By Niels Kjellerup, Editor and Publisher of Call Centre Managers Forum February 20th 2001. How the idea, that India would be an ideal place to set up greenfield Customer Service Contact Centers, has gained support by Corporate America puzzles me every day, as I go through the 5-6 Emails from India offering me outsourced Call Centre services. In June last year I spent a week in New Delhi discussing the possibilities of establishing a Call Centre Industry there – we discussed the pro’s & con’s. My own sentiment was mostly negative – so let me share with you my observations . The Pro's: India has a large population of highly educated people, a well developed software and CTI Industry and a large unemployed workforce- cost of labour is real cheap. The second language in India is English. Several large Computer Software Integrators with a proven track record in both software development, implementation & application area. That was basically the PRO-side. The Con's: Let me try to list for you the reasons why I consider establishing a Call Centre Industry in India a difficult proposition – 1) The English spoken by Indians is a very heavy dialect – in fact, in face to face conversations, I found it very difficult to understand what was said. How will this play out over the telephone with people much less educated that my conversation partners ? Consider for a moment, that in 1981 when GE established The GE Answer Center in Louisville Kentucky 3 months was spent researching which American dialect would best be suited for all Americans before the location was decided upon. So here we’re 20 years later and an average American are expected to understand Indian-English – quite a challenge to both the customers and the staff. 2) The non-existent Customer Service Culture in India will make training of reps mandatory and difficult, since such a luxury as service is not part of everyday life in India. 3) The Infrastructure is bad, no, make that antiquated : · The attempts by a major US Corporation to set up a satellite link has so far been expensive and not very successful. · Electricity infrastructure is going from bad to worse – in fact during my stay at a 5* Hotel and at the corporate HQ of a big multi national company we had on average 7 black-outs a day where the generators would kick in after 2-3 seconds. · The Telephony system is analog and inadequate. It took on average 3 attempts just to get a line of out my Hotel. The Telecom market is NOT deregulated, and international calls are very expensive. (In fact I got billed US$ 350 for a 14 minute call to Australia). The business culture and the mix of Government intervention will be a cultural shock for Western Business People with no previous experience. Add to this a lack of a Call Centre Industry and very few people with Call Centre experience which makes it very hard to recruit Call Centre managers with a proven track record. My own conclusion: The Indian Call Centre Boom will be short lived unless its based on Indian Joint Venture Partners with experience in handling both regulatory hurdles and ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place. When India develops its own Customer Service Culture and has de-regulated its Telecom sector, then maybe we’ll see a sustainable Call Centre Industry to service the large Indian market place. India is well placed to handled back office fulfilment and Business process delivery systems in areas such as Internet-, HR- & Accounting Services, Transaction Processing Services plus Customer Service. The Projected Cost savings is best realised by joining up with an Indian Company with a proven track record in IT & project management. Beware of short term relationships offering " a pie in the sky". Additional Note (5 April 01 by Niels Kjellerup, Editor) : Datamonitor issued "Indian CRM Outsourcing" March 2001 (Ref code BFTC 0527). It validates my views of the difficulties of overcoming the language barrier & the bad telephony infrastructure. It omits mentioning the problem with un-reliable power supply and doesn't mention 'how the lack of a customer service culture' makes training of reps difficult at best. The report points out, that Vendors to the Contact Industry is experiencing a bonanza selling to Outsourcers. It suggests the best way to go is a joint venture with local companies to minimise risk and overcome the different business culture in India, thus avoiding the difficulties experienced by GE Capital and British Airways setting up In-house Contact Centres. The report can be order here uksales@datamonitor.com or ussales@datamonitor.com Additional Note ( 19 March 2002) - I seems I might have been too mild in my criticism of Management practices in Indian Call Centres. A year has passed and in both the UK, Australia and in the USA customers are actively rebelling against 'the Indian version of Customer Service' - talk radio, satirical TV-programs all poke fun or anger at the Cheap and Dirty Customer Service being practiced by mostly un-experienced call centre managers in India. This Email received by a training practitioner in the Southern Indian city of Chennai - By Niels Kjellerup, Editor and Publisher of Call Centre Managers Forum February 20th 2001.
How the idea, that India would be an ideal place to set up greenfield Customer Service Contact Centers, has gained support by Corporate America puzzles me every day, as I go through the 5-6 Emails from India offering me outsourced Call Centre services. In June last year I spent a week in New Delhi discussing the possibilities of establishing a Call Centre Industry there – we discussed the pro’s & con’s. My own sentiment was mostly negative – so let me share with you my observations .
The Pro's:
India has a large population of highly educated people, a well developed software and CTI Industry and a large unemployed workforce- cost of labour is real cheap. The second language in India is English.
Several large Computer Software Integrators with a proven track record in both software development, implementation & application area.
That was basically the PRO-side.
