Author: iccs-bpo

The present economy is growing by leaps and bounds with the lifestyle becoming very extravagant and people working hard to have a comfortable living. The transition is more towards the private sector than the public sector and the in trend is that of call centres. More and more multinationals are getting their base as India as call centres in India provide an exclusive blend of traits that have instituted it as the favoured stop for all companies accounting to the technological and communication development.

The globalization of business started from Delhi and slowly and steadily call centres started picking up pace and people from all walks of life got a place in it. As Delhi was known for its ethos, customs and its lively history, call centres in Delhi had an upper hand due to a mix of tradition and modernity and the call centres became the façade of the modernistic culture.

The Customer Interaction Centre even referred to as a Call centre, is a place which focuses in receiving and broadcasting a large amount of data, helps the customer with answering queries and is voice-based.

The late 90’s witnessed the likelihood by other multi-national companies to outsource their call centres and BPO services overseas in order to cut the operational costs and also even upsurge efficiency. India was the very first one to have faced this new age experiment. It has been also seen that the call centre services in India could be set up due to the undermentioned factors:
1 Constructive government policies
2 Exceptional communication groups
3 Relatively low wages
4 Expert English conversant personnel
5 Cost reserves
6 Enhanced quality
7 Improved productivity
All the above- mentioned factors have steered the organizations to outsource the call centre services to India or to mount up the prevailing global operations. Additionally, they have helped in the volatile business growth of outsourcing in India.

The services that provide a support for the services which are offered by a call centre are known as the call centre support services and are required by a company for smoother functioning. Some of them are mentioned as under:
1 Technical services
2 Front and back office operations
3 Financing
4 Account
5 Help Desk
6 BPO
The call centre services are the ones that manage the help desk units and also tailor to all the technical or any other queries raised otherwise by a customer and also embarks on sales and marketing activities. The services help an organization to stay connected with a customer by inbound or outbound calls and makes the customer happy and induct new customers as well. Some of the services are:
1 Inbound Calling
2 Outbound Calling
3 Customer Service Operations
4 Responding to Service
5 Inbound Sales and Marketing
6 Chat and Email maintenance
7 Technical Support services
8 Procurement of Order
It does not matter if the call centre is big or small, is staffed with less or fewer agents, all are in need of facilitating remote operations, assimilate business operations, regulate costs and confirm business stability. They are in need of call centre solutions that restructure business undertakings and enhance the processes, amend the communications, and are self-administered with least interference.

Some of the call centre solutions are as under:
1 Audio Visual Solutions- These include the meeting room, board room, audio interface etc.
2 Mobile Solutions- This comprises of handsets, mobile hardware support, mobile service provider, mobile application support etc.
3 Security Solutions- It consists of content and email encoding and web Solution etc.
4 Cloud and Data Solutions- This includes the online support and wireless access points.
5 Support Solutions- These cater to hardware, network and server support.
6 Network Solutions- These include the desktop security, network monitoring, Wide Area Network as well as Local Area Network etc.
7 Voice Solutions- These include the billing evaluation, call centre services and call recording and monitoring.
The sales and productivity of a call centre entirely depend on the satisfaction of the customer. There are two types of voice- based interfaces which are available to the customer. These are the inbound and outbound calls. These are explained in brief as below:
1 Inbound call Centre- The inbound calling is a process wherein the agents receive calls from a customer for some information, support and assistance for using the products or services of the company.
2 Outbound call centre –This is contrary to the inbound calling and entails the agents calling the clients to generate sales and also attract new customers.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the commissioning of secondary business undertakings and roles to a third- party and comprises of human resource, payroll, call centres and ITES (information technology enabled services).This is also referred as the back office outsourcing.
Apart from the outsourced call centres are the domestic call centres which are located in one’s country and takes care of business like the customer care, finance, payroll etc. depending on the requirement of the company and ideal for the organizations who want to keep it within the country and not overseas.

All these call centres are integral but the call centre rates differ for setting the call centres depending on the factors below:
1 Contract terms
2 Volume of Calls
3 Skillset needed by agents
4 Complication of projects
Inbound call centre rates differ depending on the factors below as they are at the receiving end and not targeting at sales.
1 Shared price
2 Committed price
3 Monthly price
Outbound call centre, however, has a pricing set up based on the below factors as it is focussed on lead and sales generation.
1 Hourly basis
2 Commission basis
3 Hourly as well as commission basis
Thus, we can say that call centre is emerging and developing at a remarkable speed and becoming a significant and vital constituent of the prevailing organizations. It serves on the motto “A happy customer leads to a profitable and successful organization”. Hence, they target at the satisfaction of the customers which in turn benefits the company, giving better returns and in developing the economy as a whole.

“Quality gauges the happiness and satisfaction of a customer”. People are ready to spend much but look for the best of quality in the products and services. They need an assurance that they are getting the worth of the money spent. Something which has endurance. Call centres are a pivotal lead and they revolve around the customer satisfaction and keep targeting at maximizing sales and also keeping the customer base intact.

The present scenario has seen a steadfast transition to the call centres. It was in the latter half of 20th century that the transnational companies took a decision to move overseas as they wanted to cut down on the operational costs and upsurge efficiency. India was one of the first countries to have faced that challenge and today the call centers In India have a quantum of quality. In the present times, the Indian capitalists are stimulating the growth of the call centre world and have made India identical to the overseas call centre services and the country even mandates a large share in the overseas trade and industry.

