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Your mother, retired father or your sister who has just quit her job could soon act as an extended BPO. The trend is in vogue in the US and Europe, and has just begun taking roots in India.
It works like this: Those with domain expertise in insurance, banking, telecom and retail industries, but are forced to stay off jobs for different reasons, could enrol with a third party agency.
This agency would maintain a database of such people and firms that need temporary assistance to attend to customer calls. “Besides helping people get part-time jobs, it would address short-supply of manpower in some segments,” Mr C.S.N. Murthy, Director of Ozonetel, a Bangalore-based start-up that is offering cloud-based telecom solutions to companies, told Business Line .
Targeting ex-staff
Ozonetel is working with Mumbai-based PlatinumOne, a BPO firm, to rope in home agents. “To start with, they are going to use some of their former employees who had to quit for domestic reasons. Since they know the processes well, the former employees could fit the bill for their work,” Mr Murthy said.
Ozonetel has done a pilot for IFB, using its ‘cloud agent' technology that maps the database of domain experts and companies that need their services. “When a customer calls up an IFB call centre number, the technology maps the database and locates the origin of the call and routes it to an IFB associate with relevant language skills in the nearest franchise,” he said.
Yet to pick up
The trend could help domain experts in Tier-II cities such as Mangalore, Madurai and Visakhapatnam to generate income. Companies pay on the basis of transaction to home agents.
Mr Animesh Jain, Chief Delivery Officer of 24/7 Customer, however, has a different point of view. “There are several challenges, most important being compliance and information security. The scope is limited to retail and marketing and in simple situations where data is not confidential,” he observed.
Though the business model was prevalent in the US in a significant manner and in a small way in Europe, it had not picked up yet in India. “We are not looking at employing home agents,” Mr Jain said.
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