
BPO
and Contact Centre
BPO and Contact
Centers brought in huge employment opportunities
for graduates in India. It employs over million
people today and is growing phenomenally every
year. Apart from handsome pay packages and incentives,
it offers faster career progression. Believe it
or not, time taken to get into managerial role
in a BPO/Contact Center environment is much less
than that in IT industry.
Basic qualifications
you need to have are Graduate Degree in any discipline,
good attitude, excellent communication, listening
skills and of-course learning agility.
Our
Role
Although there are 100s of companies offering
employment in the sector, your success depends
on finding the right one that will offer a rewarding
and fulfilling career rather than a mere job.
Our strength is that we know great companies who
offer best learning and exciting career development
opportunities. We will work with you to understand
your career aspirations and aptitude and will
recommend the best companies that will fulfill
your dreams.
If you are a fresh graduate out of the college,
we may need to undergo training in soft skills
that include voice neutralization and accent training.
This helps to develop an accent that is familiar
to the people you are going to interact with.
For most of the candidates from India, this is
a smooth and natural transition as most of us
know more than one language.
If you are
experienced, we will find a suitable position
according to your experience and career aspiration
and it will be absolutely no cost to you.
Pls register to pursue a challenging career in
this sector. One of our consultants will contact
you as soon as we find a suitable position for
you.
Register
/ Post your Resume
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BPO
/ Contact Centre / Call Centre – Knowledge
bites
• What does BPO stand
for? What does it mean?
• What is a Contact Centre/Call
Centre?
• What is a typical Contact Center like?
• What does ITES stand for? What does it
mean?
• Specific Skills
required in the ITES Sector: A segment-wise break-up
• Application of Contact
Centers in the business world
• How does a Contact Center
function?
• What are the key responsibilities of outbound
Contact Center personnel?
• What are the key
responsibilities of inbound Contact Center personnel?
• Different types of Contact
Centers and their uses
• Specific skills and
attitudes required for employment in Contact Centers
• Career prospects and
velocity of growth
• Monetary benefits and
other perquisites
• Current salaries in
the ITES/BPO/Contact Center world in India
• Travel opportunities
• Training and recruitment
What does BPO stand
for? What does it mean?
BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Major
corporations in the US and Europe are outsourcing
their back office operations to India to save
costs. E.g., employee payroll is maintained in
India for their employees worldwide. All customer
interaction services including call centers are
also part of BPO. This involves voice (telephone)
and non-voice (email, chat) based customer interaction
services, transaction processing, telemarketing,
technical support or analyzing of customer specific
data. It also involves back office jobs such as
claims processing, payroll processing, credit
card processing etc. Back office operations manage
an entire activity or function on a turnkey basis
for their clients. This enabled corporations to
focus primarily or exclusively on their core business
functions.
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Types of Back Office Services
Today, back office services cover the following:
Administration
Tax processing
Claims processing
Asset management
Transcription and translation
Document management
Other administration |
Finance
Billing services
Accounting transactions
General accounting
Tax consulting and compliance
Risk Management
Financial reporting
Financial analysis
Financial management
Other finance services |
HR (Human Resources)
Benefits administration
Education and training
Recruiting and staffing
Payroll services
Hiring administration
Records management
Other HR services
Payment services
Credit/debit card services
Check processing
EDI |
What
is a Contact Centre / Call Centre?
A Contact Centre / Call Center is a central place
where customer and other telephone calls are handled.
Typically, a Contact Center has the ability to
handle a considerable volume of calls at the same
time, to screen calls and forward those to someone
qualified to handle them. Call centers have evolved
tremendously from being just a medium of voice
based customer support into integrated contact
centers, which are capable of handling customer
queries over the phone, or over internet (eg.
chat, connecting to customer equipments remotely).
The definition of a Contact Center is changing
in this world of e-business but the core fundamentals
of a making a call (via phone, e-mail, website,
or fax) to a centre will remain un-changed.
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What is a typical Contact
Center like?
A Contact Center is a place with state-of-the-art
telecom and online infrastructure that helps provide
customers complete information and support on
a set of products/services. Contact Centers are
here to stay in business simply because they are
the most efficient and economical way to handle
customer queries and grievances.
A typical Contact Center would feature Contact
Center Agents, Customer Relation Executives and
Customer Service executives. These are individuals
fluent in English with a distinct American / British
accent. They help promote the company's products
and services, help customers use them effectively,
handle complaints promptly and get valuable feedbacks.
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What does ITES stand
for? What does it mean?
ITES stands for Information Technology (IT) Enabled
Services. IT-enabled outsourcing can be defined
as,
• These outsourcing services that use information
processing and delivery of the service.
• IT Enabled services are functions and
services provided from a country different from
the one where the end products are delivered through
a telecom network or other electronic media.
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Specific Skills
required in the ITES Sector: A segment wise break-up
|
Segment |
Skills |
|
Call centre |
Good
communication and language skills, accent
understanding team leadership, basic computing
skills and |
| Remote
customer interaction |
Language
and accent understanding |
| Date
search, Integration |
Computing,
language and analytical skills |
| Human
Resource Services |
Country
specific HR policies, rules and regulations |
| Remote
education |
Subject
knowledge, computing and language skills |
| Engineering
and design |
Technical
and engineering design and computing skills |
| Translation,
medical transcription and
Localization |
Language
understanding, basic computing (word processing
knowledge) and understanding of various
medical terminologies |
| Animation |
Drawing
and creative skills, computer graphic skills |
| Finance
and accounting |
International/
country specific accounting rules |
| Market
Research |
Statistical,
sales and marketing concept understanding |
|
Network Consultancy
and Management |
Understanding
of different network configurations and
support equipment, technical/computing skills |
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Application of
Contact Centers in the business world
Typically, a customer calls a number, which is
toll free and is assisted by the consultant. The
operator can access the database and gives the
response. This is a very useful feature in airline
reservations, hotel reservations, banking services,
technology solutions, etc. The areas, which are
addressed by contact/call centers, include sales
support, airline/hotel reservations, technical
queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables,
telemarketing, market research, etc.
As companies have learned that service is the
key to attracting and maintaining customers (and
hence, revenue), the common perception of the
Contact Center has changed. In some industries
(catalogue retailing, financial services, hospitality)
a Contact Center is the difference between being
in business and not being in business. In other
industries (cable television, utilities) call
centers have been the centerpiece of corporate
attempts to quickly overhaul service and improve
their image. It is a strategic asset that companies
can use to improve their customer relationships,
and more importantly, to learn more about their
customers. Call centers have evolved from cost
centers to profit centers.
• Spectrum of IT Enabled Services
• Customer interaction services including
Call/contact centers
• Medical Transcription
• Back Office Transactions, including payroll
and Revenue accounting, data entry/data conversion
(including finance and accounting)/HR Services
• Insurance claims processing
• Legal databases
• Content Development/animation Engineering
and design/GIS
• Logistics Management
It's a good working hypothesis to assume that
any company that sells any product has a call
centre, or will shortly have one, because it is
the most effective way to reach (and be reached
by) customers.
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How does a Contact Center
function?
A typical Contact Center functions as follows
- A caller uses a toll free number that is connected
to a customer support centre. When the call reaches
the call centre, a trained consultant with access
to a wide database of information, answers the
call. The dedicated telecommunication links connect
a remote Contact Center to the parent organization
through voice and online database access. Therefore,
a caller maybe calling a local number in USA,
but the call maybe answered in India without any
time delay and the caller is oblivious of where
the call is being answered. These services are
very popular in countries such as USA, Europe,
Japan and Australia.
Call centers can be of different types. A regional
Contact Center implies that a centre in America
to handle America, Europe to handle Europe and
a centre in South East Asia and Australia to handle
Asia. This enables some economies of scale but
duplication of efforts can minimize operational
efficiency. The other option is to have a global
Contact Center where all calls across the globe
are handled. This results in tremendous economies
of scale, which is cost effective.
An inbound centre is one that handles calls coming
in from outside, most often through toll free
numbers. These calls are primarily service and
support calls, and inbound sales.
An outbound centre is one that does mainly outgoing
telemarketing.
Inbound is the biggest component of Contact Center
traffic these days, though perversely, outbound
represents the area of largest projected growth
in the next few years. In truth, the majority
of centers contain some element of both inbound
and outbound.
