How can i help you ?
Rings a bell? Probably because you have heard these words before while making inquiries or requests to different companies through a friendly call center agent. But do you know where the other line is coming from? Yes, you may speak the same language but if you think that means the person you are talking to is from your country, think again.
In this era where microchips and robots have come to existence and people are becoming more and more oriented to the endless possibilities brought by technology, availing customer support services while talking to a foreign call center agent at the same time has become ordinary.
Truly, many people had learned long ago that outsourcing, the method of handing a segment of business functions over a third party, was going to grow fast, due to its potential in putting the global economy back in good shape. Yet, most of these people had not realized it would do at such a rapid pace. With its speedy popularity, it had also its noticeable invasion in the business sector that it had succeeded in covering areas such as the call center industry.
The term call center industry may be quite familiar to many but only a few knows what it is all about. Basically, call center industry is characterized by handling customer inquiries regarding a product, a service or the company itself. However, as labor cost rises, multinational companies prefer employing overseas staff to complete a certain business function. Thus, this phenomenon gives rise to offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing represents an organizational practice that involves the transfer of an organizational function to a third party located in another country.
Hence, a US-based customer who has found difficulties operating a new computer he purchased from a multinational firm can call a toll-free number to ask for help. What the American customer may not know is that the owner of the voice on the other line, talking with a confident “foreign” accent, is actually on the other side of the globe.
Now, it has been cleared what call center industry really is. So the next time you talk to a customer service representative, think twice whether the person on the other line is from the same country or not. This article must have taught you a lot and as they say, thank you for calling—ooops, for reading, I mean.
Sources:
http://www.manilatimes.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing