BPO training center for the disabled in Bangalore

Not for profit organisation the Samarthanam Trust has set up a contact center training group for disabled people in the Indian BPO hub of Bangalore.

The group, Samarthanam 'Shristi', aims to create a corporate training environment in Business Processing Operations (BPO) and call operations to disabled youth. The group has been initiated in association with the Department of Welfare of the Disabled and Senior Citizens, the government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances.

The training center and contact center facilities will be accessible to disabled youth, accommodating around 300 people per year across the state of Karnataka. "At a time, we can train 75 candidates. This will include persons with varying levels of disability, and we will tie up with several corporates to get them placed," says Swaroopa Venkatesh, Communications Manager, Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled. "We have five or six BPO firms on board unofficially," she added. Samarthanam has evolved the training module which includes the latest and the best inputs from the BPO industry. Training in technical and non-technical areas like call management, tele-calling, communication skills, accent training, customer service, soft skills, client relations & conflict management will be imparted to the staff.

Air China banks on improved service to gain edge

China's largest international carrier Air China plans to boost its customer service in its bid to "take on the competition" for coveted international routes.

Air China says it is working on more than 100 service improvements to lure in business and increase its revenue, especially in first and business class. Some of the improvements to the passenger's service experience will cover contact center operations, onboard catering, seat comfort, in-flight entertainment and maintenance and cleaning. The airline is also deploying a mobile-phone text messaging system for passengers.

"This year we want to focus on improving services," said Senior Vice President He Li. "We couldn't do it during the financial crisis as then we were tied up with just avoiding losses."

Offshoring creates good jobs in developing countries

The trend of offshoring contact center work has created good jobs in terms of pay and working hours in developing countries, according to a new study.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) study refutes the claims that outsourcing of such work has created "cyber-coolies" or "electronic sweatshops", said ILO researcher Jon Messenger. "The jobs being created in offshore business services in developing countries are reasonably good quality jobs by local standards in terms of wages and working conditions," he said.

Wages are below those for similar jobs in richer countries, but average pay in the sector in India is nearly double that in other areas of the formal economy, the ILO study found. In the Philippines they were typically 53% higher than other jobs. However, negative factors such as frequent night work to handle customers' different time zones, and demanding targets enforced by electronic monitoring resulting in a low level of worker autonomy, led to extremely high levels of staff turnover.

Korea's main postal service provider will set up a new contact center service as part of plans to transform itself into a regional, multi-service company.

Korea Post says it plans to harness the nation's cutting edge information technologies to become a global company offering logistics, finance and social infrastructure. In a related effort, it will operate a comprehensive contact center which will enable local residents to make reports in case of crimes, forest fires and environment distortion.

"Based on our nationwide network, we will rise to become a global company by linking individuals to individuals, individuals with private firms, firms with firms and making integration efforts for the country," said Korea Post president Namgung Min.

 'your call' blog
by Dr Catriona Wallace

Indian Contact Centre Consumer Experience and OMG! Indian Service Now Rocks....

I am just back from a week in India. As ever India was amazing.

In the next few months a new academic and practitioner Journal will be launched by a UK based publisher, which is titled the Journal of Contact Centre Management, which will include articles from international researchers and practitioners. I have written a paper for the inaugural issue, titled, "The Indian Call Centre Experience: Better than you might think". The paper focuses on the Indian consumer experience of the Indian contact centre and reveals that Indians rate their own contact centre experience a lot higher than mature market's consumers, such as Australians, rate their own country's contact centre experience.

Read the full blog here .....

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