Call centre industry starts gearing up for 2010 with massive recruitment and training

Sunday, 15 August 2009 16:08

Gripes about the failure of South Africa’s call centre industry to rise to its expectations as a major job creator has received an unexpected boost from its biggest competitor – India – with a R500-million investment over three years that is expected to create 5 000 jobs. And preparations for the 2010 World Soccer Cup will see a further explosion of more jobs in this field over the next few months.

In 2005, the McKinsey group said if managed correctly the call centre industry in South Africa could create 100 000 jobs by 2009, however, growth in the industry, while significant, has failed to meet expectations. But then the recent acquisition of Indian call centre giant, Essar-Aegis of South Africa’s CCN Group which is the largest privately owned contact centre company in the country could help turn that around.

Liza van Wyk, CEO of BizTech a top Johannesburg-based training company that has a successful in-house call centre training programme said, “The Essar-Aegis acquisition is great news. South Africa has failed to meet its potential as a call centre destination especially from other countries despite a population that speaks relatively good English and has good education levels.

“With the Soccer World Cup less than a year away we will see a dramatic escalation in the recruitment and training of call centre agents in a wide variety of fields whether tourism, medical, sports-related and transport fields to name just a few as we gear up to help almost half a billion new visitors to South Africa,” Van Wyk said.

“Being a call centre agent is an art. The ability to analyse a caller, predict situations that may arise that the agent may need to educate the caller on – without patronising them - and always seeking solutions that will benefit the company and leave the client impressed with the service can be tough. There is very high burnout in the industry.

“South Africans can sometimes be dismissive or rude to clients which damages business relations. Call centre agents are exceptionally important but also the skills they learn on the job make them experts in whatever industry they are in whether medical, paralegal, IT or financial services. This is a professional career and the skills and knowledge acquired in the role can be the first step into a team leader or management position.

“It is essential that South Africa starts exploiting the potential of this service to boost job creation. It requires very good, persistent training. Firstly, in recruitment the company has to ensure that the employee has good interpersonal skills that can be enhanced with additional training and coaching. There is no point hiring a person who does not like dealing with people or can’t handle their emotions,” Van Wyk noted.

The call centre is often the frontline of the organisation. “First impressions count,” cautions van Wyk, “and call centre training has to ensure a good understanding of this complex environment from operating procedures to contact centre technology and even the psychology of callers.

“The call centre agent needs to understand the bigger picture. They can make or break the service offered on one day by not adhering to schedules, being off the phones or not coming in to work. This has huge implications to service delivery, cost and adds additional stress to the other agents that are performing.”

The global chief marketing officer and head of sales of Aegis, Sandip Sen, said: “In India alone (which is the biggest call centre hub in the world), we recruit 1 000 new people each year.”

Van Wyk said the Indian investment builds confidence in South Africa’s economy. “It is exciting news that a global company with over 100 Fortune 500 customers, including AT&T and American Express and that attracts business from large BPO (business process outsourcing) markets such as the United Kingdom, Europe, United States and India is keen on bringing new business into South Africa.”

Sen said: “South Africa is Africa’s biggest economy and a huge market for BPO. We want to eventually establish call centres in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.”

Currently, almost 71 percent of call centres are n Gauteng, followed by Durban and Cape Town. The Eastern Cape has only two percent of South Africa’s call centre market.

BizTech’s inhouse course on Contact Centre/Call Centre Service Excellence also looks at the skills needed to be a contact centre agent, how to interact and communicate with a client. “This is not an easy role and can be highly pressurised. The average life span of a call or contact centre agent is two years before they need to move into another area of the business. The risk to the company is high attrition rates and replacement costs that are on average equal to about two and a half months salary, but the advantages are that when an operator moves out of that environment he or she is an effective communicator, should be diplomatic, business savvy and able to work under high pressure,” Van Wyk said. “This is an industry that helps grow economies in many positive ways.”

A suitable candidate for this environment is a person that is a good communicator, has the ability to learn on the job, can tolerate diversity, can empathise, listen effectively, questions appropriately and has a positive attitude that comes through on their call.

Interpersonal skills, performance measurement and management are also part of the BizTech training course.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
LIZA VAN WYK, CEO, BIZTECH 011 582 3211www.biztech.co.za