In terms of the expertise used, the call centers in Delhi have surpassed the other companies in the race as they have efficaciously commenced the first and unique CISCO centred IP grid. When the issue is of call centre quality, the main focus is to enhance and preserve quality assured customer service… By following a plan like this the industry can harvest maximum benefits for the customer understanding and reliability.

The Call centre is a forum which enables in transmitting a large amount of data and helps in handling voice-based queries.

The experts of quality assurance present a trained and adept team that sometimes is not manageable within the call centre limits itself, hence a third party is always encompassed to get an unprejudiced view which also guarantees that the reports and proposals are rational and even-handed. In order to enhance the quality of the call center services in India and to preserve it in the long run, few undermentioned quality assurance features are followed:
* Monitoring of calls
* Agents are in accordance with the compliance benchmarks
* Having quantifiable yardsticks
* Analyse the data
* Barging into the calls
* Reviews of the customer
* Live coach for assistance
* Impart training sessions as per the needs
* Offer better incentives to drive maximum productivity
All the above-mentioned features help in constant monitoring of calls and derive maximum satisfaction for the customers which is more than just listening to calls but also detecting any issues, for which training can be given.

Quality assurance standards are the keystone of a call centre management as enhancing quality procedures helps in boosting the quality of the service that the team of agents provide to the customers, foster the efficiency and minimise extravagant spending. The services which serve as a backbone for those services which are offered by a call centre are the call centre support services and they need to have the consistency of quality for smoother functioning. Given below are the few quality procedures which are followed by the call centre support services:
* High- end technical assistance
* Debugging services
* Advisory services offered
* Corporate Helpdesk assistance
* Service Delivery
* Troubleshooting Options
* Support to Business Applications
* Internet service Assistance
* Software and Hardware Assistance
* Benchmarking
* IVR Provision

The call centre services play a crucial role in ascertaining the business competency, enhanced transformations and advanced customer satisfaction level. It is imperative for the call centres to perform exceptionally well in order to impart great customer service. In order to get the maximum output and increase in quality standards, few undermentioned points can be kept under consideration:
* Revamping of the hiring and training team
* Motivation of agents
* Mandatory Call monitoring
* Awareness of Key Performance Indicators
* Importance of external yardsticks
* Diminish Agent Attrition rate
* Enhancement of Primary Interaction
* Offering solutions to resolve issues
The part of the company which is into lead generation is what is referred as the outbound sales call center. It is a process in which a seller, symbolized by a sales agent tries to make a customer rendezvous from their end. It starts with making cold calls to the prospective buyers. A quality oriented outbound sales approach helps in establishing steadfast revenue generation and growth process… Certain points are the indicators for a good quality of call and they are:
* It depends on how a call list is generated.
* The time is preferred by the customer to be called
* Short and sweet communication and to the point
* Mandatory follow up with the customer
The highest level of quality is expected from any sort of customer transaction, in an outbound call centre. The monitoring, auditing and analysis as well as testifying is mandatory to assure that there are compliance and operation standards being adhered together. The persistent enhancement in the activities that are the result of effectual management of quality is a prima facia in the present calling ethos. The quality is adhered by following means:
* Working on the soft skills
* Having a product knowledge
* Awareness of Compliance Standards
* Data Accuracy
* Six Sigma Certification
The time when a company wants to outsource the business needs, one has to be vigilant enough to decide on an outsourcing call centre which ensures quality and promises higher standards of service, stable enhancement and expert tactics that are appropriate for the company. The call centre quality policy is a set of procedures, means which help in assessing the efficiency of the customer interface and even enhance the service.

Thus, the call centre aims at the aptness of quality and also target at the reasons for the failure of meeting the pre-set standards and find solutions to it. Quality assurance is a smooth and easy procedure that yields substantial results for a company and it is a binding feature for all the call centres who wish to enhance the service standards.

It was way back in the 20th century that many big organizations decided to select India as a sustainable overseas option, and the call centers in India initiated for the big challenge. In the following years to come, the growth of these call centres was relentlessly high and the whole world witnessed in surprise while India stood to be one of the prominent outsourcing targets especially due to the call centre and the software companies.

The present era of administering and to surpass the customer’s needs by offering services while curbing the operational costs is a gamble for the companies worldwide especially for the call centers in Delhi due to the rising living standards prevailing in the city. Delhi is the nucleus of the Indian Business Community and also centred on fostering works for the customer base with the help of the business expertise and regulation over IT services and maintenance of the customer’s business database. Call centres in Delhi offer training modules, training and development platforms like Voice and Accent Neutralisation, Soft Skills Training for the employee base of Delhi, Gurgaon and NCR.

The call centers services in India offer customer service as an ability of an organization to constantly and consistently give the customer what they want and need. The customer is always considered to be right in all the industries and it is important to handle them well else we lose them.

