It’s been almost 2 decades and India is still, comprehensively leading the global outsourcing sector by possessing 66% of the call centers in the world. But, the party can be soon spoiled by other players who have lately turned a few business owners’ heads. The call centers in Philippines, Malaysia, China, etc have been quite efficient and effective in matching the business expectations of western companies.
India, with a treasure of population that is colossal, young, and fluent in English, claims the throne of the king of the global BPO industry. But, there are threats. The Indian call center service provider in India should be aware of the changing environment and dynamic expectations of business owners. Previously, it was the cost that drives the surge of outsourcing sector, today, it is the customer experience. Business owners are even ready to pay a little extra if the vendor is assuring a first-rate support experience.
Hence, the Indian call center owners require a heads-up on the threats that are surrounding them:
The challenges
During the dawn of outsourcing, India was ‘the’ most favorable destination, because of the low operational cost, which includes hiring & training expense plus the real-estate value. During the late 90s and early 2000s, the price of commercial real-estate was quite less than what it is now. The steep rise of the commercial real estate industry is not hidden to the world. Recently only, Mumbai’s land was listed among the most expensive properties in the world. So, the pricing factor is slowly narrowing the decision-making zone.
Along with this, the Indian “Accent” issue is bothering the customer experience level since day 1. Quite a lot western customers seeking assistance have reported that they could not comprehend with the Indian agent’s fluency and accent. If the issue is minimal, then it is ‘okay’ to converse with a little confusion. However, with the complicated issues, the confusion sometimes creates mishaps that don’t end well.
This is another reason a lot of western businesses are now looking for customer support assistance in countries like Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where the agents are much more close to the western dialects and culture. The costs are low too, although the resources i.e. the manpower is way less in numbers and technical proficiency than the Indian call center service provider in India. So, yeah, the race has been quite ambiguous in nature.
Inflation has been influencing the infrastructure of Indian call centers. The rising living of standard creates a void for high salary increments that lead to less cost advantage for the businesses.
Indian call center is quite big. There are millions of people employed in the call center industry and the situation is not becoming better. One of the biggest concerns of the market experts is the increasing phenomenon of health issue among the call center employees. People working the stressful night shifts are getting more prone to heart-related issues, sleep deprivation, blood pressure problems, loss of appetite, and an increase in the rate of frustration & depression. This directly impacts the employee turnover rate, which hampers the performance level of call centers.
The Remedy
Yea, the call center industry in India is on a dangerous turn but still, the market share it holds is a big piece of cake. The country has 125 million English speaking population and every year, India produces 1.5 million engineers. That’s a huge chunk of the qualified population that is ready to assist your customers 24*7*365.
Call center provider in India is not naïve but quite nimble in the approach. To fight the issue of rising commercial real-estate pricing, Indian call centers are now targeting Tier 2 cities where the land doesn’t cost too much. This approach has been proved quite successful with a number of BPOs and Indian call centers are flaunting on cost factor again.
Indian BPOs have a track record of offering an exceptional customer experience to the businesses across the American and European continent. Despite some unprecedented happenings, the reputation of Indian call centers is still at the apex. The reason is India’s continuous adherence with the advanced technology. A good slice of Indian call centers is equipped with up-to-the-minute technology and tools that are needed to provide unparalleled assistance to the customers. The utilization of AI, RPA, cloud, and sophisticated tools help Indian call centers to remain steps ahead of their counterparts.
To sort out the “Accent” issue, Indian call centers have been hiring western vocal trainers to bring Indian agent’s vocabulary and speech deliverance in tandem with the customers in the USA, UK, and Australia. Indians are quite competent in the technical domain and with the constant training schedule, agents are also catching their pace to erode the competition.
To make the work environment much better, Indian call centers have been monitoring their workforce much closely. The employees are getting much higher pays and better perks. In a nutshell, even though some hurdles exist, the future of call center service provider in India doesn’t look crummy to me.
This is the reason that businesses are still choosing Indian BPOs for chat support outsourcing, customer support, back-office tasks, etc.
What do you think? Are Indian call centers going to enjoy their dominance or will we see a new power rise? Share your views in the comments. Thanks!
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