In 2008, two days before the Valentines Day the online payment mechanism of gifting solutions company Ferns N Petals crashed. The Pawan Gadia who leads the company’s e-commerce division was in for a tough time since the runnup to the valentine’s day is one of the peak business periods for the firm. If the users were not able to buy online, busines was surely going to take a hit. The desperate attempt to the salvage a part of the online business. Fifteen people began calling up the customers, it was able to tackle the crisis but vowed never to let the situation and resolved to set up a call center.
Out of an emergency it is slowly becoming a necessity. In a small way, the emerging as a new source of revenue for business process outsourcing firms. The trend follows the footsteps of US based e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay. This have traditionally outsourced a large part of the back-end and transaction processing to Indian Business Process Outsourcing. From the India’s e-commerce firms the business will also heft tot he revenues of a local Business Process Outsourcing firms in which it seen a high-end voice based processes moving out to comparatively cheaper locations like Philippines. To a significant portion of customer care services India’s cater for global retail giants in the form of customer interaction services including of call center, pre and post sales support tememarketing and help desk functions.
Although the effort in setting up the effort in setting up a call center is being done in-house mainly because most e-commerce firms are still in the start-up stage. To more outsourcing, scaling up is likely to lead. The startups get busy improving their customer service to battle competition in more job and money are likely to trickle down to Business Process Outsourcing services providers. The Business Process Outsourcing arm of the $4-billion diversified group company Aditya Birla Nuvo saying the move towards e-business is helping demand. The emerging e-commerce companies are a big opportunity for the Business Process Outsourcing industry although it is early to quantify the business.
Business Process Outsourcing service providers can offer a services where they leverage with the multiple customers. In creating a backup system can be a major driver for the outsourcing work to Business Process Outsourcing firms, e-retailers. It has also realized that the up-selling opportunities when talking to a customer on phone. With the customers from the smaller cities and towns beginning to go online the need for voice based support is growing in India. They discovered that the customers were delighted when they called them back and help them buy.
At the call center, the startup company has over 50 people working which brings in nearly 25 percent of the company’s e-commerce revenues. In the team every month, Gadia is adding four to five people. The first time buyers need a bit of hand holding. The company also looks at the data available with them and it makes calls to the customer reminding to a special occasions.
REFERENCE:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/outsourcing/How-BPOs-help-Indian-e-retailers/articleshow/10485537.cms