If equated with the other call centres of the world, the call centres in India surpass others due to the following features:

Updated with the latest technology, tools and structure
Implements six sigma methods to provide the best to the customer.
Proper training is imparted
Quality management processes are in place
Proper contact is maintained for communication purposes.
Affiliation with India for meeting the needs of the customer helped them in getting a proper balance between customer contentment, expenditure as well as productivity. India has always been the first choice for the outsourcing stop for the customer support services owing to its lesser costs. The country has the state-of-the-art contact base, increase accessibility for the structural set-up and constructive policies by the government for the call centres. Outsourcing to India is not only cost effective but guarantees getting best quality care, increased productivity and support as well.

Outsourcing in India leads to an upsurge of productivity and customer assistance as well and both of these aspects are imperative for getting efficacy and cent percent customer satisfaction. This even results in recurrent business, 24/7 customer assistance even though there is a time zone variation. Having an excellent command over the English language also has helped India being on the peak as a nominee for outsourcing. The Government of India renders utmost importance to outsourcing. There are laws that have been constituted to safeguard the foreign client’s interests.

Since the government supports the outsourcing industry by offering various tax associated benefits and also executing the Information Technology Act (that helps in recognizing e-contracts), the outsourcing companies in India always get the upper hand for meeting expectations of the customer on account of less labour costs, fluency in the English language, exception interaction skills, 12 hour time variation advantage, and last but not the least immaculate quality of service.

The customer service industry is evolving persistently and there is always a major demand for an improved demand for the channels of customer support and it is of utmost importance for the business to handle these issues in the complete lifespan. The organisations are in need of outsourcing partners who can provide the superior edge for the customer service solutions. The outsourcing solution help in accomplishing and boosting the customer experience with ready to use customer service solution that assists the client to alter the manner in which they affect the loyalty of the customer, retaining power and contentment.

The concept of outsourcing is a very widespread and popular concept in the world of business. The companies favour outsourcing of customer support, payroll, accounting etc. to reap the benefits of saving time and getting higher efficacy in productivity. This is generally used by the large-scale business but the small business outsourcing also has its own benefits and they are:

Less Capital Expenditure
Better Business Efficacy
Speedy implementation of new ideas
Fewer risks
Better focus on the core business
Reduced Labour Costs
Sales Generation

Customer service outsourcing helps in keeping the prevailing customers happy and contented while new customers keep pooling in. Management of resources with greater efficacy, rapid introduction of products and services as well as maintenance of catalogue accuracy are cardinal in order to match up the customers’ expectations. There are accrued benefits of outsourcing customer service and they are:

Less cost per transaction
Fewer calls abandoned
Greater customer contentment
In-time solutions offered for all issues round the clock
Increased quality of service
Expansion opportunities
If the business is having difficulty in retaining the present customer base and not getting new customers, the precious time and endeavour should be channelized by outsourcing the customer service which is an indispensable part of a business set-up.

Over few years, the call centres have experienced a profound makeover by providing not-only voice-based services but incorporating customer interaction and sales as well. This even led to unmatchable profits and higher productivity for the organisation. Few reasons why outsourcing call centre is beneficial are:

Prediction of Call Volumes
Tailored to work in multiple channels
Better customer loyalty and database
Enhanced customer retention
Less expenditure
Skilful cross- selling of products and services
Cohesive campaigns
Thus, it can be said that furnishing exceptional customer care is a significant factor which leads to the company’s success and any sort of customer interaction which is competent, timely and exceeding expectations certifies a happy customer, a steadfast and dedicated customer base and even attracts constructive recommendations leading to higher productivity overall.

Outsourcing of routine or peripheral business functions is in vogue. It implies contracting with the third party service provider, with respect to operations and responsibilities of business processes. At present, there is hardly any multinational company which is left untouched from outsourcing its business operations. Over the time, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has gained ample importance, by providing services related to marketing, human resources, customer support, technical support, etc.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO is a subset of BPO. KPO involves outsourcing of core functions which may or may not give cost benefit to the parent company but surely helps in value addition. The processes which are outsourced to KPOs are usually more specialized and knowledge based as compared to BPOs. Services included in KPO are related to R&D, Capital and insurance market services, legal services, biotechnology, animation and design, etc. are the usual activities that are outsourced to KPOs. LPO or Legal Process Outsourcing is special type of KPO dealing with legal services.
A BPO is capable of handling both front end and back end operations of an entity. BPO provides an array of services such as:

Customer care, i.e. call center, help desk, etc.
Human resources, i.e. recruitment and selection, training and placement, payroll processing, etc.
Technical support
Services related to finance and accounting.
Website services, i.e. web hosting, etc.
Transcription
The spectrum of services provided by KPO includes:

1 Investment research services
2 Market research services
3 Data analytics
4 Business research services
5 Others: Legal Process Outsourcing, Financial Process Outsourcing, Media Process Outsourcing.

Conclusion
Almost all the transnational companies, today, outsource their non-core activities, just to pay attention to their primary business. Both forms of outsourcing work in a B2B environment where the service provider and buyer of services both are business organizations.

One thing must be kept in mind that KPO is nothing but an extended version of BPO. Over the time, it has been observed that with the expansion of KPO, the BPO is losing its existence. Now, the service provider companies provide both BPO and KPO services simultaneously to the organization.

Over past years call centers in India have made a mark for themselves in the international market because of the cheap and capable labor. Call centers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore are the most sought-after by the foreign companies who wish to avail call center support services.

