BUSINESS TODAY

It's not that P.R.S. 'Biki' Oberoi doesn't like taking phone calls. It's not that he doesn't like unsolicited offers either. It's not, either, that the man doesn't qualify as a connoisseur of food. But would he be so kind as to listen to the delights awaiting him if he'd sign up as a member of Gourmet Club? There was a pause-as the septuagenarian held the phone open-mouthed-before he could respond to the caller. "Dear girl," the Chairman of East India Hotels told the lady canvasser, "I hope you do know who you're talking to." Gourmet Club was a restaurant loyalty-discount scheme that the Oberoi chain had signed on to widen its customer base, and this episode spelt the end of that tie-up.

And then there's the small matter of call etiquette. "Sir, are you comfortable?" a consultancy chief was recently asked on his mobile-the caller's first words, bang out of the handset, in the midst of serious work. Huh? It was his bank, it turned out. Or more accurately, his bank's call centre-in need of an affirmation that he was well disposed at that moment to discuss an issue.

No one remembers the call centres. It is the brands that register in people's minds. As irritants. And the irritation is widespread. Ronesh Puri, Managing Director, Executive Access, is fed up. Once, just as he was about to switch his cellphone to 'silent' for an important meeting, he got this tele-spiel from a customer service agent who was hellbent on selling him a charge card he already had. He, in his usual affable manner, said as much. But the agent-encouraged perhaps by his tone of voice-promptly took it as a cue to turn even more persistent. Puri wants nothing to do with the brand anymore.

Even more unnerving experiences have been reported by people dialling customer service numbers. It was at the break of dawn, admittedly, that a Delhi resident called a cellphone operator's 24-hour helpline. But what he got on the other end was a gruff, sleepy and rude voice. That was it. A good brand relationship it was, but it snapped that very instant, with the service agent snarling at him in language too ineffably 'effy' to publish.

No, actually. Overseas customers seem quite satisfied with the ritually rolled Rs and demurely drawn-out mid-syllables they hear from call operators in India's multiplying cubicle farms. "In large BPO units," says E. Balaji, General Manager (Staffing Solutions), Ma Foi Management Consultants, "quality is sacrosanct, since the work is outsourced from western clients who have zero-tolerance levels, and so there is no margin for error." Top-notch call centres, you see, are doing just fine.

But the explosion in demand for globe-talking seems to have left a major talent vacuum in second and third-tier call centres-the ones catering to local clients. The best they get to recruit are the sorts who call CEOs to ask if they're comfortable, sir (or worse).

Blame the manpower crunch, says Ishita Swarup of the 230-seater Orion Dialog call centre. At last count, India had some 1,000-odd call centres-as registered with nasscom. More are mushrooming, even as older cubicle farm employees tire of the job and leave in a huff. The churn rate at smaller BPO outfits is frustratingly high; and recruitment is frenetic ('If it has a voicebox, hire it' is the reigning dictum), with hirees thrown into action with little training. Quality customer interfaces, says Swarup, cost money. "Although clients are waking up to it," she shrugs, "they are not willing to pay for it."

So you have agents who go "Two minutes sir, I'm holding you" and put you on to the tune of some utterly exasperating Stevie Wonder song.

Take tele-banking, for example. Standard Chartered Bank has a few norms in place: 85 per cent of the calls must be picked up within 15 seconds, and less than 1 per cent of the calls may be abandoned. What's more, the customer interface is electronically monitored. "When we hire a new recruit," says Shalini Warrier, who heads the Shared Distribution and Service of the bank, "he is put through a three-week enhanced training on products, systems and soft skills, and then there is mentoring." The bank also has others listen-in on calls for accuracy, courtesy and efficiency.

Anup Bagchi, Joint gm of the Retail Channel Liability Group of ICICI Bank, admits that talent has fled to the better-known call centres. "There is a digital divide between the larger call centres and the minnows," he says, "because economies of scale defray the cost of training." ICICI Bank deploys 2,000 call operators in Mumbai and Hyderabad. And although all calls are recorded, only a sample are audited. At the moment, just getting customer identifications right on the phone is proving to be a nightmare.

Tele-charm matters. Indian customers were coming to expect ever-improving services. And now suddenly, they're low priority. The feeling that Indian customers are getting a raw deal could result in a new sort of BPO backlash-a domestic one.

New in town...with a few hours to look around? At a good hotel, the people at the concierge desk ought to have a good idea of what you might actually appreciate (Museum? Theatre? Architectural tour? Music concert? Film?). "These people are the critical contact point between the hotel and the guest," confides a senior executive at the Taj group of hotels. Critical? At higher levels of sophistication, the job demands encyclopaedic knowledge and superb intuition-to go with the hotel's guest info bank. A fresh graduate can make "15-18 grand a month" after a few months' training, but a maestro who can almost read the guest's mind could earn packets. It's an information job that has unlimited scope for differentiation. As hotel rivalry rises, so will the job's value.

I am a communications manager employed with a chemicals company. My company has been under scrutiny for releasing effluents. Under these trying circumstances, the management expects me to handle the media with tact and to ward off any uncomfortable queries on the subject by staying tightlipped. Not only am I expected to deny my company's role in the controversy, but also lie through my teeth, if necessary. I can understand the stonewalling part of my job, but I am not at all comfortable with lying. How should I handle the situation?

