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What Is an International Call Center?

Tricia Christensen
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Updated: May 17, 2024
Views: 26,766
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For many years, various industries have shown a marked upward trend in providing call centers to handle customer service questions or issues (inbound), to their customers. Some call centers are called outbound centers, meaning they may sell services or attempt to collect debts. To keep costs low, some companies use international call centers, which draw on the services of people outside their country and use outsourcing to staff growing need for either service or sales. An international call center usually has a physical location or office, where staff has access to multiple phones, frequently works at computer terminals, and does their best to answer inquiries of customers, collect debts or promote sales.

Though there is much talk about the amount of outsourcing of jobs to foreign markets, 2007 studies show that only about 13% of call center jobs are truly international as opposed to domestic. Of these, the majority are located in India, Brazil and Spain. The market is certainly growing, and companies may choose to have more than one call center, one domestic and at least one international center to staff phones at 24 hours a day without having to pay overtime or shift differentials to domestic workers.

Having an international call center certainly does save money on employee costs. An employee at an international center in India may work for a yearly wage of about $2500 US Dollars (USD). Brazilian employees are paid approximately $4000 USD per year. In contrast, American workers make approximately $27,000-35,000 USD per year, and employers are usually obligated to contribute toward health insurance costs for their workers. It typically makes sense from a business perspective to pay one tenth the cost of an American worker if you can be reasonably certain employees have good English skills and can answer service questions.

Actually, more international call center data and research shows people answering your call from India are likely to be better qualified than people answering your call in the US. Only about 20% of domestic call centers hire college graduates. In contrast, an international center is India is most likely to hire college graduates; 70% of staff at most call centers have earned an undergraduate college degree. The only comparable numbers for call centers are Canada, where 50% of employees may be college educated, and the Netherlands, where about 60% of employees hold a university degree.

College education is not always a requirement at international call centers, like those in South Africa and South Korea. Less than 10% of employees at call centers in South Africa have a college education. In all, a degree may not be necessary to be successful at a job, but if you’re working in a service oriented call center, familiarity with products is most important.

If you’re staying for a long time in a foreign country, you might just look for positions at an international call center if you need work. Since one of the main requirements of such call centers is strong English language skills, these jobs (provided you have working visas), may be fairly easy to obtain, even on a short-term basis. There are literally thousands of such jobs available. Good phone manners, patience, great speaking skills and ability to learn about a company’s products or services are the most important requirements.

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Tricia Christensen
By Tricia Christensen
With a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and years of experience as a WiseGeek contributor, Tricia Christensen is based in Northern California and brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to her writing. Her wide-ranging interests include reading, writing, medicine, art, film, history, politics, ethics, and religion, all of which she incorporates into her informative articles. Tricia is currently working on her first novel.

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Discussion Comments
By Babalaas — On Jun 30, 2010

@ Georgesplane- I respectfully disagree. I prefer the sound of an American voice when I am looking to buy something, or looking for assistance with a problem.

I am more receptive to someone who can sympathize with me. American agents can relate to the annoyances that American clients have better than someone who has never been to this country.

I have more in common with an American agent where as I know very little about the lifestyle of someone from India or Brazil. It’s not that I don't want to get to know that person, but when I am being sold on something, I want to have as few social barriers with the sales person as possible. I want to talk to someone who shares my interests. I don't want to talk to a cricket fan about upgrading to NFL Sunday Ticket.

I also like to deal with companies that hire more Americans rather than outsourcing every aspect of their business. Innovative companies selling quality goods and services built the American economy, not huge conglomerates looking for the cheapest way to do everything.

By Georgesplane — On Jun 30, 2010

I often find that the agents that work at foreign call centers are happier, and friendlier on the phone. This is simply my opinion, but I base my opinion on my experiences on dealing with many customer service reps. Sometimes the accent can give e a little difficulty, but I can say the same for English spoken in some parts of the United States.

I am not sure why I find foreign call center agents to be better customer service agents, but I feel like it has to do with the competitive nature of jobs in those countries. In the United States, a telemarketing job is easy to obtain, and as the article said, education is of less importance.

Although a call center employee only needs to know the product and solutions to common problems, I believe that communication and critical thinking skills are very important. Students develop these skills throughout the last years of high school and into college. I believe call center employees that lack these skills are less effective.

Tricia Christensen
Tricia Christensen
With a Literature degree from Sonoma State University and years of experience as a WiseGeek contributor, Tricia...
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