Call Centers India

A recent study shows that India will continue to be the favored target for IT offshoring in spite of rising wages and surging rupee. When it comes to outsourcing, India continues to rule. According to industry experts, emerging destinations like the Philippines, Brazil, Russia and other countries in East Europe do not, at present, pose a threat to India. It will take at least five year for these emerging countries to pip India is position.

Reports suggest that on average, an IT worker’s salary in India is growing at about 12% annually. The rupee, too, has risen by around 12% against the dollar this year. Despite this, an Indian software engineer gets only one-fifth of what his counterpart in the US or Western Europe earns. -The Economic Times

India has a very important advantage, their command of the English language. There are lots more Indians with good English skills than Chinese. Forrester also endorses the view that scalability of resources (talent pool) is the major factor that makes India an attractive offshore location. The cost of operations in India can be 20-30% higher than places like Vietnam or lower than places like Brazil. But part of the challenge for these countries is the lack of skills. There is a very limited set of low-end work that companies like GE are looking at and lack of quality resources makes it hard for these countries to get started. The work going offshore today is geometrically more complex than the Y2K work that India got started on with, says Mr McCarthy.

Companies are setting up offshore centers outside India to mitigate geopolitical risk. Besides, clients are also asking companies to have centers close to their locations. At present outsourcing business in India is increasing at a rate four times more than any other country and the county has the resource and margin to meet. Turn Around Time (TAT) is the time needed for performing a task, especially receiving, completing, and returning an assignment.

According to the study, growing at a rate of 40 per cent annually, India is the lead player in this sector followed by China at the second spot with a growth rate of 25 per cent.
The overall outlook of this industry seems positive with experts predicting that the global market for shared services would grow to 1.43 trillion dollar by the end of 2009 from 1,000 billion dollar at present.

According to the study, although India and China are the market leaders in this sector, there are huge opportunities present in the market to give ample space to other countries like Philippines, Vietnam, Romania, Kenya, Sri Lanka and North America market to grow.

The study also said although it is unlikely that India would be able to retain its number one slot with China aggressively trying to outstrip it in the business, it would still be able to get a decent share of the pie. Also, processes like human resource, insurance, life sciences, finance, legal services, technical support, risk management, supply chain and media would come up in a big way in terms of business and employment opportunities, the study added.

Now days it is very challenging job for call centers to full fill all aspects of customers and their requirement. The expectation of the customers is much more and all want the complete satisfaction for their query/problem. Call centers who fails to give this kind of response will pay a brutal price: dissatisfied customers, negative word of mouth and defections to competitors. But those who stay ahead of the curve will enjoy strong customer loyalty and the commensurate benefits. The stakes are high.

The list of fundamental customer expectations provided in the below key points.
To perform the full satisfaction and to make a good interaction with the customers you must know about given points.

The Customers Expectations are as follows:

1. Be Available: Customers are using the communications centers to get the information for their desire query. Online information and the website are giving the best support to the customers to get the full information. This is very important that some one must be available on their call time. So be available on there call. When you get the call from the customers after confirming their verification it is important to give them quick reply. Suppose if customer calls up for the query and no one is available to take their calls then it may give the negative impact of the call center service to the customers. So be careful of this point.

2. Treat Customers Politely: Callers always expect that the agent of the call center will show the politeness while communication to them for any query. Customers are always feels good to talk with agent who has good communication skills and a smile in their voice. Donot confuse the customers with asking lots of question. Remember customer has called you for their query and they expect the respect for them.

3. Be Approachable for Problem: Customers always expect that their query must be solved with the responsively way. They want to have the positive response from the customer services. Their priority for the problem is to give the priority to my asking. Customers expect that the agent must give the priority and solved the problem as soon as possible. If you do some promise to customers then full fill it as a responsible agent.