Leaders in the call centers make operations easier by managing, motivating the agents to give their best output thereby making call center services in India unbeatable in achieving set standards and goals.

Call centers are of two types, Inbound and outbound call centers. Inbound call centers deal with calls made by the customer to the call center, for example, customer care whereas, call centers outbound are the ones where the agents make the call, for example, Outbound sales call center. Outbound call center outsourcing is most common as it reduces the operating costs of the company.

A manager in many ways can help the all centers in maintaining and improving performance has he undertakes many duties and responsibilities that aim at reducing wastage of time, money and efforts.

Role of a Manager in a Call Centers –

A Manager has to determine the call center’s operational strategies which can be done by –
Conducting needs assessment test,
Reviewing performance,
Doing cost-benefit analysis
Capacity planning
Identifying and evaluating state of the art technologies and employing them to enhance the output.
They define the user requirements, establishing technical specifications, productivity, production quality and customer service standards.
They contribute information and analysis which help in making organizational plans and reviews.
He/she develops systems for the call center by augmenting the customer interaction, voice response systems, and voice networks. They design user interfaces, execute plans for user acceptance test, implement planning and controlling functions
A manager constantly improves and maintains call center operations by constantly monitoring system performance.
He/she has to identify the problem, discrepancies or any deviations from set standards and take corrective measures towards them. He has to prepare, and complete action plans devised.
He/she must complete system audits and analyses, manages system and process improvements, installing upgrades in the systems, undertake quality assurance programs.
Performance cannot be managed if the human resource is not properly managed, a manager also undertakes human resource activities such as, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, assigning, coaching and counseling while at the same time disciplining employees, he is required to communicate job expectations, reviewing job contribution, appraisals and reviewing compensation actions. It is very important for leaders to enforce policies and procedures.
There are financial objective set, a manager must meet those objectives by planning and estimating requirements, preparing the actual budget, scheduling and keeping a record of expenditures, matching the actual results with set standards, and if any deviations are found the manager can take corrective actions.
The leader, by evaluating and installing equipment helps in maintaining them, develops preventive maintenance programs, scheduling repairs, implementing and evaluating upgrades.
A manager acquires professional and technical knowledge by keeping an eye out for new and emerging trends in the field, as it helps give the organization first mover advantage, attends workshops which enhance skills, establishes the personal network, employing state of art practices.
A manager helps the organization to achieve organizational goals, by directing the efforts of all elements of the organization towards those goals, a manager assumes ownership for new and different requests, he explores opportunities which can add value to the jobs.
Qualities and Skills of a Good Leader
Customer Focus – The main focus of a leader in a call center is always the customer, the customer’s satisfaction is his/her topmost priority.
Customer Service – Call centers aim at providing customer service, assisting the customers, solving their queries and doubts.
Verbal Communication – A good leader must have communication skills, and call centers generally work on voice systems(calling), it becomes imperative for the manager to be a good verbal communicator. Along with this, he must communicate with his subordinates to effectively and efficiently achieve goals.
Informing Others – In a team, communication is the key, a good leader keeps everyone in the loop, by informing his teammates, subordinates of changes, targets, their roles and duties and what he desires from them.
Process Improvement – Improvement helps the call center to be on the top by implementing improved processes and technologies. First mover advantage always helps one to have an advantage over others.
Problem Solving-It is common for the problem to arise in day to day working, a good leader has to be quick on his feet and solve the problem as soon as possible.
People Skills – A good leader has a high emotional quotient, he is able to easily comprehend what a person requires to motivate them, he understands his team members, creates a bond with them which help improve their performance
Teamwork – A good leader is always a team player, he values the suggestions of others, take them into account when making a decision, gives credit to his team members as and when required, discusses his idea with his team.
People Management – A leader must know how to manage people, how to get best results from them, in what ways can they attain their full potential and how can the company benefit from their contribution.
Managing Processes – Along with managing people, he is also required to manage the processes that are undertaken by the call center, he is required to supervise the processes, and prepare requires reports, he must also check whether the actual output matches the set standards and take corrective measures in case of deviations.
Emphasizing Excellence – In all the processes and projects undertaken by a good leader aims to exceed the set standards and deliver only the best.

Call Centers is a place where large volume of request calls is received or transmitted. Call centers in India are numerous as with opening of India’s economy to the world, India’s service particularly boomed. Outsourcing to India was cheaper as compared to other countries. The low labor cost is what gives India the edge over other countries. India only spends 30%-40% of the total cost on man power, this includes employee training, incentives and other benefits.

Call center has an open workspace environment for call center agents, each agent has a computer for himself, a telephone headset connected to a telecom switch and to one or more supervisor stations. They are majorly divided into two categories –

1) Inbound Call Centers

These types of call centers only concern themselves with a majority of inbound calls. Inbound calls refer to those call which the customers place to the call center. Because of this nature of inbound call centers, most of them are customer service focused. Customer service outsourcing industry in India has a net worth of $150 billion.

2) Outbound Call Centers

These types of call centers do opposite of what Inbound Call Centers. Here, the call centers place a call to the customers, rather than the other way around, so the agents are for the most part of their day are making outgoing calls.

This makes outbound call centers sales focused, when the agents are making calls they have a list of potential or existing customers and try and sell them the product that is already in the market or is new.

