India is only second to China in terms of population and from official figures and statistics is all set to occupy the top spot by 2025. This is not at all a thing to be proud of and several aftermaths and consequences will have to be suffered by Indians as a direct result of this population explosion. The biggest of them will definitely be unemployment especially among the youth.

The educational scenario in India has improved considerably over the past decade and today the literacy rate is very high especially in cities. But with the growing number of educated youth, the problem of getting a suitable job to meet the daily needs of the family becomes a big problem. The IT and ITES industries have been the biggest source of relief for majority of these educated youth and is still continuing to provide a earning for millions across India.

Call Centers rising to the occasion

One of the basic IT jobs available today is obviously call centers. Call centers were the first of ITES based industries to offer massive job opportunities to mere graduates and Plus two passed students.  They offered decent remuneration and has helped the lower class people improve a lot by employing youth who were sufficiently educated from these sections of Society.

So what basically is a call center job?

To be very specific a Call Center is a service centre that provides customers with suitable help in various products and services via telephones, emails and or text messages. These service centers will be equippedwith the necessary telecom and internet facilities needed to deliver timely service to customers.

Call centers have a wide spectrum of operation ranging from Banking, Logistics, Electronic equipments, Computers, Internet and telephone services, healthcare, Insurance, Billing and various other fields.

This wide array of working hemisphere makes it a suitable career option for millions of unemployed youth in India who have good educational and English standard.

Call Centers used to offer only voice based support initially and that also to domestic companies and customers. But with the advent of newer telecom infrastructures, foreign investments and the rising talent pool in India, Call centers began offering a comprehensive support agenda spread out in Voice, Chat, e mail, text and other forms of communication.

Call centers now offer selling and procurement services also through their various communication channels. They deal in talking a customer into buying a particular product and also acquiring fees and or service charge from customers for various company products and services.

The rise in English speaking youth have resulted in many companies utilizing the English wealth to provide call center support services to US and UK based customers.

What you must possess?

Dealing with the eligibility criteria for a Call Center job, there is no specific requirement for any type of call center based job. Many companies offering such jobs demand that the candidate be well versed in English and must also have good computer knowledge.

The job requires intense training in a lot of things like good communication skills, good listening skills, slang recognition and adaptation for various international projects the candidate may work on and many more.

A Customer Service Executive (CSE) or officer working in a call center must have good analytical and problem solving skills. He or she should listen patiently to the grievances of the customer, find out the root cause of the problem and provide the most appropriate solution to their problem. In fact the CSE should maintain a healthy and friendly conversational environment between him and the calling customer.

For services such as telemarketing companies often prefer students with a flair for marketing and those who have a diploma or degree in marketing from a good institute. This is mainly because they will have to persuade the customer and make them buy a product from their client’s line up. Customer persuasion requires a lot of marketing strategies.

A Customer Service Executive should always have a pleasing personality and must never irritate or behave rudely with a customer no matter how much level of intolerance and impatience the customer may create for him.  Often customers who have no basic knowledge of the product might call in for seeking help and you may have to repeat instructions and patiently provide them with the necessary details regarding their query.

Extensive Training is required

It is the Fresher’s who have to undergo a strict training routine to get familiarized with the necessary slang requirements, computer operations and database updating and selection procedures and they will have to be thoroughly educated about the client’s products. They will be subjected to training that deals with all possible failures and malfunction scenarios of the product or service of the client so that they can quickly deal with problems that customers put up before them.

It is usually the companies hiring them that provide them with this training and there is no specification of a particular time period for training as the training is almost an ongoing process that goes along with the job.

Challenges and issues

There are hardships that you have to face like shift in work timings. Many international clients require operation at Night to provide service to their customers who reside in a different time zone from that of India. Frequent sleepless nights and gluing to computer screens and headsets often cause migraine and other eye problems.

Job Prospects

With more and more companies offering call center services to other companies the job prospects in this field is all set to increase and there is no dearth in talent. It is by far the best option for fresher’s with not too good academic background but has a decent flair for English and basic computer knowledge. Chances are open for housewives and retired folks also.

Remuneration

The pay scale in a Call center is not at all bad. Freshers will receive compensation packages ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 15000 per month depending on the company hiring them. Experienced executives will receive up to Rs 25000 a month from well reputed companies.

Final Word

Even though not a very high profile job, a career in a call center is a best option for those who have to earn a living for themselves and their family and has only limited academic skills to try out another profession.