4. Customers donot expect poorly trained & ill-informed employees:
Customers never expect to deal with poorly trained and ill-informed employees. Due to this mostly call centers are now hiring the well educated agents to give the support to their better educated consumers. It is becoming much more of a challenge to organizations. New developments are creating the need for a new breed of call center professional.

5. Meet your Commitments/Deadlines: Customer expected that the promise must be fulfill. Customers only want to here what they want.
All the information which is related to customers like Real-time, online information on shipping, account status, and clear explanations of the impact of any changes in terms or conditions are more than information.

6. Follow Up/Call Back: Customers expected the best follow up for their problem. If they are calling to customer care service company second time then the customer want to get the good response. It is very important to give them a proper follow up of their last query.

7. Give Importance to Customers: “Be socially responsible” and “be ethical” have always been important issues to most consumers. And in today’s environment, lapses — or even perceived lapses — in ethics or social responsibility quickly make the rounds in networked, digital communities.
Overall, the customers expectation to get the best services from a call center that handles questions about products. Today is increasingly informed and connected customers expect no less.

Meeting is the word with which every one does hate in an organization. Time is precious for everyone so to save the time is the best option to do with today is technology, there is more than one way to conduct a meeting. For a long time the Telephone conferences have been taking the place of face-to-face meetings, but they leave a lot to be desired.
If you are able interact the peoples then it will give lot of satisfaction. E-mail chat is also supporting for some useful message communication but the purpose of conference meeting is not solved with it. In business the voice is most important thing.

Now the 500 fortune companies are using the Videoconferencing to communicate their business. The planning and preparation is always required discussing some useful points.

1. The Hardware
Video teleconferencing systems are complex because they transmit both video and audio streams in real time, and in most cases, these streams are compressed and decompressed for more efficient travel over the network. Good quality hardware equipment can make the difference between a productive conference and one in which you spend so much time adjusting the equipment and trying to get a good picture or sound that you miss the content of the conference.

To input the data each participant should have a video camera or webcam, microphone and projector with speakers for output of incoming data. The quality of the hardware must be good. You will get frustrated if there is some important video conferencing is taking place and your hardware gives error at the same time. It is very important to have
Webcams and the other necessary peripherals put videoconferencing of best quality.

2. The Software
The most important factor in choosing software is to ensure that it will do what you need. Some conferencing software limits the number of conference participants, for example. If you need to be able to give PowerPoint presentations, transmit whiteboard diagrams, share applications or the desktop, distribute files to participants, etc., be sure that the software you pick supports those options.

Dedicated systems will come with their own software, but if you are going the poor-manage route with webcam-equipped PCs, you can choose from a variety of software programs. If you are meeting with one person, you can use free software, such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, or Skype, among many others.

3: Do Advance Checking
To save the time of you and others it is good if you check equipment and test it before the video conferencing network. Let’s take a example, A pilot goes through a preflight checklist prior to every takeoff, you should test your equipment prior to every conference. This advance checking will save your time and give the best impression on your conferencing group members.

4: Check The Firewall
A common cause for failure of videoconferencing software is that the protocols it uses are being blocked by the firewall. If you don’t have sole control over your companyies firewalls, you could find yourself in this position at any time.

5: Bandwidth Speed
For Videoconferencing the good bandwidth is min 128 Kbps and it puts big bandwidth demands on your Internet connection. If the bandwidth is low then you may have trouble transmitting clear video and audio signals.

6: Use The Self-View Window
See you are self in monitor before starting videoconferencing with client. See yourself in a self-view window. Use this feature to check how you appear to others in the conference. If you know that how you are looking the other side then your confidence will also increase. You must have the professional appearance and between the meetings it will be good if you keep checking the self-view window.

7: Remove distractions ahead of time
The video conferencing is very costly and effective. Suppose you are busy with the conference and someone distract you when you are giving some useful information to the clients. Think what kind of impression they will get about you. So it’s very important to distraction before you start the video conferencing.

