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Call centers rise by 15%
(Bangkok Post (Thailand) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 16--TalkTime Asia, a Bangkok-based call-centre consultancy and training provider, forecasts the number of call centres in Thailand will increase to 397 this year, up 15 percent up from 317 last year.
Managing director Deirdre Hutchinson said the call-centre industry in Thailand had grown by at least 15 percent a year in terms of agent seats, a trend likely to be sustained by new outsource vendors entering the market and the growth of outbound telemarketing and telesales centres.
She said that well-run call-centre companies in Thailand should not be concerned about the impact of the country's economy on their businesses if they focused on managing operating expenditures and on revenue-generating activities.
According to the company's professional services manager, Pimpaka Maneethai, the economic slowdown is enhancing the role of call centres among organisations, particularly outbound call centres, because they can reduce marketing costs when compared to the one-by-one selling approach.
She said outbound call centre services or telemarketing were booming, particularly among insurance, finance and banking businesses.
For TalkTime Asia, the company must select customers because it has limited human resources and has problems retaining staff.
"This is not our problem alone, but is also a big problem of this business in Thailand. The call-centre career is a stepping stone for young graduates before moving on to other careers," she said.
The company plans to open its outbound service with 60 seats next month, to increase to 200 seats by the end of the year. Ms Pimpaka said all the 60 new seats had been booked already under a three-year term of agreement.
She added that this business had little competition and as far as she knew, TalkTime Asia may be the only direct expert in this business in Thailand. Established in February 2004, the company now has five customers for which it provides consulting services and 10 more are in the pipeline.
"At that time, Thailand had only 165 call centres. We wanted to upgrade the standards of the Thai call centres," Ms Hutchinson said.
However, she said serving the outsourcing offshore market from Thailand could be difficult, mainly due to the English-language proficiency of the staff. The average monthly salary of an inbound call receiver is around 10,000 to 15,000 baht while an outbound caller can earn about 100,000 baht, including commission from sales.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Bangkok Post, Thailand
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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