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What
are key responsibilities of outbound Contact Center
personnel?
Make outgoing calls to follow up on overdue account
holders worldwide, offer solutions.
Update the relevant information in the database.
Adhere to the highest standards of quality and
compliance.
Be customer friendly and extremely courteous.
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What are key
responsibilities of inbound Contact Center personnel?
Handle inbound calls relating to customer queries
on a product or service.
Update databases.
Adhere to the highest standards of quality and
compliance.
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Different types of call/contact
centers and their uses
Contact centers have become catalysts for transformation,
freeing up businesses to focus or core activities.
A Contact Center can be any of the following:
A telemarketing centre
A tele-servicing centre
A help desk, both internal and external
An outsourced centre (also known as a service
bureau) that uses its large capacity to serve
multiple companies
A reservation centre for airlines or hotels
A catalogue trainer
An e-tailing centre
An e-commerce transaction centre that handles
automated customer interactions
A fundraising and collection organization
The Contact
Center is traditionally defined as a physical
location where calls are placed or received, in
high volume for the purpose of:
Sales
Marketing
Telemarketing
Customer service
Technical support
Specialized business activity
While early descriptions of contact centers called
them places of doing business by phone that combined
a centralized database with an automatic call
distribution (ACD) system. today, these centers
have evolved to become sophisticated business
enterprises providing integrated services that
are essential to the success of corporations they
serve. A Contact Center can now range in size
from a micro centre with 5-10 seats to a huge
setup with thousands of seats.
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Specific skills and
attitudes required for employment in call/contact
centers
An excellent command in English is the basic requirement.
Being a graduate is the other, although most call
centers will recruit under-graduates if they have
good English language skills. As call centers
operate round the clock, one has to be ready to
work night shifts. The major emphasis is on being
able to handle interpersonal communications with
a high degree of confidence. This is because a
Contact Center operator continuously interacts
with customers, must listen to and deal with complaints
and queries, and must be able to function effectively
as the “voice of the company”.
• Sales
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• PC Skills
• Ability to work in teams
• Listening skills
• Analytical skills
• Customer focus
• Be a graduate (competent under graduates
are employed by most Contact Center companies)
• Agents must serve well-informed and diverse
customers; adjust to changes in products, service
and technologies; operate in a time-sensitive,
multimedia environment; communicate with customers
quickly and accurately; and understand Web-and
IVR (interactive voice response) based applications.
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Career prospects
and velocity of growth
The typical career path for an agent handling
calls would be to move into the acting team leader
and then manage his/her own team of 10/12 people
in the capacity of a team leader. Team leaders,
in time, start to manage multiple teams and grow
to become assistant managers and then, managers.
The surprise is that the time taken for growth
to a managerial level is much faster than even
in the IT industry. An entry-level agent can progress
to a full team leader in two years or less with
a quantum jump in emoluments.
There are a number of other career paths in the
industry. Many customer service executives move
into the role of trainers. People handling call
gain a significant amount of product and process
knowledge. As a trainer, the role is that of imparting
process and product knowledge to new trainees.
Other roles include managing the command centre,
joining project teams, recruiting, etc.
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Monetary benefits
and other perquisites
The average, entry level, salary for a customer
service executive is approximately Rs. 8,000 per
month. This increases to Rs. 10-12,000 per month,
within a year. Additionally, there are many performance
linked incentive plans. The ITES industry is where
IT service was ten years ago. Talented people
with a strong will to succeed ca make the best
of this opportunity and emerge winners.
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Current salaries
in the ITES/BPO/call-Contact Center world in India
Customer Care Representatives [CSRs]: Rs. 8,000
– Rs. 15,000 per month
Team Leaders: Rs. 17,000 – Rs. 26,000 per
month
Managers: Rs. 3 lacs - Rs. 5.5 lacs per annum
Training Heads: Rs. 8 lacs – Rs. 12 lacs
per annum
Training managers: Rs. 5 lacs – Rs. 8 lacs
per annum
Trainers: Rs. 2 lacs – Rs. 5 lacs per annum
Specialized ITES professionals who possess MBA,
BE, B.Tech., C.A., and other expert qualification
or experience may be paid higher salaries depending
upon the expertise required for the desired work
profile and their level of experience.
