Nearly 75% of call centres have shut down: ACCO chief
Nearly 75% of call centres have shut down: ACCO chief
By Romail KennethKARACHI:
Nearly 75 percent of the registered call centres have either closed down, or are using the call centres equipments for other businesses. The business of call centres in Pakistan is badly hurt and is declining due to the political crisis in the country, said Abdullah Butt President, Association of Call Centre Operators (ACCO) Pakistan. Mr Butt said the call centre business is totally dependent upon the international business contracts, and the international companies choose to outsource their work to a country, where they are confident that their investment will not go into the drain due to the absence of law and order or political uncertainty. The blame is on the foreign trade missions abroad, who have failed to present the actual picture of Pakistan to the prospective business houses internationally, he added. He said there is a wrong perception about foreign direct investment in call centres, as most of the call centres have been created with local investments by either public offerings, industrial groups, or individuals. At present the future of the call centre industry is facing a tough time and in the current scenario the industry analysts are forecasting further decline. However, apart from the country’s negative image in the international market for the potential business providers non cooperative behaviour of PTCL, the bandwidth provider to the call centers, lacks qualified HR professionals and is also playing a major role in the declining trend of the industry, he added. The president ACCO himself admitted that only a few years ago, call centres’ business was booming in Pakistan. Many youngsters were employed in large numbers at those call centres. However, with the passage of time, the call centres were reportedly losing their glamour and are becoming a less important feature of the business sector in Pakistan. On the other hand one of the most interesting fact is that the ACCO itself does not know how many call centres are operating in the country. When Daily Times conducted a survey of the call centres in Karachi, it was revealed that most of the call centres were offering low salaries and some of them are offering less than Rs 8,000 for duty of eight to ten hours. While in every Sunday’s newspaper you can see call centres’ executives offering attractive salaries, but when people go over for an interview they are offered less than five figures. According to most of the call centres’ employees call centres have started losing charm. This is, firstly, because the job is stressful in nature. Unlike other ordinary jobs, the call centres’ employees work at night, because night hours in Asia coincide with working hours in Europe and US, where the customers of the companies are living. Thus, the call centres’ employees are deprived of their night’s sleep and a majority of them cannot keep up with such a job for a long time.It is quite unfortunate that 10 percent of English-speaking people outside the US and United Kingdom live in Pakistan, but there are only a few call centres here while in India there are more than 350,000, which constitute a big revenue earning industry. According to the industry’s analysts, the overseas clients continuously wanted the price to be lowered, which adversely affected the quality of service. Poor quality of service, in some cases, resulted in frustration to customers who sometimes use insulting tones while complaining to the operators. The Indian operators naturally did not like abusive customers. This was one of the reasons why the majority of the call centres’ employees decided to quit their jobs in the very first year.
By Romail KennethKARACHI:
Nearly 75 percent of the registered call centres have either closed down, or are using the call centres equipments for other businesses. The business of call centres in Pakistan is badly hurt and is declining due to the political crisis in the country, said Abdullah Butt President, Association of Call Centre Operators (ACCO) Pakistan. Mr Butt said the call centre business is totally dependent upon the international business contracts, and the international companies choose to outsource their work to a country, where they are confident that their investment will not go into the drain due to the absence of law and order or political uncertainty. The blame is on the foreign trade missions abroad, who have failed to present the actual picture of Pakistan to the prospective business houses internationally, he added. He said there is a wrong perception about foreign direct investment in call centres, as most of the call centres have been created with local investments by either public offerings, industrial groups, or individuals. At present the future of the call centre industry is facing a tough time and in the current scenario the industry analysts are forecasting further decline. However, apart from the country’s negative image in the international market for the potential business providers non cooperative behaviour of PTCL, the bandwidth provider to the call centers, lacks qualified HR professionals and is also playing a major role in the declining trend of the industry, he added. The president ACCO himself admitted that only a few years ago, call centres’ business was booming in Pakistan. Many youngsters were employed in large numbers at those call centres. However, with the passage of time, the call centres were reportedly losing their glamour and are becoming a less important feature of the business sector in Pakistan. On the other hand one of the most interesting fact is that the ACCO itself does not know how many call centres are operating in the country. When Daily Times conducted a survey of the call centres in Karachi, it was revealed that most of the call centres were offering low salaries and some of them are offering less than Rs 8,000 for duty of eight to ten hours. While in every Sunday’s newspaper you can see call centres’ executives offering attractive salaries, but when people go over for an interview they are offered less than five figures. According to most of the call centres’ employees call centres have started losing charm. This is, firstly, because the job is stressful in nature. Unlike other ordinary jobs, the call centres’ employees work at night, because night hours in Asia coincide with working hours in Europe and US, where the customers of the companies are living. Thus, the call centres’ employees are deprived of their night’s sleep and a majority of them cannot keep up with such a job for a long time.It is quite unfortunate that 10 percent of English-speaking people outside the US and United Kingdom live in Pakistan, but there are only a few call centres here while in India there are more than 350,000, which constitute a big revenue earning industry. According to the industry’s analysts, the overseas clients continuously wanted the price to be lowered, which adversely affected the quality of service. Poor quality of service, in some cases, resulted in frustration to customers who sometimes use insulting tones while complaining to the operators. The Indian operators naturally did not like abusive customers. This was one of the reasons why the majority of the call centres’ employees decided to quit their jobs in the very first year.
posted by India News Watch at 9:43 AM
<< Home