The call center can either be inbound or outbound or a combination of both.’

Outsourcing in India –

Bangalore remains the most attractive location for outsourcing solution, along with Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.

Call center services in India has been one of the major service sectors which has absorbed most of the college graduates since the very beginning, providing them jobs and increasing their quality of living, many college going students work part time, to support themselves.

Reasons for outsourcing call center operations to India –

Allows you to lower the operating costs –

Any reduction in overheads let’s a company shift more revenue to operational growth, simultaneously freeing up your time, especially if the company is tart-up or a small business enterprise. Small business outsourcing can provide continuity, control on expenses and risk management. Setting up an in-house call center is a huge investment in infrastructure, equipment, staff, overheads etc. According to experts, outsourcing business process can reduce your expense by 50%.

● Round the Clock support

If your business operations and customers are outside of your time zone, it is much more viable to outsource you call center operations. Doing so will allow your customers which are not in the similar time zone as you to have their queries resolved. With 12-hr time difference, India is an ideal call center location to provide European and North American businesses with after hour support. It will not be realistic for many businesses to provide in-house call center service.

●Workforce is highly educated

Indian Universities are not known for their highly educated graduates, that come into the workforce every year. Out of the total graduates, Close to 2 million are English speaking students, and approximately 75,000 IT graduates every year. This gives a great advantage for call center operations which require high quality workforce who are fluent in English language. This presence of large workforce is sometimes the USP of many IT outsourcing companies, due to this they can provide scalable services as and when needed by their customers.

● A Destination that is experienced in outsourcing

Even after many years of operation, India continues to be the preferred primary destination for offshoring multi-location sourcing strategy. India has provided high quality services for over 20 years. As a call center outsourcing destination, only India can very well boast about such experience in this sector. Not only the country provides quality call center services but other services like, engineering and product development and more complex analytical services in the form of research, are also provided.

● The country is in the middle of ‘Digital India’ revolution

In India, favorable government policies have made sure that India is very well in the midst of a digital wave. The ‘Digital India’ initiative from the Government of India aims at connecting every nook and cranny of the country with quality IT infrastructure which will allow its citizen to be connected round the clock, with the rest of the world. In fact, this will help many Tier II and Tier III locations, so that they can provide services at lower rates than Tier I locations.

The Government along with ‘Digital India’ has launched many schemes to support outsourcing to India, some of those schemes are –

Indian BPO Promotion Scheme

The Indian BPO Promotion Scheme was launched in August 2015. It is Indian government’s ambitious project focused on BPO sector. It aims at providing direct jobs in BPO sector to approximately 144900 individuals. The cities which are deficit of digital technology are under main focus of the scheme. Allocation of Rs. 493 has been announced by the government for execution of this scheme. The expansion of IT industry in India is also a major driving force behind this initiative.

North East BPO Promotion Scheme – A Part of Digital India Initiative
This scheme has been launched to provide monetary support to companies aiming to start BPO business, which includes establishment of call centers, in north eastern region of India. It is envisioned with digital India initiative of Indian government.

Eight states which are part of this scheme include:
• Arunachal Pradesh
• Mizoram
• Assam
• Nagaland
• Sikkim
• Tripura
• Meghalaya
• Manipur
Rs. 50 Crore has been allocated by the government for successful implementation of this scheme. It is aimed to create numerous employment opportunities for youth residing in the north eastern portion of India.

● Indian cities are top outsourcing destinations –

According to Tholons’, ‘2015 top 100 outsourcing destinations report’, 6 Indian cities are in top 10 outsourcing destinations. While Bangalore topped the list, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune were all behind Manila in the second spot in their respective order. All these major cities have a well-planned and thought out IT infrastructure and they do not lag behind, in terms of quality services in comparison with their western counterparts.

However, the rising cost of living is also pushing up the price of running call centers in Delhi, Mumbai and several other locations making it difficult for many outsourcing companies in India to sustain themselves.

The demand for call centers in India is rising, one of the reasons being that the call center solutions present in India can provide labor at cheap rates which in turn makes call center rates, very competitive. Domestic Call centers in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and many other locations have been increasing.

Call center services in India are of two types-Inbound call center, outbound call center.

Inbound call center support services are basically where the customer calls to clarify their doubts or receive customer service. BPO call center is an example of call center inbound.

Outbound call center services are the ones where the agents place the call to customers to let them know of new product launched by the company, or to make them aware of any policy changes.

Whether the call center is inbound or outbound, there needs to be some basic ethics that are needed to be followed by the agents while interacting with the customers. While a call center might have its own ethics policy here are some basic pointers that one needs to keep in mind while talking to the customer.

Courteousness

It is the most important, you should treat the customer with humbleness, you can’t afford to be rude with them. Ask for their name, what they would prefer to be called. Try and pronounce their name correctly and be consistent in the use of their name.

Talk with a smile
A smile can be heard in the way one talks, when you smile you would sound more cheerful. Words and their inflection over a phone call are much more important as the customer can’t see your body language.

Wait for the person to finish speaking
Listen completely to the customer, let him finish before speaking. Never interrupt a customer who is complaining. It might be difficult to do so, but it will benefit you if you know about the whole problem before responding to the customer. No matter how long it takes, listening to the customer feel like he and his problem are being taken care of.

