A call centre is a central place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Typically, a call centre has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward those to someone qualified to handle them. Call centers have evolved tremendously from being just a medium of voice based customer support into integrated contact centers, which are capable of handling customer queries over the phone, or the online medium.

The definition of a call centre is changing in this world of e-business but the core fundamentals of a making a call (via phone, e-mail, website, or fax) to a centre ( point, area. person or thing) will remain un-changed. Call centre; contact centers or customer interaction centers operate on near identical principles of meeting customer needs in real time and often mean the same thing.

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What is a typical call centre like?

A Call Centre is a place with state-of-the-art telecom and online infrastructure that helps provide customers complete information and support on a set of products/services, round the clock, round the year. Call Centres are here to stay in business simply because they are the most efficient and economical way to handle customer queries and grievances.

A typical Call Centre would feature Call Center Agents, Customer Relation Executives and Customer Service executives. These are individuals with a pleasing personality, fluent in English with a distinct American / British accent and highly dynamic by nature. They help promote the company's products / services, help customers use them effectively, handle complaints promptly and get valuable feedbacks.

ITES stands for Information Technology (IT) Enabled Services. IT-enabled outsourcing can be defined as,

• These outsourcing services that use information processing and delivery of the service.
• IT Enabled services are functions and services provided from a country different from the one where the end products are delivered through a telecom network or other electronic media.

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What does BPO stand for? What does it mean?

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Major corporations in the US and Europe are outsourcing their back office operations to India to save costs. E.g., employee payroll is maintained in India for their employees worldwide. All customer interaction services including call centers are a part of BPO. Call centers may be voice and/or internet based and called as integrated contact centers.

Back office operations refer to the offsite delivery of a range of non-core service functions, including routine administrative tasks, customer service and technical support. Back office operations manage an entire activity or function on a turnkey basis for their clients.

A few years ago, the growth of the Internet and on-line connectivity made possible the provision of technical support and problem resolution for customers from remote locations. Contact centre activity began to accelerate. Finally this was followed by entire support processes getting outsourced (business process outsourcing), as corporations began to focus primarily or exclusively on their core business. Some of the earliest examples were payroll processing and credit card processing.

Types of Back Office Services

Today, back office services cover the following:
Administration
Tax processing
Claims processing
Asset management
Transcription and translation
Document management
Other administration
Finance
Billing services
Accounting transactions
General accounting
Tax consulting and compliance
Risk Management
Financial reporting
Financial analysis
Financial management
Other finance services
HR (Human Resources)
Benefits administration
Education and training
Recruiting and staffing
Payroll services
Hiring administration
Records management
Other HR services
Payment services
Credit/debit card services
Check processing
EDI
 

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What is the difference between captive and third party ITES/call centre services provider companies?

Captive ITES/BPO/call centers companies mostly serve the needs of their parent company or group e.g. GE, American Express, HSBC, while Third party ITES/call centre provider companies are independent entities providing services to a wide range customer companies Spectramind, Daksh, EXL.
 

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Application of call/contact centers in the business world

Typically, a customer calls a number, which is toll free and is assisted by the consultant. The operator can access the database and gives the response. This is a very useful feature in airline reservations, hotel reservations, banking services, technology solutions, etc. The areas, which are addressed by call centers, include sales support, airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, tele marketing, market research, etc.

As companies have learned that service is the key to attracting and maintaining customers (and hence, revenue), the common perception of the call centre has changed. In some industries (catalogue retailing, financial services, hospitality) a call centre is the difference between being in business and not being in business. In other industries (cable television, utilities) call centers have been the centerpiece of corporate attempts to quickly overhaul service and improve their image. It is a strategic asset that companies can use to improve their customer relationships, and more importantly, to learn more about their customers, and therefore serve them better. This improves the bottom line. Call centers have evolved from cost centers to profit centers.

• Spectrum of IT Enabled Services
• Customer interaction services including Call/contact centers
• Medical Transcription
• Back Office Transactions, including payroll and Revenue accounting, data entry/data conversion (including finance and accounting)/HR Services
• Insurance claims processing
• Legal databases
• Content Development/animation Engineering and design/GIS
• Logistics Management

It's a good working hypothesis to assume that any company that sells any product has a call centre, or will shortly have one, because it is the most effective way to reach (and be reached by) customers.

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How does a call centre function?

A typical call centre functions as follows - A caller uses a toll free number that is connected to a customer support centre. When the call reaches the call centre, a trained consultant with access to a wide database of information, answers the call. The dedicated telecommunication links connect a remote call centre to the parent organization through voice and online database access. Therefore, a caller maybe calling a local number in USA, but the call maybe answered in India without any time delay and the caller is oblivious of where the call is being answered. These services are very popular in countries such as USA, Europe, Japan and Australia.

Call centers can be of different types. A regional call centre implies that a centre in America to handle America, Europe to handle Europe and a centre in South East Asia and Australia to handle Asia. This enables some economies of scale but duplication of efforts can minimize operational efficiency. The other option is to have a global call centre where all calls across the globe are handled. This results in tremendous economies of scale, which is cost effective.

An inbound centre is one that handles calls coming in from outside, most often through toll free numbers. These calls are primarily service and support calls, and inbound sales.

An outbound centre is one that does mainly outgoing telemarketing.

Inbound is the biggest component of call centre traffic these days, though perversely, outbound represents the area of largest projected growth in the next few years. In truth, the majority of centers contain some element of both inbound and outbound.

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Key responsibilities of outbound call centre personnel

Make outgoing calls to follow up on overdue account holders worldwide, offer solutions.

