Monday, March 5, 2001		Article

Servicing US clients via India
By Sumesh Raizada

AS the mankind progresses, life is getting more busy and scientific. People, especially in big cities, want to utilise their time more productively and qualitatively. Several enterprises are now coming out with ways and means to provide immediate assistance to their customers, in order to generate more business. Firms, for giving better pre-sale and after-sales services, are extensively using the advanced telecommunication facilities and computers.

Call centres are, therefore, being set up by organisations to provide all possible information to their customers. Most of the multinationals and other organisations in the USA, Europe and Australia, are finding call centres extremely convenient to cater to the existing as well as prospective buyers, all over the world. This not only saves precious time but also money that is being spent by customers in resolving their queries through other conventional means.

The call centres are playing a vital role in the banking, insurance, financial and IT sectors. These are responsible for the revamping of operations in several industries, where sales offices are being altogether replaced by relatively peaceful call centres. The traditional call centre consists of a workplace, equipped with latest communication and computerised facilities. The telephone lines, which are usually toll free are connected through computerised answering machines. The computer first guides any caller asking for assistance and then call is diverted to the staff member who handles the inquiries. The centres mostly work on the Automated call distribution (ACD) principle. With the help of predictive dialling, customer calls are diverted automatically to the available staff members. Regular information is fed into the computers, so that calls are answered on their own, without connecting to operator. Call centres remain open 24 hours, 7 days a week, in order to keep their customers satisfied and also to avail the business opportunity at any time. This increases the call handling efficiency and results in more satisfied customers.

In India, call centres industry is growing at a fast pace. Within a short span of time, a number of call centres have mushroomed all over the country, especially in and around the metropolitan cities. The spread of the Internet to even remote places and advanced communication techniques like broad band and DTH have made India among the most popular destination for outsourcing call centre facilities. Besides, the cost of establishing and operating a call centre in Western countries, especially in USA are much higher than in India.

As call centres mostly use English language for interaction, India has an advantage of having computer literate manpower with proficiency in spoken English. The prevailing salaries of operating staff are much lesser in India than their counterparts in UK, Canada or Australia. Since the call centres are functioning 24 hours a day, there is an added advantage of time zone difference. All these factors coupled with relaxation in government policies have contributed to the increase in call centres facilities in India. Today, there is a high probability that if a person in New York calls for assistance regarding his Citibank account, it might be answered by a girl in Gurgaon or if you dial your ISP helpline at Chandigarh, the reply might come from someone sitting at Chennai.

Almost all private Internet service providers (ISPs), mobile and pager companies, credit card companies, private banks, automated teller machine (ATM) providers, airlines, etc, are establishing centres at various locations to provide quick and efficient services to their customers. Other industries are tourism, transport, teleshopping, etc. These call centres, besides working as 24 hours help line, occasionally deals in marketing and sales promotion activities, also. Though some companies that are having business in India are operating call centres themselves, others are doing so through franchises or outsourcing the job to other call centres.

Huge career potential exists for the professionals in call centre industry. The advantage it offers over other IT-related career is that a person need not be highly skilled and qualified in computers, and yet with some years of working experience, can draw a salary ranging from Rs.2 to 3 lakh per annum. What is primarily required is the strong vocal and communication skills, proficiency in spoken English and basic telephone etiquette. In centres where specialised or technical information is to be provided, those with relevant background in engineering, science, medicine, law, etc have an added advantage.

In India, call centre training institutes are limited as compared to countries like USA, Canada, UK, where colleges are conducting formal courses for providing education on the subject. However, as demand for call centres is rapidly growing, several new institutes are being set up to provide coaching and training in the relevant skills. Call centre colleges are coming up in the major Indian cities on the pattern of similar colleges in the UK. Most of the call centre training program are of duration 10 to12 weeks and above. This includes 2 to 3 weeks practical training in real environment. The curriculum consists of customer relationship management, sales and service modules, verbal and non- verbal communication skills, teamwork coordination, call centre basics, computer skills, team building, inbound and outbound selling skills.

Potential exists for graduates having proficiency in spoken English and exposure to basic computing skills. An individual starts his career as call centre agents or team members and then become call centre manager, administrator or team leader. However, there are certain limitations in this career. Firstly the job is not completely structured to provide long-term career growth. Secondly, the working hours are irregular and often night shifts are required. It is a flat organisational structure with limited hierarchy. Since salaries are fluctuating for call centre professionals in different industries, the employee turn over rate is comparatively high. Besides, the job is repetitive and monotonous in nature. While team members or agents mostly interact with the customers or are involved in maintenance of equipment in case of breakdown, call centre managers are required to motivate the team members, provide training and skills assessment of the employees, problem solving, etc.

Several leading organisations like GE capital, IDLX Technology Partners, Flex industries, etc. are outsourcing call centres in India, while other firms are setting up in house call centres referred as captive call centres. Sun Microsystems, a top ranking software firm has set up a Java call centre at Bangalore. Keeping in view the growing potential in outsourcing jobs, several IT entrepreneurs are setting up call centres to fulfil the requirements of other organisations. CybizCall, a Delhi based IT firm is setting up the call centre franchises all over the country, including cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, etc.

Those who may be interested in starting call centre as a business venture, have to first register their requirement with the Department of Telecommunication, Delhi, giving full details about their venture partners, connectivity details, proposed location, etc.

With the Internet gaining wide acceptance in almost all applications, the traditional call centres are also being transformed into more advanced web based services. The response to customer queries through voice over telephones is slowly being modified to voice over the Internet, E-mail or fax. With the concept of e-commerce gaining wide acceptance, Internet based call centres shall also gain momentum proportionately. This will further create job potential for call centre experts for whom there shall definitely be no end to opportunities.