CALL CENTER Marketing: The Toughest Challenge

At
iEnergizer, we have staff meetings every Monday. One of the agenda items is to
compile a list of new call centers. This exercise is more to understand the
various definitions of call centers prevailing in the market and less to track
competition. The primary source of this information are calls that are received
by our team from various recruitment consultants who represent large business
groups. In our findings, although not a structured attempt by any standard, call
centers mushrooming across the country fall under two broad categories. First,
who have money, real estate and no management skills on the IT enabled services.
Second, who have perceived or real business opportunity in North America, Europe
or Australia. The scope of this article covers neither category. I would like to
concentrate on a category, which is a combination of both.

Contrary to the chicken and egg theory prevalent about the IT enabled sector,
there is only one approach to this business. Setup the infrastructure, get
connected, showcase some staff strength and then approach the market for
business. In my opinion, any other formula will not work. Customers, who are
seriously considering India as a destination for outsourcing, will need to see
the amount of investment that has already been made. In shortlisting the
possible CRM partners, level of readiness is often a key parameter. ‘Virtual’
call centers (on drawing board stage) are not likely to get a client. During my
last visit abroad to meet various potential clients, one client shared an
interesting experience. After many months of planning a visit to India, he
finally visited in December last year. He had a list of potential business
partners to visit. Prominent amongst them was this very influential businessman,
who had hounded him mercilessly for a visit. Almost two days were budgeted for
this visit in Mumbai. He met a lot of related and unrelated individuals who had
much to contribute towards the status of the industry. Even on the second day,
there was no site visit. He insisted on being taken to the place where the
action was. Somewhere in Navi Mumbai, one big patch of grass was shown to the
client. The businessman proudly proclaimed, that was where his call center will
come up in the next two months! Understandably so, this client wanted to see
very concrete proof of our call center.

Such activities will go a long way to discredit India as a serious player in
the call center business. Most Americans (I am sure Europeans too) spend quality
time and effort in planning a visit to India to shortlist outsourcing partners.
They are accountable for feedback they provide to their management. There is
zero chance of getting long-term, high margin business if the facility cannot be
showcased as almost ready.

Setting up an infrastructure in India, is probably the easiest part. The
challenge lies in convincing the First World to do business with India. The
selling starts at the country level, i.e. India vs. Philippine, India vs. Cuba,
India vs. Mexico or India vs. Ireland. Many countries are being added to this
list as time passes. China is also becoming a real threat now. Philippines and
Ireland have demonstrated their capability. Both countries have awesome
government support to take this industry forward. This was evident to whoever
visited the CRM show in Los Angeles this year. Both Philippines and Ireland were
represented at the country level. Mexico and Cuba have language advantage. Both
can offer Spanish-speaking agents, which is a big plus point for North America.
China will always beat anybody and everybody on price. The good news is that
India has already established itself as a credible destination for IT related
jobs and size, and the population of the country tilts the balance in our favor.
While looking for business, it is worthwhile to be completely prepared to have
good sales on the Indian pitch.

Assessing the kind of jobs, within the broad framework of IT, the jobs will
become clearer, once the industry matures and we have experiences to share. For
the time being, taking on pilot projects and then ramping up, is the norm.
Pilots give the flexibility of judging the project in totality, including the
operational bottlenecks, if any. Some decisions like voice-based jobs or web
based jobs etc have to be taken at the infrastructure stage. Ramping up will
require signing of fairly strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with client. In
India, almost all call centers are fighting the SLA battle with their hands
crossed. While they sign up, there is nothing in the backend to support this SLA.
Connectivity vendors will not sign SLAs. Infrastructure and maintenance vendors
will not sign SLAs. Therefore, the burden of execution is entirely that of the
call center. This is a typical Indian problem. However, the initial players will
have to just grit their teeth and sign on the dotted line. Hopefully, in the
near future, suppliers will start providing SLAs to call centers, which in turn,
will give immense confidence to the call centers on service delivery.

Having signed up a contract, a relevant and capable team is needed to take
the project forward and ensure delivery as per the expected norm. The client
also watches this team very closely. Whether the business acquires a sizable
proportion, will depend on the insight and talent of the operations team. The
players involved are recruitment consultants, training consultants, employees,
etc, who will have to demonstrate tremendous self-constraint and help in
building a solid industry base. Making quick and easy money will result in
premature demise of a fledgling industry.

Sonali Verma, COO,
iEenergizer Inc.