India’s voice BPO segment falling silent
Hey, this is Andrew calling. Do you have a minute? Can I talk you through the new features of your card?” The voice of a Gurgaon cal
l centre employee, thinly disguised as American by rolling the Rs, addressing a customer in Iowa, may become a thing of the past. The traditional voice calls that tried to sweettalk Americans into buying everything from credit cards to computers and which catapulted India to fame as the world’s back-office , is fading out.
Competition from countries that have a greater cultural affinity with the US is fast upstaging India in outsourced voice services, compelling call centres to diversify into non-voice areas and give up their efforts to change the accents of Indians. Some centres have started moving up to higher-end voice based services that requires technical knowledge and problem-solving capabilities (a space where India still has an advantage), while some others are moving to service domestic call requirements.
In voice, many customers prefer the Philippines, a country that has been a US naval base and is hence culturally far closer to the US than India has been…
