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CRM and BPO: Linking
Indians globally?
The BPO
industry is making the global economy really small, discovers MOHAN BABU,
when a tele-marketer calls him up all the way from Bangalore, to sell an
insurance policy. The only dilemma for him—whether to give in to patriotic
urges and patronise the caller or hang up the phone
CRM and BOI
finally came home, literally, last week. Even after reading so much on the
BPO hype and the call centre movement in India, I was probably not prepared
to experience it firsthand, not as a user at least. A few days ago, I got a
call just when we were sitting down for dinner. Another pesky tele-marketer,
I thought to myself as I picked up the phone. Sure enough, it was a
tele-marketer, although it was not just another caller. It was an Indian
tele-marketer calling on behalf of Prudential (or was it Progressive?),
trying to sell me an insurance policy.
This got me
thinking about Indians and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). How our entry
into the BPO industry has made the global economy really small. Sitting in
Bangalore, Sharma (the caller’s name modified), was able to call his
customer thousands of miles away and attempted to persuade him to buy the
products and services being offered by a multinational company.
A number of
multinationals have successfully outsourced their call centre operations to
India, where an educated, English-speaking workforce with special training
in language, accents and phonic usage manages them, providing a cheaper,
cost-effective alternative to global clientele. Needless to say, Indian
technical entrepreneurship has ensured that behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts
in the form of high-speed data and voice lines, call centre and
communication equipment, and managers, are available to facilitate smooth
operations. The market for Indian IT-enabled services (ITES) industry is
currently around $875 million.
Back to my
encounter with Indian BPO in the US: Sharma, was extremely polite,
introduced himself by name and after mentioning his company and service,
started off with, “Mr Babu, how are you this evening?” I guess he realised
that he was talking to an Indian and decided not to put on an accent
(another market lesson in cultural sensitivity?) I, however, was not going
to interrupt my dinner and wanted to politely end the conversation as soon
as I could. Sharma, the trained salesman that he was, was unwilling to let
his fish slip away. He switched over to a cajoling tone, saying, “Mr Babu,
please, please just listen to me”— reminding me of the old Eureka Forbes
salesmen I used to encounter back in Bangalore. When he realised that I
would be unwilling to relent, he decided on another tactic: “Do you know of
any other Indian friend of yours who may be interested in Prudential?”
At that
instant my mind was in a state of conflict. Do I become overly patriotic and
patronise the caller just because he happened to be calling his NRI
“brother” for a favour, or do I hang up like I do to most other unsolicited
callers who happen to interrupt my lunch, dinner or siesta?
My dinner was
getting cold and my wife was already giving me quizzical looks (“What are
you doing chatting with a tele-marketer?” she seemed to be asking), and I
decided to hang up. Better luck next time, Mr Sharma!
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