CloserHome

New Call Center in Manipal

by Subrata R C

The Manipal Power Press, one of the companies in the Manipal Group, has made plans to set up an international call centre here in Manipal. The call centre, which is being set up with the help of HCL Infosystems Limited, will begin functioning November this year. Gautam Pai is the executive director of the entire project.

Basically, a call centre can be of two types: one which allows inbound calls, from the customer to the marketing firms, (which are called customer support centres), and one which allows outgoing calls from the firms to the prospective customers. The call centre is a great medium for tele-marketing of products and for conducting surveys to study consumer behaviour. The concept of call centres as an effective marketing tool, is relatively new to India. But with globalization and liberalization beginning to show its effects on the economy, its not surprising that the call centre has finally arrived on the Indian business scene.

HCL Infosystems has tied up with Stratasoft, a company based in Houston, USA, to bring this service to India. They circulated the idea of setting up call centres among their top clients, Manipal Power Press being one of them. Other call centres are being planned in places like Mumbai and Mangalore, by other clients of HCL.

The CEO, Kurien James gives an example of how the call centre operates: “If a US based company like Ford wants to launch a new car, it first conducts a survey of its prospective customers to know whether they would like to buy such a car. They give a list of their US based customers to Stratasoft with a prepared questionnaire, asking them to carry out the survey. Stratasoft will send this information to the Manipal call centre which will then proceed to make phone calls to the US based customers and record their responses.”

The call centre will begin functioning with 150 personnel who shall undergo training in communication skills necessary for the centre. Already a large number of people have been selected from in and around Manipal. “Basically we’re looking for people with good voices and people who are fluent in English,” says Subhratanu Paul from HCL, who is helping Manipal Power Press to set up the centre. “This is important because they will be talking to an English speaking audience.” Adds Kurien,

“Later these people will undergo training according to the needs of the job.” Initially the Manipal call centre will deal with only calls directed from the firms to the customers. And for the time being it will only offer access to the USA. That is why the centre will be operational from the evening to the morning next day, so that the calls will reach the US during the day time. “Later we plan to extend this service to Europe as well,” says Kurien.

Manipal Power Press Ltd. has plans to invest around Rs. six crores on this project in the next five to six months. “This is a hot area of business right now,” says the CEO, “and since we don’t know the intricacies of it, HCL is helping us implement the plans for the centre.”

So within the next few months Manipal will have its very own international call centre. And if the people at Manipal Power Press are to be believed, it just could turn into another major achievement for the Manipal group.