subject: Unlikely Partners: Bpo And Fifa! [print this page] Who would have thought about BPO units having anything to do with football! After all, call center sectors are hardcore business enterprises and the FIFA World Cup is all about sports and entertainment. But if you belong to the 21st century, you cant do anything to avoid the business process outsourcing industry, can you? True to its reputation of being omnipresent, the answering service agents are making the FIFA World Cup 2010 tick like the parts of a Swiss clock! Thanks to the relentless efforts of dedicated inbound call center employees working round the clock, visitors, fans and tourists are enjoying their stay in South Africa.
The tourism department of South Africa knew that the FIFA World Cup would be a logistical battle. With 9 weeks for the event to get underway, the department recruited a 25-member call center team. The aim of the inbound call center team was to provide all kinds of support for the football fans coming to the country to watch matches or just on a holiday. The BPO firm handling the project knew that the number of calls would shoot up as the tournament drew close. They were receiving some 100 calls every day. When the gala sporting event kicked off, the call volume went up to 1000 calls per day!
The call center managers realized that they had to inject more manpower to deal with the onslaught of eager FIFA World Cup fans. The workforce went up to 50. The helpline numbers were flashed across the internet and distraught fans were encouraged to call the numbers for information on lodging, matches and transport conveyances. There was a definite pattern in which the inbound call center agents wanted things to progress. They were trying to place a method on this madness. Enquiry centers of this nature were just what the doctor ordered. Fans called up eagerly for information related to anything they got stuck with.
The South African FIFA World Cup committee was also interested to promote the event on the social media. The call center employees created Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Fans and football freaks could post their queries on these pages. The inbound call center employees managing the accounts would answer those. The FIFA committee realizes that social media is the new-age way of promoting the event online. Generating revenue for the tourism and hospitality industry was also a primary driving focus for these efforts. Because the FIFA World Cup is a world event of this magnitude, fans across the globe would be interested in trivia as well, if not anything else!
Language was another issue that the call center units had to address. They had initially planned to offer their answering service facilities in 5 different international languages. However, as the calls started tumbling in, the inbound call center team decided to include 2 more languages into their oeuvre. The BPO agents now have more on their plate than they had bargained for. But they are not complaining. They would feel themselves rewarded when the curtains come down on this event without any major goof-up.
