Reality: Biggest fallacy. Three percent of the US working population works in its 70,000 odd call centres. And the growth rate of agent positions is 20 percent per annum. Soon, there will not be enough people to work in call centres. It is the unavailability of enough people that is forcing them to look elsewhere. India has emerged as the top choice because of its quality manpower, time zone, English language, technology base, and of course, cost.

Reality: Voice call centres, associated with telephone calls, are perceived to be the low-end customer interaction centres. And most entrepreneurs and non-technology companies are putting their money in voice call centres. But a voice call, which is a real-time interaction, is much more difficult to handle than an e-mail or even chat, which is not really real-time. If you commit a small mistake, you can correct it before sending. You can not do that in voice. Also, voice agents require more training. Infrastructure cost is also more.

Reality: In past tense, you can assume it to be correct. Not now. In the long run, it depends on attitude and smartness of the agents. Tomorrow, many clients will need e-mail management. Telephone skills will have no meaning for an agent who will answer those e-mails. Customer orientation and basic intelligence are more important than telephone skills.

Reality: If you think you can poach from someone, someone else can poach your agents. Where do you stop then? There is no alternative to a good scanning, recruitment, and training methodology. Good call centre agents are made, not born.

Reality: By now, those of you who have started running the business would know this fallacy. Vendor is interested in his business and he can get a couple of contracts for you to get his business. Why should he get business for you? And what competence does he have to market your service?

Reality: With the cyber laws almost in place, e-commerce will take off rapidly. The dotcoms will not only need fulfilment, but also need to provide support. What other way can they provide support? Integrated e-mail/voice/chat-based call centres, synchronized with logistics firms, will be big business in India—sooner than you expect. Today, of course, DoT does not allow a common domestic/offshore call centre. But your experience in the latter will come in handy to start the former. This is going to be the next big opportunity. The business model may be completely different though.