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The alarm rings loudly, it’s midnight. My sweet dreams were so young, yet my impulses push me to wake up. Confused whether or not to brush my teeth, as I just slept for four hours and brushed my teeth then, I freshen up and dress within five minutes. The horn of the van shouts alarmingly outside my home. So I grab my identity card and diary, which used to be the data base containing the owner’s name, the phone number of the business, and phone numbers to be followed. Then I run out to the van, where all the other agents are sleeping and snoring.
My work begins: “May I speak to the owner there, it’s me Jenny calling you from a website designing and hosting company. We are offering you a sample website design for your business.” The person on the phone might reply, “Yes, this is the owner, what do you want?” or “No owner, call later,” or “Yes, I know you are calling from a website designing and hosting company…please take me off your list. If you can again, I will sue you, do you understand?” Or perhaps: “I’m not interested in your business,” or “Are you selling something, if so I’m not interested in your business,” or “It’s Saturday, I’m busy with my customers, could you call later,” or “It’s a subway, a corporate business, our head office has its own website, we appreciate your call,” or “Don’t call me, our business doesn’t need a website.”
We call nearly 400 – 500 numbers in eight hours, from 2:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., but customers interested in buying a domain of the website or redesigning the website are few—perhaps only one or two. Every call is of equal importance, for missing one call might cause you to miss the sale. Missing the sale means staying there for two more hours!
This is an example of outsourcing, i.e., the practice in which companies move or contract out some or all of their manufacturing or service operations to other companies that specialize in those operations or to companies in other countries. In both cases the practice is usually done to take advantage of lower-cost labor or other efficiencies.
In Nepal we name them call centers. Business is done in one country, especially in developed or developing countries where employees need not be paid as highly as in the owner company. It cannot be denied that call centers are flourishing in third world countries, India being one of the pioneers in South Asia. India earns an increasing amount of foreign exchange from call-center services that are out-sourced from businesses in the United States and other countries. Nepal is following India’s example.
Call centers usually look to hire younger people eighteen and older since the work is demanding and requires energetic people to talk to and pursue the listeners. In Nepal, especially students who can communicate in English after their inter of bachelor’s level join them. We also can find many students who are trying for study abroad. Their motive is to become good and fluent speakers of English.
Call centers demand strong discipline. Everyone is focused on their work. Yet there is freedom if you are able to maintain your scores. In break times and after office hours most of the employees can be found smoking. The reason is unclear, maybe it’s the demanding culture of call centers; however, most were habitual smokers before joining. Very few take up the habit after joining.
Everyone is very frank and you cannot forget friends made at call centers as it is the meeting place of people who have similar interests, are quite motivated, and of course are very enthusiastic and full of energy. It teaches a lot of things about the way of life of foreign countries, their culture, their way of thinking, and their way of tackling things. You can learn how to deal with people and how to convince them to listen to you.
Regarding salary, it is quite appreciable because an intermediate student earning more than Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 25,000 in the context of Nepal is a great thing. The salary depends on your qualifications and the post you are handling. In India salaries are a bit higher in comparison to Nepal because the business is competitive and of course there are higher sales.
Link tree, serving minds, and many more are good examples of outsourcing in Nepal. These companies are leading in business and have helped our country to earn foreign exchange and aided hundreds of students to obtain jobs. The drop out ratio is very high as the students are not stable at work, since they usually leave work for their higher studies. The policies and strategies of the companies are made in a similar manner. It’s the reason why we can find vacancy announcements every Wednesday in The Himalayan Times.
Specialized outsourced services are popular in the USA, UK, Australia, etc. There are different working shifts. Since the times of Asian, European, or American countries differ from eight to ten hours, when we are working nights here, those countries have day time. So to do business in the USA at day time we have to work afternoons, evenings, or early mornings.
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Comments
great work Yas Atta ur Rehman Qureashi | May 25th, 2009
keep it up very welldon
Good Surya Gaire | May 25th, 2009
I was really confused when i read your first two para, but going through i found it was fantastic. Keep it up
Yashoda | May 25th, 2009
The first two paragraph consists of the usual routine in call center...
Great piece Sagar Ghimire | Jul 20th, 2010
Interesting write-up. Have read the similiar story in the "One Night @ Call Center" by Chetang Bhagat but the difference is you have been able to point some merits in working call center whereas the Chetan Bhagat heve pointed how the workers are exploited in this centers.
Yashoda | Jul 21st, 2010
Thanks Sagar..The call senter where I worked was good and it really treated its workers very well. Chetang Bhagat might be an Indian writer, so there are lots of happenings in call centers. As Nepal is small and call centers are few we can rarely find expoitations, however, in Nepal expoitations are found bnut it depends upon what u call exploitation.
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