The Indian Call Center Journey
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INDIAN CALL CENTERS – MYTHS AND REALITIES contd...
However, most of these people entered the field,
without having any idea as to what the business was all about. Their
knowledge regarding the technology involved, the marketing aspects, client
servicing issues etc was very poor.
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They assumed that by offering cheaper rates,
they would be able to attract clients easily. They did not realize
that more than easy access to capital and real estate, the field
required experience and a sound business background. Once they
decided to enter
the field, they found that most of the capital expenditure (in form
of building up the infrastructure[5]
) occurred even before the first
client was bagged.
These players seemed to have neglected the fact that most successful
call centers were quite large and had either some experience in the
form of promoters having worked abroad in similar ventures or
previous experience with such ventures or were subsidiaries of
foreign companies. The real trouble started when these companies
began soliciting clients.
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As call centers were a new line of business in India,
the lack of track record forced the clients to go for much detailed and
prolonged studies of the Indian partners. Many US clients insisted on a strict inspection of the
facilities offered, such as work-areas, cafeterias and even the restrooms.
The clients expected to be shown detailed Service Level Agreements (SLAs)[6]
,
which a majority of the Indian firms could not manage.
Under these circumstances, no US company was willing to risk giving business
to amateurs at the cost of losing their customers. Because of the inadequate
investments in technology, lack of processes to scale the business[7]
and the
lack of management capabilities, most of the Indian players were unable to
get international customers.
Even for those who did manage to rope in some clients, the business was
limited. As if these problems were not enough, the players hit another
roadblock - this time in form of the high labor turnover problem. Agent
performance was the deciding factor in the success of any call center.
Companies had recognized agents as one of the most important and influential
points of contact between the business and the customer.
However, it was this very set of people whom the Indian call centers were
finding extremely difficult to recruit and more importantly, retain. In
2000, the average attrition rate in the industry was 40-45%, with about
10-15% of the staff quitting within the first two months itself.
Even though attrition rates were very high in this industry worldwide, the
same trend was not expected to emerge in India, as the unemployment levels
were much higher. The reasons were not very hard to understand. In a
eight-and-a-half hour shift, the agents had to attend calls for
seven-and-a-half hours.
More>>
FUTURE PROSPECTS
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
[5] The
typical cost of setting up a call center with 100 people worked out to about
Rs 50 million in 2000. This included premises, telecommunication
infrastructure, computing equipment and cost of meeting regulatory
requirements including obtaining DoT clearances.
[6]
SLAs contained the measurable parameters for a call center such as Average
Speed of answer (number of rings before a call was answered), Average Talk
Time (time taken to address one query) etc.
[7]
Scalability indicated the center's ability to increase the number of seats.
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