Professionalism
Be sure to maintain an air of professionalism throughout the entire conversation. Agents are a face of the company, which makes it important to adhere to quality standards that are set. Conversations with customers should be in line with values and goals of the company.

Be Respectful

Showing respect to your customer goes a long way in maintaining the image and showcasing the value system of the company. An agent should remain calm and composed throughout each interaction. Every customer should be treated as if they are the most valued customer. (Respect also involves understanding the caller’s needs and making an effort to accommodate them. Agents should attempt to understand the causes of the customer’s problem, realize how their problem affects their behavior and respond with compassion.)

Honesty is the best policy

It is not a good business tactic to lie, an agent should be honest with his customer. If you do not know an answer to their question, instead of lying, let the customer know that you would get back to them as soon as you know of the answer. If you cannot solve the problem, maybe because it is not in your jurisdiction of control you can let them know that you are transferring the call onto someone who can help them to solve the problem.

Always keep the customer in loop
An agent while talking to the customer should let him know of the steps he is going to take to solve their problem and let them know of a time frame that is little longer than necessary because when the problem is solved the customer would feel that you took extra measures to solve their problems well within time. However, if the time taken is going to exceed the time that you informed to the customer, then it is advisable to communicate this delay to the customer to let them know that you have not forgotten of their problems and are working towards solving them. When a problem is solved, all your customers tell their respective friends about it. Word-of-mouth publicity right there.

Be Trustworthy
Instilling trust in your customer is very important, it not only helps in smooth progress of the interaction but also builds a positive brand awareness about the company. This requires the agent to be truthful, honest, reliable, loyal and have integrity. Adhering to these traits and company’s values can successfully instill trust in your customer.

Be Confident and Competent
Exuding confidence is essential for a productive and healthy interaction. An agent must know how to handle himself and the customer in difficult situations. When one interacts with confidence, the image of the company and the interaction, both will be positive. Along with confidence an agent should be competent to address the customer’s needs. If and when the customer’s demands are too high they should know that they must refer the customer to someone who has more experience, and who can effectively handle their demands.

Learn how to handle angry and abusive people.
If your customer is angry, the first thing that you need to avoid telling them is to calm down. Effective way of handling an angry customer is to initially talk in a slightly louder voice, if the customer from very beginning is shouting. The words to be spoken by the agents should be sympathetic and reassuring such as, “How awful”, “You are absolutely right to be mad”. This will make the customer feel as if he is being understood and slowly the customer will calm down and begin talking in normal volume and once this happen, the agent can once again resume talking in his normal voice.

Know and Use the Hold Button.
The hold button is your friend. Avoid putting the phone to your chest to muffle the mouthpiece, so you can speak with your team members. It is not fool-proof, and the customer might end up hearing things that you might not want them hearing.

Get to know the Transfer Button.
If you are required to transfer the customer’s call to another member of your team, know how to do I and also let the customer know that you are making a transfer. If you feel this is going to take time, because you might need to explain the customer’s situation to the person who now will handle the call, tell the client an estimated time they might need to hold and if they are comfortable with waiting. Most people would say yes.

An experienced call center support services agent knows that sales at the end of the day do not come from a customers logical evaluation of a products features, benefits, and advantages. They know that most people make decisions based on emotions and then use logic to justify those decisions, especially in India. Call centers in India, especially outbound call centers where main work is to generate sales, know that what is important is not what the product is but instead what the product does and how the customers feel about it. Time and again, what makes top salespeople successful in an Outbound sales call center is their ability to link product benefits with the personal impact they make.

Essential Interactions

Many companies prefer outbound call center outsourcing because they know that call center service providers can systematically build affective bonds with their customers while reducing company’s operating cost. Good customer experience begins by knowing how the subconscious mind works. Especially, when it comes to subliminal needs for safety and security. When managers are attentive to the process and consistently orchestrate the following encounters, customers are more than satisfied; they become loyal, raving fans.

The Moment of Connection
“Zero Touch support” must be kept aside by call centers outbound, so that stronger connections with customers can be formed. By having a warm, personal interaction early in their customer relationships. When customers get a feeling that they can relate to the person behind the brand, then the company has a face in the customers’ mind and that face is generally the face of the agent they interact with. So, at the start of a friendly encounter with someone who feels familiar reduces the customer’s subconscious anxiety. Then when a smart mix of personal and electronic communication follows the relationship builds over time.

The Moments of Power.
Call center providers can help in reducing natural anxiety that a customer can experience by encouraging choice and autonomy. For example, customers can feel powerless learning how to use a new product. Agents can lower tension using an onboarding process that can help the customer to quickly learn and practice new skills so that he can very easily operate the new product. When the company gives the customers options to choose from, customers feel empowered. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, keeping customers informed in an easy way of soothing their psyche.

The Moments of Proof
Call Centers can increase certainty and remove doubts from the minds of the customer in many ways, by demonstrating products, by hosting quarterly business reviews, by displaying performance statistics. When the company makes promises and is able to keep them, expectations are met and customers become more confident in the company. When the company is able to prove that the business and personal outcomes they predicted came true, they erase any remaining doubts in the customer’s mind.