The Con's: Let me try to list for you the reasons
why I consider establishing a Call Centre Industry in India a difficult
proposition
–
1) The English spoken by Indians is a very heavy dialect – in fact, in face to face conversations, I found it very difficult to understand what was said. How will this play out over the telephone with people much less educated that my conversation partners ? Consider for a moment, that in 1981 when GE established The GE Answer Center in Louisville Kentucky 3 months was spent researching which American dialect would best be suited for all Americans before the location was decided upon. So here we’re 20 years later and an average American are expected to understand Indian-English – quite a challenge to both the customers and the staff.
2) The non-existent Customer Service Culture in India will make training of reps mandatory and difficult, since such a luxury as service is not part of everyday life in India.
3) The Infrastructure is bad, no, make that antiquated :
· The attempts by a major US Corporation to set up a satellite link has so far been expensive and not very successful.
· Electricity infrastructure is going from bad to worse – in fact during my stay at a 5* Hotel and at the corporate HQ of a big multi national company we had on average 7 black-outs a day where the generators would kick in after 2-3 seconds.
· The Telephony system is analog and inadequate. It took on average 3 attempts just to get a line of out my Hotel. The Telecom market is NOT deregulated, and international calls are very expensive. (In fact I got billed US$ 350 for a 14 minute call to Australia).
The business culture and the mix of Government intervention will be a cultural shock for Western Business People with no previous experience.
Add to this a lack of a Call Centre Industry and very few people with Call Centre experience which makes it very hard to recruit Call Centre managers with a proven track record.
My own conclusion:
The Indian Call Centre Boom will be short lived unless its based on Indian Joint Venture Partners with experience in handling both regulatory hurdles and ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place.
When India develops its own Customer Service Culture and has de-regulated its Telecom sector, then maybe we’ll see a sustainable Call Centre Industry to service the large Indian market place.
India is well placed to handled back office fulfilment and Business process delivery systems in areas such as Internet-, HR- & Accounting Services, Transaction Processing Services plus Customer Service.
The Projected Cost savings is best realised by joining up with an Indian Company with a proven track record in IT & project management. Beware of short term relationships offering " a pie in the sky".
Additional Note ( 19 March 2002) - I seems I might have been too mild in my criticism of Management practices in Indian Call Centres. A year has passed and in both the UK, Australia and in the USA customers are actively rebelling against 'the Indian version of Customer Service' - talk radio, satirical TV-programs all poke fun or anger at the Cheap and Dirty Customer Service being practiced by mostly un-experienced call centre managers in India. This Email received by a training practitioner in the Southern Indian city of Chennai -
"Dear Mr. Kjellerup, I've just read your article "MYTH & Reality about Contact Centres in India" (February 20th 2001.) on the callcentres.com.au Web-site. I totally agree with your assessment. Indeed, I would use much stronger words and call the whole business in India a hoax. But then it also seems to be the typical corporate "SNAFU"! You are absolutely right about the type of English spoken here and about customer service being non-existent in the general consumer culture. And not to forget, the poor infrastructure, few people with call centre experience, etc. So, why do I agree with you? First, my background: I am a training professional based in Chennai, a city in Southern India, and the current Mecca for call centre start-ups. Before I chose to pursue a career as a training professional, I worked for a brief while with British Airways' tele-sales unit in Mumbai. Later, I managed a tele-marketing promotion for the ITC Sheraton hotels in India. During this project I actually had to train the telemarketers to "sell" in English and I also encountered the other pitfalls which you have highlighted in your article. The current situation: Rather than acknowledge these issues and resolve them, I find that the senior management at call centres are aggressively determined to deny the reality. Instead the cure-all remedy that's chased is American accent (in its myriad varieties) training. Once again, as a student of language, literature and linguistics, I know that this is incorrect and is not based on any valid academic theory. Much of the problem arises from the fact that none of the managers have ever manned a telephone for eight hours, day in and day out. Therefore they do not recognise/understand the skills, knowledge and experience required of a call centre agent. In their mind, it's merely 'answering the telephone - how difficult is that?!" As for customer service - the managerial mindset is: a pretty face / pretty voice. I rest my case! None of them appreciate the assertive consumer attitudes which drive customer service in developed markets. Here, the approach is servility rather than service. You would have observed this as a hotel guest in India. I really could write forever!! Yes, I am quite frustrated with what's going on. To whatever extent possible, I raise these issues at various business fora - with little success to show. In the meanwhile, I do a little jig when I chance upon articles like yours! So, thank you once again for speaking so plainly about the myth that is call centres in India. Sincerely, Elizabeth Verghese.".
Thank you Elizabeth for helping to bring the light of
reality on the Customer Service Practices currently being implemented in the
India Call Centre Industry. I wonder when the Corporate Managers in the West
will realise, that Service is the basic first step of the Sales Process? (read
here about the Why Service is Failing"). For those actually
interested in improvement Elizabeth has allowed me to publish the outline of the
course available to all Indian Call Centres (read
here).
LIST OF CALL CENTRES IN INDIA
A-F,
G-L,
M-R,
S-Z,