Update the relevant information in the database.

Adhere to the highest standards of quality and compliance.

Be customer friendly and extremely courteous.

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Key responsibilities of inbound call centre personnel

Handle inbound calls relating to customer queries on a product or service.

Update databases.

Adhere to the highest standards of quality and compliance.

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Different types of call/contact centers and their uses

Contact centers have become catalysts for transformation, freeing up businesses to focus or core activities. A contact centre can be any of the following:

A telemarketing centre
A tele-servicing centre
A help desk, both internal and external
An outsourced centre (also known as a service bureau) that uses its large capacity to serve multiple companies
A reservation centre for airlines or hotels
A catalogue trainer
An e-tailing centre
An e-commerce transaction centre that handles automated customer interactions
A fundraising and collection organization

The contact centre is traditionally defined as a physical location where calls are placed or received, in high volume for the purpose of:

Sales
Marketing
Telemarketing
Customer service
Technical support
Specialized business activity

While early descriptions of contact centers called them places of doing business by phone that combined a centralized database with an automatic call distribution (ACD) system. today, these centers have evolved to become sophisticated business enterprises providing integrated services that are essential to the success of corporations they serve. A contact centre can now range in size from a micro centre with 5-10 seats to a huge setup with thousands of seats.

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Specific skills and attitudes required for employment in call/contact centers

An excellent command in English is the basic requirement. Being a graduate is the other, although most call centers will recruit under-graduates if they have good English language skills. As call centers operate round the clock, one has to be ready to work night shifts. The major emphasis is on being able to handle interpersonal communications with a high degree of confidence. This is because a call centre operator continuously interacts with customers, must listen to and deal with complaints and queries, and must be able to function effectively as the “voice of the company”.

• Sales
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• PC Skills
• Ability to work in teams
• Listening skills
• Analytical skills
• Customer focus
• Be a graduate (competent under graduates are employed by most call center companies)
• Agents must serve well-informed and diverse customers; adjust to changes in products, service and technologies; operate in a time-sensitive, multimedia environment; communicate with customers quickly and accurately; and understand Web-and IVR (interactive voice response) based applications.

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Career prospects and velocity of growth

The typical career path for an agent handling calls would be to move into the acting team leader and then manage his/her own team of 10/12 people in the capacity of a team leader. Team leaders, in time, start to manage multiple teams and grow to become assistant managers and then, managers. The surprise is that the time taken for growth to a managerial level is much faster than even in the IT industry. An entry-level agent can progress to a full team leader in two years or less with a quantum jump in emoluments.

There are a number of other career paths in the industry. Many customer service executives move into the role of trainers. People handling call gain a significant amount of product and process knowledge. As a trainer, the role is that of imparting process and product knowledge to new trainees. Other roles include managing the command centre, joining project teams, recruiting, etc.

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Monetary benefits and other perquisites

The average, entry level, salary for a customer service executive is approximately Rs. 8,000 per month. This increases to Rs. 10-12,000 per month, within a year. Additionally, there are many performance linked incentive plans. The ITES industry is where IT service was ten years ago. Talented people with a strong will to succeed ca make the best of this opportunity and emerge winners.

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Current salaries in the ITES/BPO/call-contact centre world in India

Customer Care Representatives [CSRs]: Rs. 8,000 – Rs. 15,000 per month
Team Leaders: Rs. 17,000 – Rs. 26,000 per month
Managers: Rs. 3 lacs - Rs. 5.5 lacs per annum
Training Heads: Rs. 8 lacs – Rs. 12 lacs per annum
Training managers: Rs. 5 lacs – Rs. 8 lacs per annum
Trainers: Rs. 2 lacs – Rs. 5 lacs per annum

Specialized ITES professionals who possess MBA, BE, B.Tech., C.A., and other expert qualification or experience may be paid higher salaries depending upon the expertise required for the desired work profile and their level of experience.

Besides salaries, ITES professionals are also paid liberal incentives depending upon regularity, achievement of targets, and length of service and nature of work, which can even exceed their salaries at times.

Other perquisites include pickup facilities, subsidized/free western and Indian snacks and meals and a five-day week as a matter of course. Most contact centers also provide other lifestyle perquisites ranging from Hawaiian nights, weekly in-house dance sessions and free discotheque passes to ATM facility and further education classes within the office complex.

A typical example is of leading Indian ITES company Wipro Spectramind which provides various facilities to it’s agents within its campus. These include HDFC ATM services and concierge desk that takes care of telephone bills. Film ticket booking, sending greetings and flowers to all its employees. In addition to all this, Spectramind in introducing MBA and engineering courses as an option for its employees by partnering with premium institutes to offer these classes within the office complex premises.

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Travel opportunities

At times, the staff might require extensive training. Such training may happen at client locations in the US/ UK for a period of about 4-8 weeks. This provides the staff an opportunity to visit client locations and learn about the culture first-hand.

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Training and recruitment

Training forms an important part of one’s career development. ITES companies generally provide employees with extensive Accent Neutralization training, American/ British culture training, Customer Delight, Team Building and Time Management training. The training costs for an employee in a call centre are quite prohibitive, ranging from anywhere between Rs. 25,000 to as high as Rs. 50,000 running from 2 to 5 months. The fact that such training is provided at the start of a career means that a person will consequently find it easier to achieve professional excellence and increase the probability, _ of a successful career.

Call centers are increasingly looking at hiring people who are already trained, skipping the cumbersome post-recruitment training spanning over a couple of months to save time and costs.