Moments of “Wow!”
Solving a problem meets minimum expectations but going the extra mile on occasion makes customers feel important, desired and valued. Simple acts of kindness can pay substantial dividends.

Moments of Truth.
In business as in life, things can happen. Sometimes things can go wrong, and a customer might end up in a mess. Other times it can be on a much bigger scale impacting various other customers maybe through a major outage or security breach. It is important that the company call enters aggressively use effective service recovery processes which can restore the confidence of the customer by quickly restoring service, customer’s trust can be regained. How the company responds reveals character and can quickly turn around a bad situation.

Prompt Service
The speed of service is many customers’ number one priority. Since many customers will have only a few minutes of time to interact with your company, it is up to you to make your customers’ experience amazing through speedy service. Call center should strive for 24/7 accessibility, if feasible. Offer customers various way and means through which they can send in their inquiries. Ensure the agents and representatives are knowledgeable and well-trained.

Knowledgeable Employees
At the heart of customer’s amazing first impression, there are knowledgeable, well-trained employees. In this age of outsourced call centers and automated customer service, it becomes more important that employees have access to data and tools that can help them to provide customer care of high standards. Make sure that you let the employees know of the great first impressions during their interviews, training and periodically thereafter and regularly evaluate your training program’s effectiveness and strive to constantly improve program design

Value Customers from Day 1
When the customer feels valued from the very beginning, the first impression created by the customer would be amazing. To make them feel valued you can reduce the time that they would have to wait to speak to a live representative. The agents should make sure that they properly greet the customers and thank them for considering the company. Before ending the communication make sure that you have fully satisfied the customer and that they have no inquiries left. Make sure to ask them for their feedback.

Professional Interactions
Having a professional attitude in interactions is crucial. One cannot underestimate the positive impact polite and respectful behavior can have in a customer’s opinion of the company. Always use proper salutation with customers, when interacting via call make sure that you are pronouncing their name right. Avoid using jargon or slang in conversations with them. Keep the interaction professional by not using profanities. Make sure that you check for spelling and grammar errors before sending out important correspondence to customers.

In the recent years, India has occupied the superior slot in Business Process Outsourcing. The unfathomable success rate is due to the fact that there is availability of resources required in this field. For nearly the past two decades, Business Process Outsourcing has been catering to a number of industries including Insurance, Retail, Banking and Finance, Mortgage, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Hospitality and so much more. From call centres in Delhi to Outbound sales call canter, there’s a lot that one can find here.

BPO has become popular due to:

Economy of scale
Factor cost advantage
Superior competency
Business risk mitigation
Utilization improvement
Indians are well educated and the number of people who have graduated in technology and commerce is humongous. This is another reason for the growth of call centre services in India. The demographics too favour India as the majority of the total population is under thirty. Now with outsourcing being a very popular trend in the country, the biggest question that pops up on everyone’s mind is: what exactly does the future hold for the outsourcing industry in let’s say the next ten or twenty years? With the changing dynamics of the global business, things are going to change for outsourcing as well.

Current Trends that can lead to Affecting the Outsourcing Industry

The outsourcing saw its unbelievable growth right after the global recession and there sure are a few trends that give us an insight into the future.

The pricing structures would be stabilized up to a great extent with buyers seeking standardized solutions. This means that BPO in India would have to prove themselves on the basis of efficient performance rather than pricing.
Contrary to the usual belief that common and shared services being a threat, they are actually being welcomed whole-heartedly with the changing times. This is because it enhances productivity, reduces errors and cuts costs.
With the continuous rise in the prices of oil, companies would have to take full benefit of the technology and keep outsourcing work so as to make more profit.
ROLE OF INDIA IN THE OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY
There are a lot of countries in Asia who are trying to catch-up with Philippines so as prove themselves as a practical alternative to India. Countries like Philippines have proved to be a low-cost rival which has worked in their advantage. India did begin as a low-cost destination but as the industry is maturing, the wages of the workforce too is going up.

However, India has been able to retain its position as a leading destination for call center support services because of being able to evolve with the continuous changing needs. It was in fact within a year that the global outsourcing market rose by 4% in the country. Efficiency and customer service make India stand out from the crowd out and this is why call center services still has a bright future. Customers when outsourcing their business today don’t just look for cost-effective solutions but also want better productivity, skilled staff, enhanced quality of service and excellence in business process. India with its enormous population and efficiently skilled people would still continue to be the best choice for both front-end as well as back-end outsourcing.

The Indian BPO companies can slowly consider expanding into the Tier II as well as Tier III cities so as to ensure that the wages remain competitive and the skilled workforce existing beyond the Tier I cities can get the opportunity to work. The costs would automatically be kept down as such cities have a rather low cost of living. Another important step that the Indian companies can take is moving up the value chain and transitioning to work that requires higher end knowledge.

Such work pays really well and is more cerebral. With the markets becoming more knowledge-intensive, India has also become one of the most preferred countries for knowledge services. Very soon, knowledge process outsourcing might become the biggest revenue grosser in the country. Skilled manpower in India is stupendous including MBA’s, Chartered Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors, and Research Analysts etc which undoubtedly strengthens its position in this industry.