I have heard of communications managers having to make errors of omission (of not disclosing all facts), of portraying facts in a positive manner, and at times, skirting the real issue. There are certain practical compromises that one has to make for the sake of one's job. However, if you are expected to lie through your teeth, you are at the wrong place. This is dangerous as it could be turned around to make a scapegoat of you in future. Can you trust the company not to do this? Try and compromise till you can find another job.

I am a 44-year-old senior manager with a tyre major. I am a 20-year-veteran in the industry and have been heading the company's supply chain operations. While my job is a steady one, I do not find it fulfiling. I have always had the fascination to work for a non-governmental organisation (NGO). Is it too late to shift to social work? Do NGOs pay well? Is it worthwhile to quit my job and sign up with an NGO?

It is a noble thought that you want to contribute to an NGO. However, it is difficult to find an NGO that will pay as handsomely as the corporate world. You are only 44 and it is too early for you to give up a lucrative career. It may not be worthwhile pursuing a career at an NGO at this point in time. Unfortunately, most idealistic people have to take into account practical realities and make compromises. Also, what might appear the road to fulfilment now may end up disappointing you later. However, working in an NGO is not the only way to contribute to society and find fulfilment. You can opt for voluntary work in NGOs that run orphanages or medical camps during your spare time.

I am an art director at an advertising agency. I accompany my servicing head on a regular basis to client meets, to communicate our ideas for the campaigns that we design for them and to get their approval and feedback. I have always shared great professional understanding with my colleague in the past. Lately, my colleague is going out of his way to please the client over the end-customer and has been putting pressure on me to design campaigns exactly the way the client wishes. Shouldn't I have some freedom of expression?

Firstly, the advertising agency that you work for is also a commercial enterprise. While you have the right to creative freedom as the art director of the agency, the client is an important part of the business, as that is where the revenue comes from. There are times when the situation becomes a little tight at the workplace and we have no choice but to give in. Having said that, you should talk to your client servicing person. If you share a good rapport with him, he should understand your problem. If talking does not help, you can always take the matter to your seniors.

I am a 44-year-old engineer working with a multinational that manufactures tractors. Although the market is abuzz with prospects of growth in the manufacturing sector, nothing has happened in my life so far to indicate the same. My company has been planning to expand capacity but the downturn has kept the proposal on hold. There is also a freeze on recruitment, and I am yet to see any evidence of growth. I have been in the industry for 12 years and the status quo is troubling me.

Sometimes a company's plans are dictated by reasons that are not disclosed to its employees. Capacity expansion, especially in the automotive sector, requires a lot of conviction, commitment, and investment. Now that the economy is turning around, chances are that your company would like to wait and watch to see how the markets improve before it embarks on an expansion programme. This is likely to take some time. If you have run out of patience, you could look for another job in the same sector or expand your search to other related automotive sectors.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055.

The it freeze is over. The bandied-about numbers say so. "Hiring is picking up," confirms G.C. Jayaprakash, Senior Consultant, StantonChase International. Good. But what sort of jobs are these? All sorts, avers Laxman Badiga, Chief Executive (Talent Transformation and External Relations), Wipro Technologies, which has hired 3,300 this year. "There are new entrants at all levels, with the majority of high-end types being consultants from the Big Five." Wipro has people of 14 nationalities on its rolls, plus an in-house diversity committee to safeguard against intellectual homozygosity.

Rival Infosys Technologies has hired 3,700 so far, and will add another 3,000 by fiscal-end. It's about business requirements, says Hema Ravichandar, Senior VP and Head (HR). So Infosys is looking for it skills, consulting experience and special domain expertise (to suit its new structure of capability 'verticals'). "We recruit on the basic tenet of learnability-the ability to derive generic knowledge from specific experiences and apply the same in similar new situations," says Ravichandar, who has 35 different nationalities on the company's rolls. The Indian it genome's sure getting mutative.

-Payal Sethi

Boom With A View
The hospitality industry's bustling. And recruiting?

Hotel jobs: Getting smarter

Indian hotels are having a ball. As business gains buoyancy and foreigners get India-wards ho, occupancy levels have begun to soar-after a long lull. "Tourism is picking up worldwide," says Geetanjali Pandit, Assistant Vice President (Corporate Human Resources), East India Hotels, "people abroad are in an explorative mood, and India is a good place to find new places and things."

What about recruitment? Should hotel career hopefuls be rubbing their palms? "We need to look at it from an overall perspective," replies Bernard Martyris, Senior Vice President (HR), Indian Hotels Company. "Though there hasn't been a dramatic change in the recruitment scene just yet, wherever there are new projects coming up, we will be recruiting." Is the boom sustainable? Oh yes. "It is sustainable enough," says Martyris, "and so there is bound to be an ascent in recruitment."

Both Pandit and Martyris report higher admissions at their chains' respective training institutes (the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development at Delhi and the Taj Group's Indian Institute of Hotel Management at Aurangabad). But, beyond the numbers, expect a training renaissance of sorts. It's needed. Even Askjeeves.com, after all, is 'competition' in the hospitality business.

-Ananya Roy