The Proliferation of Call Centers in India - A Boon or A Bane?

Posted by Swapnil Shukla

The number of call centers that have increased in India in the past decade is superabundant. A big amount of workforce works in hundreds of call centers located in almost all the big and small cities of the country. But the jobs in call centers is no more that prized as it used to be in the past few years. This is a very frequently asked question that exactly “How many call centers are in India”, but there is no definite answer to this, as the list is endless. Though it can be estimated in percentage form which is approximately 66 percent of all the call centers all over the world. But the business platform of call centers in India is still not cul-de-sac. All the multinational companies being established far away in a western land brought their operations in India to fuel their efficiency and therefore the country commands the maximum share of the offshore business. In fact, most of the westerners know the country as offshore dial center service country. This has all achieved due to long lived commitment, dedication and concern to provide quality solutions and resolve numerous issues.

Exodus to the Call Centers in the Metro Locations

The Indian entrepreneurs have realized this long ago that the reach of call centers is boundless and invested a big chunk of money in business outsourcing ventures. Every year, thousands of youngsters leave their comfortable homes somewhere in the Himalayas or in beautiful coastal regions to apply for BPO positions in the metro cities. Among these graduates were once bright students in their respective colleges and some are even just school passed. As there are some call center jobs which do not require even a graduate degree. They are then trained to speak in a fake English accent generally UK or US form of English. It is no longer considered a good or prestigious career and is just a quick way to earn money. The youngsters working in these Indian call centers have realized the drawbacks such as night shifts and lack of career progression. But there is a brighter side to it. The other rising question is “How many call centers are in India who are investing in domestic projects?”. The answer to this is many. With this Indian economy is growing fast and will indubitably. As now there are many big MNC’s are established here in the country itself or have their parent company here. This brings more in-house jobs for our Indian youngsters. These India based companies will obviously look for a call center for their Indian customers and without any doubt will chose an Indian call center to serve their customers.

The Taboo around the Call Center Business

But there is no incertitude about the taboo which people carry regarding the working culture in the call centers. BPO jobs are a blessing in disguise for the unemployed or unqualified (for some highly qualified jobs) young generation of India. These unemployed youngsters could have mingled into some bad habits or illegal jobs or could have been easily misguided by monsters present in the market who are in search of these disoriented youngsters. Between all this these call centers are giving employment options for a huge population. Now coming back to the call center culture debate with which we started, these call centers is delivering a proper corporate culture which stores great potential to learn a lot and get familiar to the discipline of the corporate world. Also it’s not all about the culture, it’s the great money they earn in these call centers which they can further use in their future studies. In most of the call centers, the employees are provided with free transportation and meal services which helps them to save a good percentage of money from their salary. This feeling of self-confidence which these savings bring in these youngsters motivates them to work hard in future.

Who says that one cannot make a future out of a Call Center Job

Also talking to international clients imports a sense of boldness which guides them to build a good personality. Which some youngsters started as a part time work became a full time career option after achieving such success and getting accolades all across. But this level of respect which this field has achieved took a very long time as back in those years it was looked down upon as job been picked up from the gutter. This was no exception in the narrow minded Indian societies. Many professions in India are still looked down or are considered not worthy to do so this was not something new. Apart from these advantages of working in a call center, there is one more. There is little or no chance of any kind of recession in this field. There are plentiful of Fortune 500 companies and meanwhile we are going through this article there might be any planning going on to establish one more. There will come no time that these companies will not be in need of the call centers serving their customers. The biggest advantage of these call centers in India is their contribution in the improvement of the GDP of our country and not to forget the foreign exchange or foreign currency investments which adds up to the economy of our country.

As every path has its Puddle, working in a Call Centers also come up with some disadvantages

Nevertheless, having all those benefits and perks of working in a call center, it consists of some detrimental shortcomings. One of the main drawback is the abominable behavior of the customers on the other side of the call towards the call center employees. There are times when people with a foreign accent face problem to understand the Indian English accent, so they get irritated very easily and after some time this irritation converts into frustration and they start using foul words. The call center employees have to go through this once in a week on an average. This kind of disrespectful behavior horrifies them and is demeaning to their job.

Apart from the disparagement which these call centers employees go through, one other major problem is the odd timing of the shifts. The graveyard shifts cascades into our daily health problems like digestive problems, head and back pain etc. and stress is the most prominent of all of them and is one of the main reasons of employees leaving the call center jobs and shifting to day jobs. The call center working for the domestic projects are more preferred to the ones working for international clients.

This is just a part of this industries, there are many hidden stories which are cannot be explained clearly within the limits of an article.

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