CHALLENGES FOR THE OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY IN INDIA
The industry undergoing a change and would continue to be driven by extreme changes even in the future. However, a few emerging challenging that India would have to face are:

The rapidly growing industry requires growth in infrastructure as well. However, this is an area where India lacks, and this issue need to be addressed to keep up with the competition.
Companies are branching out to Tier II cities where they would be able to take advantage of low labour costs.
Even though India has been established itself as a world leader in the business of outsourcing, in the near future, there are chances of facing tougher challenges. South-Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and others are trying to improve their position so as to become alternative offshore locations.
Other South-Asian countries have been able to challenge the competitiveness of India by offering cheaper labour in business processing skills. India, on the other hand is experiencing a rise in the labour costs along with high attrition which is of course of concern and thereby need to be addressed as soon as possible.
It is only time that would be able to say if India will actually be able to sustain itself in this tough competition and still retain its position as a leader in the global market of call center outsourcing. The country may still be able to dominate this space but there are impressive reasons as to why the global firms might turn towards other destinations apart from India. The outbound call center industry has to realize soon that as the industry is maturing, return on investment and profit margins stagnant and thereby reach a plateau. This time is perfectly ripe for the BPO sector in India to move up the curve. With other countries working hard to up their position in this sector, India cannot take risks.

Outbound calling can be really a tough job. The call recipient and callers need to have immense patience to listen to their client queries coming from the other end and thus communicate with them understanding their needs. They are in charge of addressing all concerns with care and equal importance so that the customer feels satisfied and does not get irritated. Outbound calls are therefore a strong sales tool and professionalism in this regard is the key to success.

For a customer, call center support services act as the only point of contact between them and the company. Often for them, the callers serve as the face of the company. If they receive positive interaction from the callers, they are more likely to turn into loyal customers. Therefore, a positive interaction can stretch the relation between company and customer for a longer time. It can also contribute to increased brand awareness for the company.

Therefore, it is necessary for companies to maintain a responsible outbound call center to answer the customer queries and resolve technical issues. If an outbound call center outsourcing is not sure what they ought to do in order to be on the right track, here is a guideline that will help them out.

Start each call as if it’s the first one

Callers need to be trained to drop out the baggage from the last call they had attended. Callers require to start afresh every time they attend a new call. An Outbound sales call center needs to remember that any call can turn into their next big customer. So, they will always have to be prepared and put forth their best efforts in the call.

Being professional

Every bpo in India should maintain the standard of professionalism throughout the overall conversation. They act as the face of the company and hence they require proper training and constant monitoring in order to ensure they follow all necessary rules and regulations. Corporate values and goals should be inculcated in them as if it is a part of their own behaviour.

Respecting customers

Call centers in India should never compromise where their customers are concerned. They should treat them with utmost respect throughout every interaction. Some call centers in Delhi have advised their agents to remain calm and composed and as act wisely as possible. They should learn to value each customer and make them feel as if they are the most valued ones. Agents also need to understand the customer needs and make necessary efforts to arrange them as far as practicable. They should respond with compassion to all customer problems.

Honesty is a must

All call center services should instruct their agents to be honest with the customers. They should never lie, guess and make up an answer. If they feel they would not be competent enough to solve the needs, they should take the time to gently explain to the customer that they would transfer the call to a more knowledgeable and competent person. In this way, customers will not take offense of their service and would be willing to cooperate.

Handling cold calls

When making a call-in call center outbound, the callers need to have a clear plan and know which route they want to follow. If they know why they are calling and how to make the reason of their call compelling for the listener, they are going to be sound confident. The more clearly their personality comes across the more quickly the person on the other side of the phone is going to get influenced.

Callers should be relaxed and behave in a friendly way with the customers. They should have their opening lines and important messages practiced thoroughly.

Dealing with furious customers

At times callers or agents may find irate or very angry customers spatting over the call. But callers will have to talk slowly and calmly to them. If they are willing to acknowledge what the customer is saying, they will soon be able to bring down the customer’s speech. Making notes why the customer has become irate and then addressing them one by one will turn the call into a positive one. It may not work always but to some extent, this procedure will be helpful.

Training to manage sells

One important area of call center services in India is training their agents in outbound sales. The agents will have to be well aware of the minute details of the products and services they intend to sell. They will have to learn to sell the advantages of the products and services and not only focus on the features. This will ignite the interest of the customer and they would find it difficult to say no. Agents should always be assertive when closing a call and note down all necessary details in advance.

No blagging

Agents need to be prepared all the time and have a presence of mind to answer questions that you might not be trained with. If such a situation arrives they should not blag before the customer. They should ask the customer for some time to let them check and get back to the issue. If they do not have any answer they should inform the customer that they will reconnect shortly with an answer or an expert will get back with proper solutions. Honesty is the best way to get out of the trouble rather than promising them something impractical.

Being flexible

Agents should be able to anticipate what’s in store. They should be able to help the customers be prepared and change course whenever necessary. They should be flexible to understand issues and welcome changes accordingly. They should keep customers informed about the reason of change to avoid any further issues from them.

Each and every call center services in India should all in all concentrate on providing quality services. Managers should regulate the call center etiquette and allocate sufficient funds to promote training programs. When all the employees, callers or agents will start obeying the guideline they concerned company will gain a comprehensive edge over the market.