The call center industry is going through major changes. There are new emerging trends as the old ones get buried in sand. Phone answering service facilities have changed track in the last couple of years. Small and medium size firms are looking down the BPO barrel too, thanks to all the facilities that come as value-adds.
The point of interest comes in the fact that it's not just the insiders of the business outsourcing industry that are part of the trend. The governments and administrators of the offshore BPO destinations are working in tandem to bring about certain changes as well. That is encouraging and intimidating as well!
In most developing countries, the call center industry is entrusted the responsibility of mending a sick economy. That is a huge accountability. Phone answering service employs a major chunk of the educated population. The BPO firms earn revenue in foreign currencies of a higher value. This drives in much-needed cash into the economy. Sensing high octane business potential in the telemarketing sector, the administrators are making it easier for business outsourcing destinations.
There is support in the form of infrastructure, establishment, transport and technological back-up. The governments are doing all they can to make provisions for the call centre units to set up shop in their countries. They are wooing investors with investment-friendly tax evasions as well.
Offshore call center units always had a problem with passing themselves off as onshore units. The phone answering service agents took on names that hid their actual identity. However, the telemarketing agents failed at the accent stage. Their accents gave away their real identities. That is something that BPO voice trainers were trying to get in place. It looks like finally it's working out for answering service agents.
There are better methods to get agents to talk in a particular way. Speech technologies are being used readily to get them into the groove. Consumers are aware of offshore call centre destinations and they don't really fuss about accents anymore!
There are some encouraging trends for the lead generation team as well. The outbound call center team was finding it difficult to cope with the demands of the marketing department. There were changes in the marketing campaigns now and then. The call center was not ready with the required manpower to conduct telemarketing calls on a wide scale. That disconnect is slowly dying out.
The marketing team is now more in touch with their telesales outsourcing partners. They are working as a team, formulating strategies that can optimize the results of both departments. BPO firms are running on limited resources because business firms are not willing to pay that much money these days. The prices of running a call centre have inflated too.
The most actively emerging call center trend is the use of websites. Websites are fast becoming the vehicles of lead generation. Landing pages are helping the telemarketing teams gather information about prospective customers. It's only a matter of time before we have other trends taking over the BPO firms. Change is definitely the only constant here.