If you are at your desk at work, close your office door and lock it if possible or consider placing a sign on it to prevent co-workers from bursting in during the conference. Turn off the ringers on your mobile phones. And give instruction to your secretary that no one disturb you.

If you are video conferencing from home. It is important to inform your spouse and kids know that you are going to be in a business meeting and should not be disturbed for anything short of a real emergency. Lock pets out of the room; even the best-behaved animals seem to have a knack for barking/meowing or jumping up onto your lap at just the wrong time when you are on camera.

8: Dress Code
The dress which you are wearing in video conferencing must be professional and neat and clean. Yes it is the true that a telephone conference take place with voice but such thighs like dress code are not important in telephonic conference look. You can conduct telephonic conference even you are not looking good and your hairs a mess and you are wearing your grungiest sweats. That’s not so for a videoconference. Even if you are working from home, the best practice is to dress professionally, as you would if you were meeting with these people face to face. Choose the liter color clothing.

9: Avoid Multitask
You are doing the important task when you are in video conferencing so try to avoid the other works. It may happen that you are surfing net or using some other gadgets for communication while conference is on. But remember it will give the negative impact on other group members of video conferencing, so be careful. Sometime we think that when my turn will come then I will share the point meanwhile I can do some other things. So, again it is very important to take care of these things because it may happen that you miss some important point of the meeting.

10: Show etiquette
Your patience is important in the video conferencing meeting. The same rules apply as when attending a meeting: Don’t be late; don’t interrupt or speak when others are speaking; don’t get emotional. Introduce yourself the first time you speak State your positions or comments clearly and concisely  don’t ramble on or hog the floor, and don’t bring up issues that are not related to the agenda of the conference.

The customer is always comes first for any business. All organization takes customers satisfaction on top to provide them the best services. Earlier when companies were not focusing so much for their customers then the loss was too high. Companies are learning from their mistakes. Today, the difference and the distance between call centers  and the customers is declining with the help of the new technology medium of the customer’s choice - telephone, email or web chat for example - and effective problem resolution during the first call.

Now forget about those old days when the only way to discuss your phone bill was via the one number at the top of the BT invoice, today the customer has a number of contact options depending on the nature of the query and the required speed of response.

Customer relationship management helps call centers to deals with the customers and clients and make best use of developments such as IP telephony, routing and screen popping - company-wide contact centers are designed to consolidate these interactions. The old distinctions between inbound and outbound, telephone and the web, fax and email are all disappearing in the drive to connect the customer with the most appropriate contact as quickly and smoothly as possible.

The customers are always looking for quick reply so it is very important to give them the correct information on right time. Now the next question comes that Why is this important? Costs typically increase five-fold if the issue is not dealt with at the first call, staff become demotivated and disenchanted customers vote with their feet. All of these can now readily be addressed and the ‘holy grail’ of win-win achieved.

Similarly, managers often complain about hearing of problems too late. Here the answer centers around published service level agreements which set realistic expectations and enable customers to find out about - and, ideally, track via the web - the progress of the issue in question.

This is especially important when several companies are involved, such as a retailer, manufacturer or service agent. If there are no SLAs in place or no structured way of managing escalations, no-one takes ownership of the problem and the customer may well be ‘bounced’ from department to department or company to company.

The result? He or she will almost certainly circumvent the established escalation procedure - the polite way of saying you will have an angry customer on the phone demanding to speak to the managing director. Which then rebounds on the help desk or call centrer manager?

So to make service an integral part of your organization, boost customer retention and improve employee productivity you need to carefully consider the channels your customers might use to make contact and how you will keep track of the interaction.

Customer satisfaction in contact centers is at an all-time low. Never before have customers been more frustrated with the service they receive. The game is changing from one of customer acquisition to one of customer retention. With these conditions in place, senior management must take the necessary steps to deliver a personal touch to each and every customer. We have seen companyies ranked number one fall in the rankings while smaller, more intimate companies jump to number one. We can attribute a large portion of these changes to that personal touch. It all goes back to the feeling of walking into your favorite restaurant where the owner recognizes you and knows what you want the moment you arrive.

