Call centers cautiously optimistic in 2009

VOICE-BASED business process outsourcing (BPO) companies here expect to grow by a fifth this year despite the threat of a global economic crisis.

But industry leaders said call centers should enter 2009 with caution, noting that the local offshoring industry was not immune to the negative effects of the economic crunch.

"You never really know what’s going to happen," Benedict Hernandez, president of the Call Center Association of the Philippines, said in a recent interview.

"Despite the forecast, we still have to be more careful... We cannot say that there won’t be an impact," he added.

Mr. Hernandez noted that according to a survey by the group, call center companies, which make up around 70% of the local BPO industry, expect to grow by an average of 23% this year.

He noted that this would not be as fast as the 30% to 40% growth the sector had been experiencing in the past three years.

This is also lower than the growth expected by nonvoice BPO companies.

Mr. Hernandez said the slower growth rate relative to the entire industry might also be due to the fact that the sector now has a bigger base. "But you can’t really complain," he said, adding that at least, unlike other industries such as manufacturing, signs still pointed to growth. "The main thing is that it’s still going to be good growth."

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IGNOU to set up own call centre

NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from multinationals, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in a bid to connect with its student in a better manner, is all set to ride the BPO bandwagon.

IGNOU, the biggest open university of the country, will set up its own call centre for answering queries of their 1.7 million students seeking courses in correspondence. The proposed call centre would be outsourced to a private company that would take up the calls round the clock.

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Recruitment is a Challenge in Call Center/BPO

Industry…Competencies for Recruitment Professionals…measuring their efficiency and ROI !!!

Purpose:

For high growth organizations, attracting, hiring and retaining the right talent is critical. Add the right players to your team and you have a key source of competitive advantage. Attract the wrong talent and you will have difficulty meeting your strategic goals and objectives. "Hire a wrong person…who is not able to fit into an organization…he will leave, resulting in high attrition rate". "Hire a person…give him wrong information…or misrepresent the policies of the companies and procedure and you will not even know what harm you have done to the organizations "public image" ".

Introduction:

More than anybody else in HR Department the onus is high on "Recruitment Specialist", he is like "companies" advertising manager.

He must be well versed with the "Business" of the company, its strategies and policies.

It is for him to keep himself updated with the latest skill sets, available in the market. It is for him to "keep" him self updated with the "Business Competitors" of the organization. Even the onus of "retaining people is on "Recruitment Specialist".

It is for them to find if the "person" will be able to fit into the "culture" of the organization.

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India's Youth Set Sights Beyond Call Centers

As India’s economy booms, its young workers are no longer so keen on trying to soothe the irate customers of the global companies that outsource their call center jobs in the country. Industries like aviation and retail are among the new favorites for job seekers, says a study.

The business process outsourcing sector, which now has attrition rates ranging from 25% to 30%, could see that number climb to 30% to 40% over the next two years, says the study on urban youths’ emerging career choices, conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

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Call centers make use of Netopia for training, recruitment

Internet café chain Netopia has started offering its facilities to several call centers and business process outsourcing (BPO) operators for training of employees, disaster recovery site and soon, for recruitment.

During a presentation, Netopia President George Tan said several call centers and BPOs have already started training their employees in their facilities. Among the companies are ePLDT, SPI, TeleTech, PeopleSupport, Convergys, InfoNXX and Accenture.

Tan said that so far, the training has been going well for all of their clients.

“We have branches that have been transformed into a classroom-style facility to emulate the feel of a training room,” he said.

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Commentary: Are call centers a boon or bane?

For a fresh college graduate who wants to earn more but prefers to stay in the Philippines, the most popular option is to work as a call center agent. Touted as the sunshine industry of the Philippines, the business process outsourcing, or BPO, industry has attracted hundreds of thousands of young Filipinos in recent years.

Last year, BPO companies earned more than US$3.5 billion employing about 230,000 workers. The call center sub-sector is the major component of the BPO industry, but other BPO services include medical transcription, software development, engineering and architectural design, human resource management services, legal transcription, back office and digital content.

The rise of the BPO industry reflects the phenomenal growth of the service sector. Unlike other Asian countries, the Philippine industrial and manufacturing sectors have been declining while the service sector increased significantly since the 1980s. In fact, half of the country's employed labor force that used to be in agriculture is now part of the service sector.

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Small call centers start closing shops

Already about 10 to 20 percent of the total number of small companies in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry have closed shops since the start of this year.

This was a result of the peso appreciation that has significantly reduced their revenues.

Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo

Updates on the Kadayawan Festival 2007

This grim situation currently experienced by the BPO industry, considered to be one of the country's bright prospects, was conveyed by Oscar R. Sañez, chief executive officer of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, in an interview with Philexport News and Features.

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Indian telemarketing professionals

When we concern about Indian Call Centers and Employee working there, one intimation directly towards the charmed skin guys. Yes, They all are coming from the North East Indian States. Ever you attend any glance on this calculation? I am saying it is true at least for Indian national capital city New Delhi. Similarly this sour is also going towards other cities also letting them out for other countries too. So the Call Centers are like a boon for all these guys.

There are stark differences among the eight northeastern States with respect to their resource endowments, levels of industrialization, as well as infrastructural facilities. The economy of all these States remains underdeveloped and primarily agrarian with very weak industrial sectors and inflated service sectors. The industrial sector has mainly developed around tea, oil, timber in Assam and mining saw mills and plywood factories in other parts of the region.

These states are far away from our Metropolitan Cities and if we want much luxury should find there sorry. Rather students during schooling get much similar English there what is popular in USA and Europe also their accent is being similar. They also believe in self-dependent tradition.

Now, suppose a boy has finished his schooling belongs to North East States. If he thinks to get some higher education may be college or other than college what he can do? See, he is trying to shift in any metropolitan city. He migrates from his native place. Comes to Delhi. Reaching there, gets he can solve one of his problem here that is higher education. Unlike their states gets some conditional puzzles like language, atmosphere, Infrastructure. Being in touch with other migrated peoples he mould himself for the new challenge. He found here much difference in earnings also. Left the rest part, being an independent he tries to get job here to run his life with appropriate education. Finally decide to be set in Call Center Industry.

So we can say these students are trump card for Call Center industries. They are taking part in the growth of City indirectly targets our country development. We know here in India better chances for a good BPO. One who wants to rum a call center here founds cheap manpower, well educated youngsters, best infrastructure and one most prominent thing honesty. All are helpful for growing customer care outsourcing services. That is the reason most of US & European Call Center looking India for their new branch.

About the Author
Mridhu is the author of Indian Telemarketing Professionals.She was inducted into this profession just three years back.

Article Source : http://www.goarticles.com/

Philippine call centers and outsourcing

Believe or not, animation outsourcing is one of the subsectors that the Philippines is trying to penetrate and eventually take a big slice from. In fact, animation is one of five subsectors in the outsourcing industry that the Philippine government is heavily promoting overseas because the country’s leaders believe that the Filipinos have the talent and artistic skills to excel in this market. The other four subsectors the government is pushing for are the call centers, medical transcription, software development and business process outsourcing.

The Philippine animation industry is expected to make an impact on the animation outsourcing industry because local animation studios have been doing subcontracted animation work for almost two decades now for American animation companies like Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers, and more recently, Cartoon Network. It is also now a known fact that several Filipino animators were involved in Pixar’s huge hit 3D movie Finding Nemo. Although India and Korea are years ahead of the Philippines in terms of 3D animation, the country is relatively strong in 2D animation. The reason the country is behind in 3D animation is not because of talent and skills as evidenced by a number of Filipinos working for Pixar, the company that pioneered full 3D animation movies, but because of the lack of local technology.

Local animators simply cannot keep up with latest 3D software like the Koreans or the Indians because of the prohibitive costs. This is one reason why the government is greatly promoting animation outsourcing in the country so that local animators would be exposed to the latest software and technologies, because in terms of skills, Filipino animators are just as good as anyone in the industry.

The call center boom in the Philippines has spilled to the provinces as well. With the premier cities headed by Makati being crowded by call center operations, many companies have started to set sights on nearby provinces to as far as Cebu and Mindanao. Cebu, considered as one the most progressive provinces in the Visayas region, has positioned itself as a main hub of information and communications technology services. Already, some 14 call centers have started operations in Cebu, including big companies such as Sykes, PeopleSupport, Convergys, eTelecare and Global Alliance. More companies are intent to follow suit. Other firms that are exploring opportunities in Cebu are Ambergris, Teletech, Daksh, Vision X, Teleperformance and Wipro Spectramind.

Cebu becomes the second choice for these call centers after Metro Manila because of the province’s strong local government support and its familiarity with large foreign investments. But the main advantage of Cebu over other provinces is its large pool of English speakers who meet world-class service and language standards demanded by call center operators. Many Cebuanos are better English speakers than they are in Pilipino.

