Monday, October 29, 2001		Article

NASSCOM predicts that by 2008 call centres will generate Rs 20,000 crore worth of revenue in India. But the way the things seem to be moving in this IT-enabled sector, the ground realities appear to be quite different. Call centres are facing rough weather. Some are precariously careened while others have put their receivers down and ‘called off,’ to use their sugary vocabulary.

September 11 attacks came in at a very bewildering time for this industry. Already reeling under a slowdown, while the attacks drove in the last nail in the coffins of quite a few of the call centres, other established players are seeing opportunity and have gone on inauguration binge. At least one established player opened a call centre in New Delhi and two of them have become operational in Chandigarh and its satellite towns within a fortnight.

"No doubt, the business has suffered. The silver lining in this dark cloud is that after the attack, outsourcing has increased and some sectors like the insurance, bank and financial service are doing pretty good business. Even the sale of mobile and cellular phones has increased in the USA while the airline and travel sector has suffered a serious setback," says Ranbir Sahni, founder and president of e3R group of companies, an Indian outsourcing company that has its headquarters in California and a call centre in Panchkula. The company offers a range of Web-enabled customer care services to global e-business.

Sahni is effusive about the talent that is ‘abundant’ in Chandigarh. "Oh! the city is marvellous and life is much better here as compared to other Indian cities. The teenagers are literate, fluent in English and above all, more exposed to the Western way of life. Ideal stuff for being call centre agents," he exclaims and adds that this was the main reason that they preferred to have a running call centre and training institute near here at Panchkula.

Not that it was a smooth sailing for them too. The company that plans to expand further by this financial year-end had to wriggle out of the Indian red-tape when the international line promised by VSNL took four months longer than promised.

The president feels that most of the companies in this trade are investing more on infrastructure and are less focussed on client relationship. "It takes nine to 12 months to clinch a deal. You just cannot keep waiting for a call that long," he says, adding that lack of professionalism and adequate business are the main reasons why most of the call centres are failing.

The e3R president feels that Indians have a lot to learn before they can be made fit for this profession. It takes just 10 days to train an American while the training period here is about three months.

His company’s next destination in India is Jaipur. He plans to open a call centre in the Pink City and to refrain from having a presence in Delhi or its suburbs. "There are already 19 functional call centres within 9 sq km of area in Gurgaon. What’s the use of being there?" he asks.

When asked about the most menacing problem that an established call-centre face, Sahni was more forthcoming: "Poaching. We have actually seen drivers of the staff vehicle of a call centre being bribed to take the executives to a rival call centre where they are issued new appointment letters and given heftier pay packets."

Gosh! Executives move faster than a call in call centres.