India has been a country that has seen a rise from being an insignificant third world country to a dominating figure in the world’s economy in today’s date. India was searching for a boost in its struggling economy after its independence in 1947. This boom came in the form of call center outsourcing industry that saw a steep rise in the number of successful call center companies in India at the end of 20th century. The opportunity was always there for India to grab with both hands due to a large chunk of population well versed in spoken English.
India cashed in on the resources of the workforce despite the laws present at that time not allowing Indian call centers to dial from an international number. But some visionaries made the required amendments in the laws so that Indian call center industry can serve people from other developed countries.
United States and Indian Collaboration
The biggest product based industry in terms of number of companies and consumers was the United States (US) at that time. As the call center outsourcing services in India were available at a fraction of the operational cost in the United States, the Indian call center industry started to flood with projects from the United States (US). This triggered the emergence of a large number of call center outsourcing service providers in the country. India being the best choice started to receive a large number of projects which sometimes proved to be a bit too much to handle for them. The unemployment in India was dropping rapidly and the quality of life started to get enhanced with this boom.
Perks of parallel IT boom
As the call center outsourcing services in India became the hot topic in the global industry and was starting to put India on the global economic map, slowly but steadily IT services in India were also witnessing a boom which started way back in the 1970s. The boom gave Indian call center industry to avail the state of the art technology and enhance their services. India started to become a recognizable economic power in the world with the help of its call center outsourcing industry. IT services just like the call center or any other service in India were economical and thus availing these services was easy for the call center outsourcing service providers.
Global industry’s flow towards India
India became a destination where skilled workforce was available at very low prices. This became the central point of all the ambitions of the companies who wanted to cut cost and increase profit. The world started to recognize the potential of India and some of the big guns in the industry such as General Electric, Microsoft, Google, etc. started to flock to India in order to establish their call centers in the country so that they can maximize the potential of their business. The Indian call center companies also received a huge number of projects from the United States which helped them generate enough revenue to train and preserve their workforce as well as grow and evolve constantly. Meanwhile, India began to step up as the hub of call center companies.
Lucrative salaries and better life quality
As call center companies in India began to grow at the pace that they were, they were never short on resources to fulfill the needs of their workforce. A country where average man earned Rs. 900 per month an average salary of Rs.20000 offered by the call centers in India to its agent was considered very high. Although Rs.20000 were roughly around $300, which was very low for the workforce in the United States, Indian employees considered it a great salary that helped them fulfill their basic needs and still save some money to send back home.
This meant that a lot of people in India got serious about being a call center employee, the employees in the call centers started to become more skilled and underwent specialized training that taught them to shed their mother tongue accent and adopt a neutral accent that was easy to understand. As the quality began to rise, call center companies in India continued to grow at the same rate.
Bumps on the road
Call center companies in India command a dominating position in the world today but it hasn’t come as easy as people comprehend it to be. There were a lot of challenges that Call center companies in India had to overcome in order to achieve the success they have achieved. A few of those challenges that were common for all call center companies in India are/were:
Accent of the Indian workforce:
The indigenous accent of Indians which was due to the influence of their mother tongue is not understandable to the crowd in the United States (US) a lot of effort had to be put in the training of the employees by the call center companies outsourcing companies in India. Rectification of the accent and adopting neutral accent which is much more understandable is the most challenging job that call center companies in India had to do.
Unavailability of competitive bandwidth:
Call center outsourcing companies in India faced a really serious problem at the start of the call center outsourcing industry in India. The internet speed in India was not very high and required call centers to ask for dedicated lines for competitive internet speed which allowed them to perform their operations efficiently. The introduction of optical fibers now has eradicated this problem and the cost of internet has exponentially dropped ever since. But at the time of its inception call center companies in India found it hard to tackle the problem of competitive internet speed.
Laws against routing calls
Call Center companies in India, in order to serve customers from abroad, had to route calls from abroad to India. This was illegal at the time call centers were introduced in India. The call center outsourcing companies in India had to plead to the government for allowing them to do so which took a lot of time and money out of them. On realizing the potential of the call center industry in India, government amended the laws and made it legal to route calls from abroad to India in order to perform the operations with dexterity.
Laws against allotting graveyard shift to women
Before the rise of the call center companies in India, it was against the law to appoint women to work after 10p.m. But as the call centers were highly dependent on the clients in the United States (US), the requirement was to allot as much workforce in the graveyard shift as possible. Later on the laws were amended and it became a part of the culture to stop discriminating among the workforce on the basis of gender and allotting the shifts according to the company’s convenience to anyone irrespective of the gender. But the call center companies in India had to face the initial hiccups that required them to not allot the graveyard shift to their female employees even if they were the best they had.
Conclusion
The call center companies in India have been a vital player in bringing India on the world map as one of the largest global economies. The challenges were tough and criticism was harsh, but they overcame all the obstacles to secure a commanding position in the call center industry of the world. With not much to start with, call center companies in India contribute a major part to the India’s economy today and are one of the most salient features that India is known for.
The call center outsourcing companies in India have been so successful that in today’s time if anyone in the United States (US) reaches out to the customer care center of any company, they expect to talk to an Indian citizen who will drive them to the solution they need with his/her hard inculcated neutral accent with a hint of Indian accent in between that doesn’t make the conversation unambiguous but enhances it due to the clarity and dexterity of the agent.
With this said, call center companies in India continue to grow and are expected to reach new heights in the future despite stern competition from countries like Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. The forecast is that call center companies in India will continue to grow steadily in the near future without any hiccups.
