When we go through the daily morning newspaper we find that there are plenty of jobs still available in the BPO sector compared to any other jobs. The basic fact behind this is that getting a job in a bpo sector is not that difficult if one has certain required skill sets for the job. But then in our day to day life we find people who have totally indifferent conception towards this job. One thing is sure that no matter how much we claim that we all are aware about this job but I personally believe that there are certain traits about bpo which is still needed to be explored by the common man. I am giving here a detail description about the job after working in this sector for quite sometime now and I feel that if only we know the details about this job all our doubts regarding the same will get cleared. Let's check out the future prospects, work environment, success matter, growth and salary etc relating to the jobs in this sector.
Reasons for popularity
It is a bare fact that due to rapid globalization the numbers of call centres in India are increasing then what it was before. Every company needs to have a good back up of customer support for their products and services. Therefore, to fulfill this requirement the companies get this job done by outsourcing this to the agencies. BPO is such a process where a company keeps the core activity in their hands and get the peripheral activities done by the other agencies. Now these so called agencies have the required and qualified manpower to do this job of outsourcing given to them by the companies. In this case, the main intention of the mother company is to get the job done as cheaply as possible. Through outsourcing margin of profit, share value and efficiency of a product increases. Therefore the impact of outsourcing is felt in the international market.
Purchasing, disbursement, order entry, billing collection, human resource, administration, cash and investment, management, payroll, tax compliance etc falls under the various categories of bpo jobs. In our country bpo jobs has taken the shape of service sector.
Outsourcing and India
In the last few years India is undoubtedly the preferred choice by the outsourcing companies in the international market and there are a whole lot of good reasons for it. First and the foremost point is that the majority of the present Indians could converse and communicate in English properly. Besides, the work force in India is quite ahead in technical talent. Secondly, availability of cheap labour in India to do the job is another great factor for the inclination of these country towards our country. Big companies like American Express and IBM has opened their offices in India just because of the fact of the availability of cheap labour. According to a latest survey, it has been found that eighty-two percent of the American countries find India suitable for software outsourcing. Among the fortune five hundred companies almost fifty percent of the companies do the outsourcing business solely with India.
Nature of Job
Call Centre is a generalised term through which inbound and outbound call handling service is done. A call centre could be a help desk, information line, reservation centre or a customer service centre.
Types of Call Centres:
* Inbound - Inbound call centres are those call centres where customer queries are solved by the customer care executives (CCE) through a phone line and a computer.
* Outbound - Outbound call centres are those call centres where the customer care executives call the customers to seek business from them.
* Blended - In a blended call centre, generally customer calls are answered or they are called upon according to the requirement of the job.
* Web based Centres - In these types of call centres, contact with customers are done through e-mails or with the help of web.
In India most of the call centres are based on sales, marketing and customer care. Moreover, employees of international call centres work five days in a week whereas employees of domestic call centres work for almost six days in a week.
BPO-Voice Support
Suppose if a customer or a buyer calls a helpline number then it will be the job of the Customer Care Executive to listen to the customer's query and provide resolution to the customer with the help of his/her computer data base. If the CCE finds any problem in answering the customer's query, he/she might contact might contact the team leader or an online expert to do so. Besides, those who work in tech support they go through a special training for the technical knowledge for a period of time which is provided by the company free of cost.
BPO-Non-Voice
Different types of jobs are done in the non-voice process of a bpo. For example, in Wipro work related to medical insurance is done while in contrast to this in Dell financial work is done by the employees. For the sake of understanding, suppose a bank based in America has outsourced its job to a bpo. Now the bank will send all the details of the credit card applications to the bpo. Now the bpo employees prepare a list of the credit card applicants and send it back to the company. It is worthwhile to mention here that medical transcription is also a kind of bpo.
In BPOs employees work in different shifts. In some big companies like Wipro and IBM there is an arrangement of pick up and drop facility for the employees free of cost. To start a carrier in a call centre one can start work here as a CCE but in due time, say after two to three years of work, they are promoted to the next level where they don't have to take any calls but to look after the other activities of the process or the organization in general. For those who want to work in a BPO but don't like the idea of taking calls or speaking over the phone they can opt for non-voice process. There is a general thinking among people that those who doesn't have English as their first language cannot work in a bpo but believe me, the conception is totally wrong for the majority of the employees who work in a bpo have English as their second language.