Besides salaries, ITES professionals are also
paid liberal incentives depending upon regularity,
achievement of targets, and length of service
and nature of work, which can even exceed their
salaries at times.
Other perquisites include pickup facilities, subsidized/free
western and Indian snacks and meals and a five-day
week as a matter of course. Most contact centers
also provide other lifestyle perquisites ranging
from Hawaiian nights, weekly in-house dance sessions
and free discotheque passes to ATM facility and
further education classes within the office complex.
Many of these ITES companies provide various facilities
to it’s agents within its campus. These
include Bank ATM services and concierge desk that
takes care of telephone bills. Film ticket booking,
sending greetings and flowers to all its employees.
In addition to all this, some of them are offering
MBA and engineering courses as an option for its
employees by partnering with premium institutes!
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Travel opportunities
At times, the staff might require extensive training.
Such training may happen at client locations in
the US/ UK for a period of about 4-8 weeks. This
provides the staff an opportunity to visit client
locations and learn about the culture first-hand.
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Training and recruitment
Training forms an important part of one’s
career development. ITES companies generally provide
employees with extensive Accent Neutralization
training, American/ British culture training,
Customer Delight, Team Building and Time Management
training. The training costs for an employee in
a Contact Center are quite prohibitive, ranging
from anywhere between Rs. 25,000 to as high as
Rs. 50,000 running from 2 to 5 months. The fact
that such training is provided at the start of
a career means that a person will consequently
find it easier to achieve professional excellence
and increase the probability of a successful career.
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Information
Technology
'IMMEDIATE Hiring SAP professionals
for an MNC' Send resume to hr@prudentialtech.com
NOW!'
We are hiring in the following IT areas for our
reputed clients:-
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or Architects
|
|
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|
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E-Commerce Specialist |
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Oracle Data Architect |
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Data warehouse |
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Oracle financial Specialist |
| People soft Specialist |
SAP Specialist |
| Developer or Programmer or
Programmer Analyst |
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| Java Developer |
Net Developer |
| J2EE Developer |
WebSpehere |
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ASP Developer |
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Oracle Developer |
| VB Developer |
VC++ Developer |
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C Developer |
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Middleware Developer ( MQ) |
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C# Developer |
| Administartors |
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Linux Administrator |
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Unix Administrator |
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Professionals |
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Regression Tester |
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WinRunner and LoadRunner experts |
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or Architects |
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.Net Architect |
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E-Commerce Specialist |
| Sibel CRM Specialist |
Oracle Data Architect |
| SQL Server Data Architect |
Data warehouse |
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Oracle financial Specialist |
| People soft Specialist |
SAP Specialist |
| Developer or Programmer
or
Programmer Analyst |
|
| Java Developer |
Net Developer |
| J2EE Developer |
WebSpehere |
| Weblogic |
ASP Developer |
| SQL Server Developer |
Oracle Developer |
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VC++ Developer |
| C++ Developer |
C Developer |
| Mainframe Developer |
Middleware Developer ( MQ) |
| EAI Developer |
C# Developer |
| Administartors |
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| Database Administrator |
Linux Administrator |
| Software Administrator |
Unix Administrator |
| Web Administrator |
Windows Administrator |
| Testing/Quality
Professionals |
|
| Functional Tester |
Regression Tester |
| Performance Tester |
WinRunner and LoadRunner experts |
If you are actively looking
for a change in IT career, please post your resume.
Our consultant will get back to you once we find
a suitable position.
Register/Post
your Resume
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We are looking for 1000s of contact center / Call
Center professionals for various MNCs and reputed
Indian companies.
If you are interested or
if you know someone who can be best fit for this
job, pls refer them to us. You will be rewarded
for it.
We will pay you upto Rs1000/-
for each successful* candidate referred by you**
( Rs.200 for junior levels Rs.500 for lead levels
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*Reference is successful
if your candidate is appointed through us to a
firm and the person is working for the company
at least one month.
** Conditions Apply.
This is how you should participate.
1. Discuss with your friend on his willingness
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Subject: Referral: your name candidate name contact
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Provide your name and contact details to register
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