According to the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, it is important to increase the number of call center operations outside of Metro Manila as the demand for the industry continues to pour in from the United States and Europe. With about only five out of every a hundred who apply in a call center actually get hired in Metro Manila, the growing demand of these foreign companies would be hard to meet unless it is channeled through the provinces. Thus, the government, through the Department of Trade and Industry, is pushing for the development of more IT hubs outside of Metro Manila. The DTI is also encouraging the enhancement of communication skills among students to improve the hiring rate in the call center companies.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_120355_15.html/

60% of small call centres to be shut

NEW DELHI/GURGAON: When Jitendra Sharma, a school passout, joined a swank Gurgaon-based BPO in the last week of May, he believed he was on the high road to a stable career in the industry. Barely a month later, Sharma and many of his colleagues who had joined the start-up company are jobless. Last Wednesday, around 40 of them were suddenly asked to 'stop' coming to work.

After a round of slogan-shouting outside the office of the BPO - Gnome Business Solutions at the Global Business Park on MG Road - the management issued the sacked staffers post-dated cheques by way of a final settlement. "We hadn't even got our first salary when we were suddenly told there was no work for us. Our dream has been shattered,'' Sharma, still in his late teens, said.

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How Your Agents "Sound" Affects the Success of Your Call Center

Does that sound harsh? Yes, it does but in today’s world of increasing telephone communications, it is the truth. With the predominance of Call Centers taking over varied functions that influence many areas of the population on a day-to-day basis, the need for Vocal Empowerment in the Call Center is critical to both corporate profitability and individual employee success. The “sound of your agents” has a direct result on the degree of satisfaction that customers rate your company. Often customers equate poor vocal skills with intelligence, interest in problem-solving, and complete understanding of the situation of the caller.

Unfortunately, not just call center agents, but many of us live a vocal lie. Our voices - what we say and how we say it - does make the difference of whether we get the job, the next promotion, or even making it through the interview.

In the Call Center industry, managers grapple with performance measurements when metrics on some agents exceed minimum standards due to the need for repeated information and customer frustration with comprehension. Agent recruiters are always “listening” for clarity and good vocal skills in the next training class that is being assembled. Corporations continue to search geographic locations where dialect is minimal and the potential pool of employees is plentiful. I have seen that with proper short-term training and long-term coaching, call center agents can achieve proper vocal excellence.

Most people think that how they speak as an adult is part of their personality and not a physical skill set that they can change. That is not true. Through vocal coaching, the agent’s vocal ease and ability to be clearly understood without physical strain can be achieved. We learn our sound, our speech, and our vocal image from our environment. Fortunately, we can change that as easily as we first learned to speak. Improper vocal skills learned and uncorrected as a child trying to communicate with those in our world can be reversed.

Call Center Managers and Supervisors must invest in the vocal skills of all agents – whether they have discernible problems or not. Enhanced self-confidence and greater ability to concisely deliver the corporate message is an investment that will pay dividends for the agent, manager, and corporation.

There is no shame in needing this extra skill set to be learned and practiced. Many of the “basics” of education have been overlooked in the last several decades of progressive education. The skills of reading and comprehension are often discussed, but the lack of proper vocal training in pre-school and throughout elementary grades has all but disappeared from the curriculum. There are many training courses, schools and programs that address the needs of remedial reading and comprehension, math, etc., but there are only a handful of experienced vocal coaches that are training outside of the performing arts industry.

Most Call Centers budget for the latest in technology, and many purveyors of software for scheduling, scripting, up-selling, and process training for agents, but without the ability to properly speak and to be successful in vocally deliver the message, the desired results may not be attainable without utilizing the skills of a professional vocal trainer.

The ability to be able to speak with the proper vocal skills for 6-8 hour shifts does not entirely rest on the agents’ vocal skills or lack thereof. Part of poor vocal performance is related to physical posture, work-space ergonomics, and facility environment. With a brief evaluation of the call center facility, and by utilizing some fairly easy recommendations, in conjunction with formalized Vocal Training, can vastly improve the performance of the agents, but also will translate into greater employee satisfaction.

The ability to stave off high employee turn-over is an additional benefit of proper vocal training. By addressing the physical comfort and vocal performance, employees are more likely to stay within their current job.

The essence of Vocal Empowerment is made up of 5 Elements of Effective Voice: Interest, Clarity, Authority, Language, and Listening. When these skills are mastered and become second nature in daily speech, confidence and success follow.

Interest - Interest is an intellectual skill requiring that you orchestrate the rhythms of your sound.

