Standards too high?

Hello All,

I have been noticing the boom in the call centre industry here in India. The call centre revolution came in with the advent of MNC’s innovating a way of customer service which was cost effective. The advancement and development in telecom made it possible for customers to be served across countries in spite of geographical limitations, which would have previously rendered this impossible. In comes India where the population growth is set at a target of infinity and a majority of whom are adding more letters behind their name than the length of an average sentence. Now I have seen in other countries where people are inducted into call centres if they have basic communication skills. Qualifications are rarely looked upon and ample amount of training is provided on the job. But in India qualification for a person to be able to work in a call centre is a minimum of a graduate (other certifications are an added advantage!). Also the cut off age limit is 28 years old! Now this is surprising as in first world countries they seem to prefer people over the age of 28 as this age group is considered to be more responsible, stable and level headed hence being a perfect match for the job of customer service.

I have heard of many managers and team leaders lament that this is a very volatile industry and staff retention is very low etc. This seems to be a case of one chasing ones own shadow. For this industry to be made less volatile mature people need to be made present who will come to work because they are more stable and have a family to feed. Entry needs to be made more open for people with skills not just qualifications. I mean what does qualification have to do with providing customer service. This is a new industry where unless the government and people start making some changes soon, business will start flowing away to other countries with better infrastructure and facilities.

Anand Iyer