IKON
The man who opened India’s first call centre in the late 1990s Indian entrepreneur Pramod Bhasin had an idea: why couldn’t English speaking Indians answer the customer calls coming into US businesses on the other side of the world and charge a fraction of the price of home grown services. Mr Bhasin set up India’s first call centre in 1998 with just 18 employees taking calls in an office where the booths were divided by saris hanging from the ceiling.
Today, although India faces stiff competition from countries such as the Philippines, its call centre industry is still huge and employs hundreds of thousands of Indians.
What is the Job all about?
Companies in the West have realized that it is cheaper and easier to outsource jobs in certain areas of their operations, to Companies in Asia. Outsourcing saves considerable amounts of monies especially in areas related to Customer Services, i.e. Travel and Ticketing.
In the past, Airlines would appoint Sales Assistants in their own country. These Travel Agents would be paid a salary of around Pounds 1,000 a month (1 pound = Rs.75 @ current Exchange Rates) i.e. the salary would be Rs. 75,000/- p.m. The same job is now done in Bangalore by our people, for around Rs. 25,000 to 35,000/- p.m.
A call centre or call center is a centralised office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information enquiries from consumers. Outbound call centres are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection and market research.
Call Centre services include medical transcription, accounting transaction, legal documentation, geographical mapping, e-mail help desk and e-CRM (electronic Customer Relationship Management.
Typically, there are three types of jobs in a Call Centre:
1. Response Persons: i.e. persons who actually answer calls. Here you need to be a Std.XII or a Graduate, with good command of the English Language or a foreign language and self confident.
2. Supervisors and Operations Managers: Here you need to have 2 – 3 years experience in the business plus a BBA or an MBA.
3. Management: In management naturally you need to be an MBA or a qualified Engineer
LPO (Legal Process Outsource) KPO (Knowledge Process Outsource)
For legal jobs you need to be a law graduate, for Medical Transcriptionist you need 10 + 2 or a Science degree, for accounting jobs you need to have a B.Com degree etc.
For KPO jobs you need to be an Engineer. Experience would be required depending on the complexity of the job. However, where it is a basic job, experience is not required.
Since this job is basically to cater for International needs, invariably the person has to work in the afternoons/night shift so that customers can be catered to their domestic time. Remember that, when it is night here, it is day time in the USA. UK is 5½ hours behind us, whereas the US is 12 hours behind us.
Can you go for it?
Need of fluency in English, lots of confidence, good telephone manners with a good accent. Knowledge of a foreign language would be a big plus.
Speaking & Accent
You should be able to appear to be British – to the Customer calling from UK and appear to be American to a person calling from the United States. In other words – one must be able to speak, so the person calling feels he/she is speaking to a fellow American or a fellow British. Hence, the need of fluency in English, lots of confidence, a good telephone manner and a bit of skill in acting (modulating your voice).
Working hours
Many of the jobs cater for International needs, so invariably the person has to work in the afternoons/night, so they can cater for those living in Europe/US.
Is there a future in this field?
Some young people take up these jobs to save money for their further studies – while others like it, as it allows them to study and work at the same time. Many young people have used this job as a very useful stepping stone to lucrative jobs in Hospitality, Retailing, Insurance, Healthcare management, Airline jobs, etc.
So, essentially this job could be used to reach out for those Big jobs which you would normally find difficult to get or purely as a stepping stone.
Where to Begin
As far as qualifications go, 10 + 2 is quite adequate for basic jobs
In Goa
• Training by Akiko in Margao.
• Orion Call Tech, Osia Commercial Complex Arcade, Margao.
Outside Goa
Over 100 Training Centres are indicated www.callcentersindia.com
Or call Toll free for BPO jobs : 1-800-3000-3003
Employment Avenues:
In Goa, the principal Call Centres are Altisource in Merces, First European Infotech at Verna, and Sanda Wellness in Margao.
Big Employers in India: Genpact, WNS Global, Wipro, Spectromine
Monies:
In Goa:
For Base Starters, Usually around Rs.8,000 – Rs.15,000/- per month.
As a Call Centre Supervisor or Team Leader: Rs 18,000/- to 25,000/- p.m.
Managers run the entire office and earn around Rs.40,000 to 50,000/- p.m.
Outside Goa: 30-40% higher than above.
Please do not be satisfied with just acquiring a Degree/Diploma – try and enhance your CV by doing online learning programs (with a certificate) of programs relevant to your choice of career. Your chances of employment will be much better than just a plain degree/diploma.
Please check this website under other details for places you can learn online. Also try and develop your confidence by doing a public speaking training program with people like Toast Masters International.
For government jobs: please check : http://www.employment-newspaper.com/