Quality Monitoring: The collection and analysis of data for selected indicators which enable managers to determine whether key standards are being achieved as planned. Quality monitoring is all about process improvement, and in addition to the initial gains organizations achieve through deployment, there is an ongoing opportunity to secure continual incremental improvements. It is essential for organizations to stick with their quality monitoring programs, as once you are successfully base lined activities the gains keep on coming. 

As call quality scores rise, you will invariably see a commensurate improvement in key business measures, from sales conversion rates through to improved customer retention. In turn, agents seem to benefit from working in a more efficiently managed environment, resulting in reduced attrition and falls in sickness and unscheduled absence.

Quality monitoring can also yield important insights in to activities that take place outside of the contact centre. Speech analytics techniques can be used to support sales by uncovering data relating to current campaigns or by identifying customer churn triggers, while the early capture of escalated calls to supervisors can alert the business to possible customer service issues.

Another key opportunity comes through the use of quality monitoring to highlight just why calls are coming in to the contact centre. If, for example a large number of calls relate to accounts issues, then effective root cause analysis can spot a repeat pattern and alert contact centre management who can then escalate the issue to the billing department.

Call Center supervisors are also able to listen to and/or record phone conversations with the standard digital voice recording agent monitoring utilities at the same time they are viewing the agents desktop activities. Supervisors can silently view as many agent desktops as is possible to be effective.

Quality monitoring steps and its implementation can leads to a wider workforce optimization infrastructure, has the potential to be the most powerful tool that a contact centre can ever buy.

With incessant talking, listening and looking at the computer screen coupled with irregular job timings and night shifts, about four per cent of the people engaged in the BPO industry have been observed to be suffering from voice loss, according to a study conducted in Britain.

Long hours of work, permanent night shifts, incredibly high work targets, loss of identity are these dark clouds that threaten to mar the sunshine call center industry. The odd timings and nature of work roots people to a chair 9 hrs a day, reading pre-scripted conversations on the phone endlessly  often to irate customers from across the globe. Where every single second of employees time is recorded, measured and automatically logged onto a computer for praise or censure on a daily & weekly basis. Where walking down to the water cooler for a drink and a chat with a friend message up performance metrics, salaries and hikes. Where the three act of listening, watching, and talking  call at the same time “never get a break. This performance monitoring also puts enormous stress on the employees. Talking to the customer without taking any breaks is creating a problem for the call centers employees. It happens sometimes that taking the 2 calls continuously without any break. And the normal call timing of one call is 30 minute. So it is hard for the employee to talk continuously and some of them will get the throat problem.Is there any way to protect the throat infections of the call centers employee? Yes, by taking some precautions you let your self to be away from this danger. Here we are giving some point for the call centers employees to keep protected them self from throat infection while on the floor.

Before Reply The Caller Listen Carefully: The customers are very important for the company. The first call is attended by the agents. Sometimes calling customers will not give time to agent to speak. As an agent you have to listen patiently to customers asking and reply them according to the query. By doing this small thing you can first save your energy of speaking the thing again and again for the explanation.

Donot Shout - Be Polite: When you are on call then it is a time to keep your voice soft and melodious. It is very true that customers sometime get angry due to bad services but remember if you also start shouting on customers then you may loose your good voice and get problem in throat.

Take Breaks: Try to avoid taking calls continuously. Take small breaks while calling. If you do so then in this way you are giving rest to your throat and making your self ready for the next call with new energy. As we know the call duration is of 20 or 30 minutes sometimes, so taking one small break after the end of call is not a bad idea.

Drink Water: To save your throat to get dry we have to drink the water at randomly. In this way we will not meet with the problem of dry throat and the voice will not get hard. If you will be drinking the water randomly in small amount then you will feel the effect also.

