Call centers in India?

[Sanders]

I am conducting research on the possibility of using call centers in India to provide services in U.S.A.. Is this a good possibility in terms of quality representatives and quality telephone connections?

[Tim Harvey]

Yes, this is worth doing if it is right for your needed services. The quality of reps and the telecomm connections available are going to differ drastically from center to center. You should look at several things when considering the call centers in India:

First, this is obvious, but requires emphasis--a call center in India may train their agents to speak English, but make sure they also work with them on semantics. The way we put together our sentences and the use of words in English can be very difficult to learn. (Our partners teach English and semantics. The agents watch US News and read newspapers and magazines from here as well. They can not only take the call and provide quality service, but can also have intelligent conversations with the callers)

Second, make sure they have a very robust infrastructure to run independently from the countries power and telecomm infrastructure if necessary. Power generators and direct IPLCÂ’s along with up to date equipment. There are many call centers that try and run on antiquated systems and have no resources to backup their systems should the daily blackouts hit them. ( The infrastructure our partner has built can afford them several days of independent running without needing any external support. The facilities are brand new and state of the art. No old outdated equipment or cramped facilities.)

Last, if you go this on your own, make sure you get a group you can work with. Indians are notoriously known to be brutal negotiators. Get everything in writing and make sure it will be legal in both countries. DonÂ’t be afraid to start low and be hard-lined on the bidding.

Our company has several major deals with call centers in India (over 1800 seats) and I have done exhaustive research on the quality of services and infrastructure for many others. If you want to look at our ability to outsource your needs to India, but manage them from our US HQ in Atlanta, Ga., please give me a call. If you just want some further advice, feel free to follow-up for this response. I hope this helps.

[Andrew Bates]

Sanders,
without opening a can of worms....I might offer an alternative view to Mr. Harvey.

In working with our partners, many of them are turning away from India in favor of other lower cost and more reliable support solutions.

The primary reasons cited are:

Linguistic Challenges- Despite best efforts and the teaching of english, Americans can be very particular about accent issues.

Language Requirements - Spanish support solutions are increasingly become a base requirement for US support. Something not available in India

Empathy- In some cases, cultural differences regarding the importance of listening to the customer and understanding their plight is lost

Technological Infrastructure- As Mr. Harvey points out, steps must be taken to ensure proper redundancies in light of the countries poor electric and telephony infrastructure

Politics- Recent anti-American riots in India are increasing concerns about using this country as a long-term support solution.

Ultimately, its about your customers, you must gauge what they need and what there acceptance might be of such a business direction.

As a global provider, Sykes helps our partners identify the best solution based on business and customer needs.

I hope this helps

[Rakesh Bhambani]

Andrew promised not to open a can of worms but he went ahead and did it. I strongly disagree, just hope I don't sound like a mere flag waver when I rebut. I also hope that this thread does not divert from Sanders' original quest.

Without going into each point raised, the bottom line is that GE Capital, Amex, Citicorp, 3Com, New York Life, Convergys et al have a GROWING presence and long term commitments in India.

Yahoo, Amazon, Conseco, Compaq, Dell, AOL, Intuit, Microsoft, Sprint, AT&T are just some of the organizations that have moved call center business to India.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have the numbers, but India is the fastest, or one of the fastest, growing markets as a call center destination.

I wouldn't bet one penny that Andrew's company itself would not have a presence in India within the next 12 months. The value proposition of India CAN NOT be ignored, not only looking at the cost aspects but there is a growing band of companies that are also focussing on enhancing skill sets, competencies and thus 'value delivered'.

Yes, there are challenges, but nothing a company with its head screwed on right can't fix. It is a market in its infancy and a huge opportunity for the likes of Sykes (Hey! that was almost poetic) to bring their established processes and maturity and leverage the vast latent potential, especially in the voice arena.

As far as the eServices or eCRM issue is concerned, we have India based companies like mine and I could name others, which are truly world class, in fact beyond, because we are not bogged down by maturity and have a fresh approach towards the fresh opportunity of multimedia customer interaction. There are huge opportunities (now that's a word I overuse) in delivering customer satisfaction and pulling customer info on the web than anything that can be done over POTS. But alas! Plugs are not allowed on this forum. I could have gone on and on....

Rakesh Bhambani
Supportscape
www.supportscape.com
rbhambani@supportscape.SPAM-STOPcom

[Tim Harvey]

Rakesh,
A couple of items:
First, Thank you for supporting my position in using India call centers. They have their challenges, but are growing exponentially. I will say that not all companies are going to be comfortable with or find as much benefit with outsourcing to India.
I spoke to Andrew and he offers additional options to his clients other than just India. We are all providing the same services with different flavors (if you will allow the description).

Second, You referred to the growth of call centers in India and did not know numbers...
Currently, 37% of the call center outsourcing business worldwide is going to India. It is anticipated that as much as 70% will be achieved by 2003. I am not sure if I agree with that large a number, but the popularity of outsourcing to India is certainly growing annually.

We not only have partnerships with India-based centers, but also have resources in Australia, Europe, Canada and South America. We diversify to meet the greatest needs of the client...as we all should.

[Scott Jordan]

I was part of the team at a .com who selected a company in India. (Daksh.com)
We were so pleased with all of the India RFP's we got, and making the choice to go with Daksh wasn't easy. The managers are well trained, and that trickles down to the reps. India provides an extremely cost effective and efficient alternative to expensive, undertrained American call centers.

[Tim Harvey]

Scott,
what type of campaign did you give to the Indian call center?
How was their process as compared to others you looked at? Do you know if they have fully automated solutions? How many seats?

Obvioulsy, I have allot of questions. Please get in touch with me.

We have business that we need call centers for around the globe and I always prefer to work off of referrals.