Phone army half a world away

DAVID BECKHAM has plenty of fans in Asia who keep up with his every move. The footballer may not know it but he also has a small army of Indians who keep tabs on his fortunes because it is a key part of their work.

These are the telephone agents who staff the country's burgeoning call-centre and back-office industry. Answer a call from Britain and executives say it is important that they know the latest UK news and gossip - not to mention what is happening at Coronation Street's Rovers Return and in other TV soaps. It helps to put the customer at ease.

'If you are talking to the UK, you must know what is topical, know about Real Madrid and David Beckham,' says K Ganesh, president of contact-centre business for ICICI OneSource. 'And then you must know stuff about what you would really expect to do when you are just chatting: the weather, Princess Diana's butler, Manchester United and Arsenal. Typically, what would feature on the front page and back page of the tabloids - that is a good way of putting it.'

The practice is just one curious element of a business that is quite unlike most others in a sector growing at breakneck speed. British companies have now joined their US counterparts in seriously addressing outsourcing, shipping off call-centre work and back-office processes to lower-cost countries.

India, especially the Karnataka state capital of Bangalore, is one of the main new centres for Ganesh and others in the business. There are also major concentrations - Indian-owned and foreign-owned - in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Ganesh and ICICI OneSource, a unit of India's largest privately owned bank, have plenty of UK clients, including a High Street bank, a catalogue company, an insurance group and a credit-card firm. He reckons that 80% of the business at his unit, which has swollen to 3,500 staff in little more than three years, comes from Britain.

'Obviously we Indians are all Anglophiles. Your Queen was our Queen too at some point in time. We grew up learning British history, so we have more affinity to the UK,' he said. 'Pound for pound, in the last year we are seeing-more UK business coming here than US business.'

Recruitment executives in Bangalore say competition for the relatively well-paid places remains intense even as the industry expands. The push to succeed in snaring a place in one of the country's most sought-after companies can now start even before graduation, with the best candidates lining up jobs in advance of completing their courses.

'In the last year, awareness has shot up. Graduates do not see it as a job, it is a career for them,' said Madan Padaki, director of candidate-assessment firm Merit Trac. In the three years since Merit Trac was set up, it has pored over 100,000 online CVs. It should do the same number again in the next 12 months.

Call-centre and back-office employees typically receive between three and 10 weeks of training depending on how complex the task in prospect is. In batches of two dozen, those working on voice-based tasks have their accents 'neutralised' - in industry parlance - to make them more understandable to those calling in.

'In the call-centre business, accents are important,' said Narendra Dev, executive at contact centre operator vCustomer.

Then there is a rapid-fire course in the culture and background of the target country. Candidates get books with a runthrough of Britain's history and geography, plus handy social tips.

When the recruits finally make the grade, there is a good deal to get used to on the call-centre floor itself. Working hours must coincide with those in Britain or America - which means lots of night shifts - and, for many, there is also a requirement to adopt a Western name. Jaideep and Manisha thus become Mark and Rachel. Again, such tactics are justified as a way of putting callers at their ease.

'It is almost as if we are part of their company,' said Ravi Venkatesam at 24/7 Customer. 'It is just that we are sitting half the globe away. That is the only difference.'

Lure for 'Jerry' and friends

JERRY, as he likes to call himself when talking to customers half a world away in Britain, is typical of the many thousands of Indian workers who have leapt aboard the call-centre and outsourcing bandwagon.

A Bangalore native, he graduated with a technical diploma and after leaving college was lucky enough to snare his first job in a hotel. But pay in the country's hospitality industry was disappointing, and he kept hearing more about the new call centres that were springing up in his home town.

'I should say [the new industry] is seen very highly,' Jerry said in near-flawless English. 'There are good prospects for rapid growth. It is a good area to be in.'

Attracted by better pay and superior working conditions, and encouraged by his friends, he last year made the call-centre grade in a selection process that typically accepts only one candidate in 25.

Then came an intensive course in voice training, lessons on how to handle the hardware and crucial background briefings on his British client and its customers. Within weeks he was fielding calls. 'The first few days were a bit tense actually, but it got better,' he said.

A little more than a year later, he is something of an old hand as more new employees arrive at his company offices almost daily. And how does he find life on the phone? 'The Brits are okay,' he said. 'I guess that I am lucky. I have only had a couple of really irate ones.'