Have Good and Hygienic Food: The main concern is food quality. As the call centers employees are working in night so the food quality must be hygienic and fresh. Do not go for the too much spicy or salty food. Have some good quality food which must be tasty and nutritious to boost your energy level. Don’t have hot and cold together if you are not able to control then take 15 minute of break. Remember your voice is good because your throat is in best condition. If you had cold and hot thing together then it may happen that your throat will damage and you will loose the opportunity to call to the customers. So be careful.

The call centers are really very exciting and give lot of comfort to employee. The employee of the call centers really enjoys the environment of the work. The night shift jobs will give the lot of freedom to the employees so they love to work in this shift. But here is important factor comes for the health that is night shift is not good for the heart. Sometime we are busy with the schedule work and could not give much time to do the health based excursuses it may be you have heard about the bad effective on the heart while working in night at call centers.

Let me say differently: are night shift call center people at risk to heart attack or heart related problem more than day workers?

According to the study from the different sources, here we are providing some informative message for this topic.

People who work nights are more prone to a dangerous heart condition - possibly because of the chronic stress caused by their work patterns. A research suggests that “employees who worked in day shifts are more safe then the night shift employees. The chances of heart attack are very high for the night shift employees few more reasons are lack of sleep, continue stressing etc, chronic stress is cited as the main reason. The researchers say an irregular heartbeat can be an indicator a person will go on to develop more serious heart problems.Here, the question arises in our mind i.e. Why health problems occur for call center agents working in night shifts? Mostly it happens because human bodys natural circadian rhythms tell that the concerned person should not be working when he or she should take sleep. Many of our physical and chemical roles keep fluctuating during different times of the day. Take for example; let me tell you something about cortisol concentration which changes daily.Cortisol is the most potent glucocorticoid produced by the human adrenal.This peaks during the morning hours when glucose is needed for activity and reaches its low point late in the evening. So the chances of heart attacks are very high in the morning time. It is important to take a proper rest while working in the night shift at call centers and we can avoid the heart attacks.

The future of the marketing is now slowly depending on the internet. The internet is becoming the main source for promoting the product information online and through e-mail. Various types of online marketing include: affiliate programs, search engine optimization, banner advertising, directory enhancement, posts to moderated discussion lists, newsgroups, and forums, email advertising, online press releases. Despite what those firms who promise to increase search engine traffic to your website may tell you, there is no magic formula for online marketing success. Successful web-based marketing happens only with careful planning, timely execution, persistent monitoring, and ongoing improvement of the results you achieve.

The profit and growth of the business is depends on the way of marketing. The interactive way to focus the customers for your product is an online marketing. Now it depends on your strategy of marketing. So it is very essential to work closely with each client to match their online marketing strategy with their business strategy. Your focus should be to increase the number of quality leads and paying customers to your web site.These are few points to provide you the best information for the online marketing. You will be happy to read these below points. Below are the points about the efforts of the online marketing strategy.

Online Market Analysis:When you opt for the online marketing then the first process is starts to understand the resources and your business requirements. Expert web-marketing professionals do the auditing of your business environment. This includes a feasibility study to help us better understand your goals and identify key performance areas. In this study the expert web masters will take a full view of your resources and the target customers. The final report of the analysis is always making according to the growth and to achieve the target of the company. A good analysis is always done by a well experienced person of the online marketing team. Your budget is declared after this analysis, keeping your maximum profit first.  Marketing CampaignAfter doing an analysis for the business the next step comes i.e. Marketing Campaign. To reach the target customer the campaign is important part of the online marketing. The strategy of the campaign will only decide the victory at the end. All campaigns are custom-fit to your business requirements and are constantly monitored and adjusted to optimize revenue. The results are always reached to the target once the campaign starts for your online marketing.

The Key Factors and Competitors

The key factor is to keep the eyes on the marketing advertisement. The expert online webmasters will give the consulting based on their own experienced for the successful online marketing. Competitors are always be there to surpass you, so it is important to keep the eyes on them also.