Clarity - Clarity is a physical skill requiring the use of an active, exercised mouth.

Authority - Authority is an emotional skill that expresses your credibility about what you are speaking. Requiring self-confidence and cleanly executed emotional and physical choices.

Language - Language is the process of being able to respond to others with words and phrases which demonstrate interest, are clearly understood, and are informative, knowledgeable and helpful in evoking a sense of authority.

Listening - Listening is an act of respect and openness to others.

I am more convinced than ever with the global community that we all participate in, the need for clear and concise communications is vital to our continued ability to work together in an atmosphere of respect and trust.

When considering introducing Vocal Empowerment training, insist that training class uses interactive, job-centered exercises and techniques that meet every call center agent’s special performance needs in order to produce individuals who speak and move clearly with interest and authority. Demand that the vocal coaches and trainers have completed professional voice training and are able to illustrate before and after samples of their work and results. Request professional references. You are asking your agents to undertake a physical, emotional and challenging course. The trainers must be able to have a complete understanding of physical and vocal interdependence and be empathetic to the agents while still being able to effect a tremendous personal change to varying degrees for your staff members.

The success of your call center, the job satisfaction of your agent staff, and your company’s customer image are dependent on the ability to attain vocal empowerment for your employees.

Katherine M. Hart is President and Founder of Hartfelt Communications, a professional training and communications imaging company. Over the past 25 years, Ms. Hart has trained over 25,000 Call Center Agents, Corporate Executives, Politicians, Actors, Community Leaders.please visit http://www.hartfeltcommunications.com/ Sign up for a monthly ezine-newletter "From the Hart" with vocal tips and communications essentials.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Call Center: A Deeper Glimpse to It

In the business of outsourcing, call center is the one mostly credited. Primarily, it is because it makes up the largest part of outsourcing services.

But what actually is a call center? A call center is an office where a company's inbound calls are received, or outbound calls are made. They are progressively more popular in the society today, where many corporations have unified customer service and support functions. Call centers provide work for many staff in customer service, sales and support functions.

Commonly, call centers are large offices staffed with representatives. These representatives are those who either make or receive phone calls. A single office could be operated anywhere with a few dozen to hundreds of telephone staff depending on the size of the call center. Depending on what the company needs, call centers can make either incoming or outgoing calls. Some call centers gives focus on answering inbound calls. While other call centers focus on outbound calls.

A number of advantages to companies can be provided by call centers. By means of unifying telephone-based service and support in one location, companies can easily adjust staffing to fit call volume. Call centers can be situated almost anywhere, allowing companies to take advantage of time zones and more low-cost labor rates in different states and countries. Also, call centers consolidate the technology needs of companies, allocating major telecommunications setups to be installed in a small handful of call centers instead of a number of smaller offices, thus making upgrades and training easier to achieve.

Numerous call centers make use of a number of various technologies to alleviate performance and customer service. There are types of calls which are usually subdivided into inbound and outbound calls. Automatic call distribution is often used by inbound call centers. In this kind of technology, incoming calls are appointed to representatives on the order they are received. Other call centers use call monitoring, wherein customer calls are randomly monitored by quality assurance staff to ensure that phone representatives meet customer needs. Call center technology evolves constantly, helping call center staff assist customers more competently and successfully.

As outsourcing grows, call centers become more recognized and appreciated. As a result, many companies will be benefited for they will be able to lower their costs and be able to focus on their competencies.

Source : http://www.global-sky.com

Indian call centres could face Kenyan challenge

With the submarine optical fibre cable being laid on the Eastern Africa coast, Kenya could pose a challenge to India, which has in the past decade dominated the outsourcing industry, with revenues totalling $6.3 billion (Rs27,953.1 crore) in 2005-2006.

Eastern Africa currently relies on satellites for its international data telecommunications, which is more expensive than using a submarine optical fibre cable.

Bitenge Ndemo, Nigeria's information and communications permanent secretary, yesterday said that two major airlines are planning to shift their call centre operations from India to Kenya in anticipation of new submarine cable becoming operational.

Without naming them, Ndemo said the government would subsidise the telecommunications costs of the two airlines to enable them to function cost effectively. He added that the World Bank would finance the cost of the subsidy.

He said the airlines were willing to invest in Kenya because of the quality of the country's human resources, he said.

Kenya hopes to become a centre for business processing outsourcing operations and to attract business it needs to increase its bandwidth to 500 megabits by the end of the current year and subsidize the costs until the submarine optical fibre cable is laid out sometime in 2008.

Source : http://www.callcentersindia.com