company, which provides data backup services, saw a significant difference in customer reactions to Carbonite�s help desk in India and its help desk in Boston.

�India worked fine, but at the end of every customer interaction, we asked how you would rate the whole experience (and) the U.S.-based operation just blew India away,� Friend tells me. �We�ve been working hard in India for five years now. We can�t come close to the scores (for Boston).