Minimum Qualification
The minimum qualification required to work as a Customer Care Executive (CCE) is higher secondary or ten plus two but there are call centres which recruits only graduates. Apart from the educational qualification one needs to be proficient in speaking and understanding English. A good command over the language English is an added advantage for the candidates who want to seek career as bpo employees. One important thing to mention in this regard is that there are call centres or bpos which provides its employees the opportunity to go for higher studies like MBAs or Post graduation courses. In this case the company provides the salary while the employees go for the higher studies while working for the company. According to a senior executive of a call centre company, one of the key features of bpo jobs is neutral accent or speaking English grammatically correct and in such a way which is easily understandable by the people of any geographical location. Besides, computer literacy and typing skill is considered as an added advantage. If anyone wants to work in a call centre, he or she might take some basic training regarding the same from a wide range of institutes available now-a-days and then apply for the same. In most cases the training institutes where one is getting trained helps in finding suitable call centre jobs for the trainees. But it is always advisable to find out and do some research work about the reputation of an institute regarding placements before finally taking admission from any one of them.
Interview
Generally in call centres candidates are selected for two kinds of processes namely the non-tech executives (voice process) and tech executives (non-voice process).
Voice Process
During selection, the candidates has to go through four to eight rounds of interviews and every round is an elimination round. Generally in a domestic call centre the interview rounds are less in number compared to the international ones. Basically, the candidates has to go through the typing tests, HR interview round and the most important self-introduction round. One needs to speak for at least two minutes on any given topic by the interviewer.
In international call centres together with this rounds there are also passage reading test, English comprehension and grammar and sometimes one has to go through the telephonic round whereby clarity of voice is checked. For those candidates who are out-stationed or leaving in far away places from the offices a provision of telephonic round of interview is arranged for them. There is another written technical examination, together with these examinations, but the good thing about this round is that it is not an elimination round.
Non-voice Process
For this process Graduates or higher secondary passed candidates are required. They need to have at least two years of bpo work experience. Normally for this process a candidate has to go through at least five rounds of interviews namely 1) typing test, 2) Arithmetic or numerical test in which one needs to answer twenty-five questions in twenty minutes, 3) English Grammar and Comprehension test for which the time limit given is twenty minutes, 4) E-mail writing test and 5) Personal Interview test.
Who Can Work
* A candidate needs to have a H.S. pass certificate or a Graduation degree to work in a call centre. Anyone between the ages of eighteen and forty years could work in a call centre.
* A good command over English and a good communication skill is required if one needs to achieve success in this sector.
* Neutral accent is another important requirement for the job and one needs to speak English grammatically correct so that people from any geographical location could understand him/her properly.
* A good temperament and mental toughness is required for the job apart from ones academic qualifications. Further, one should be ready to work in night shifts and need to be physically sound too.
* Some soft skills like communication skills, politeness and smart work is also required to do the job for the candidates. Very often one needs to deal with irate customers and ones needs to deal with them in a very cool and understanding way.
Salary and Growth
When a fresher joins a call centre as a CCR ( Customer Care Representative ) or CCE (Customer Care Executive) he or she gets a salary ranging from rupees eight thousand to fifteen thousands. In domestic call centres this salary range is a bit low but in due time with promotion salary increases. When one gets promoted from Executives to Supervisors or Team leaders the salary range there is around rupees seventeen thousands to rupees twenty-five thousands. Generally for this promotion to happen, an employee needs to have an experience of two to three years in a call centre. The very next level is team management and salary range for this position is around three to five lakhs annually. Training manager gets five to eight lakhs annually.
How to get a BPO job?
Nearly eighty percent of the employees of a bpo work as a CSR or a CSA and hence the vacancy is also big for this position. Almost all big companies give advertisements in daily newspapers and one just needs to keep an eye on them. Besides, there are many online sites like Naukri and Monster where one can upload his/her resume and if a company finds a resume suitable for a post in their company they call the candidate for the interview. Apart from these methods, one can apply directly online by going to the respective companies sites and uploading their individual details and resume and wait for their opportunity to come.
It is beyond one's doubt now, that the whole picture of the job market has changed in modern India starting from the states of Bangalore, Noida, Gurgaon, Kolkata to all the different nooks and corners of the country because of the advent of the business process outsourcing or simply bpo in our country. It is important to mention here that back in the year 1990, India started entering or emerging into the BPO world concept in tiny small steps joining hands with companies like British Airways and GE. Now, within fifteen to twenty years the whole scenario has changed and the BPO industry has spread far and wide within the country and in job market the name BPO is very well known and famous as of now.