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08/07/08

Jet Lag and the BPO... there is a link somewhere...

I did not really know what Jet Lag was... I thought it would be some sort of strange feeling that you have in the stomach when you reach a place faaaaaaar away from your place...

Now I know what Jet lag is... It’s your body thinking you are in a different part of the world, while you really are somewhere else... Something like hardcore day dreaming!!! I thought it would be really tough to manage the sleep etc, however I feel quite ok right now and it’s almost 5 in the evening here... I am feeling only as sleepy as I do any evening at 5ish :)

However there is something that I think has really helped me here... and that has been my BPO Experience... for your convenience, lets call it the Call Centre Experience...

My shifts used to change every 3-4 weeks and I have worked at almost all hours of the day during my 3 years of Call Centres... and that really helps even today when I want to either sleep early, or wake up early, or not sleep at all, or sleep longer...

In addition to this, I this is how I feel that working in the BPOs has helped me immensely...

1. When you go through voice training, you are told that people can sense emotions when you are on the phone with them, and hence keeping your cool and maintaining calm is very important when you are talking to a customer... Over a period of time, I guess that becomes a habit to ensure that you have better phone conversations....

I usually don't shout over the phone anymore, and my conversations are much better as compared to what it used to be before my calling experience...

Basically I have learnt to be more sensitive towards conversations which are not face to face...

2. My experiences with the customer service / technical support are better thanks to me spending a lot of time on the other side of the phone as well

3. The body can be aligned to any time food, any time sleep in quick turnaround time

4. I can understand the accents of a larger group of people than usual and my conversations with people from Europe and US are better than average...

5. My accent is on an auto-modification mode now... If I am talking to someone from the US I can talk like them and ditto in the UK too.... the bottom line is the MTI (Mother Tongue Influence) is less than average when I speak with people from various backgrounds... Have received many kind hearted compliments as well over the last many years thanks to this...


The above points are just of the few things that make you a better person. I am not giving the entire credit to the BPO industry, however for me personally, the changes have happened because of my time there...

Given a choice I would make calling necessary for everyone for at least 6 months when they start their career... If not anything else, it would at least make people realise what kind of hardships someone in a BPO goes through in terms of work, and its not only a life of night outs, drinks, smoke, and sex....

15 comments:

  1. sub khaya aaj bhi :) evening might I get some food food...

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  2. all the glitters is not gold... thanks for siding with ppl like us who have slogged their asses off in a sweat shop like this to reach somewhere in life... no free meals in life as i say...

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  3. So the sex part is not a myth?? ;)

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  4. night outs, drinks, smoke, and sex.... are part of the human industry, not just BPO - in BPO probably people are exposed to all that a lil earlier in life

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  5. i second burf..

    good point burfi...

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  6. :))

    u r the firast one to list down advatages of BPO's:))

    good one:))

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  7. U know what ? u have just spoken my mind, Bang on.
    I have often felt and said this to ppl, that out of my personal experience i feel and believe that everyone must atleast spend atleast 3-6 mnths in call centre. It teaches u a lot of thngs, most of which u have already mentioned. It teaches u how to keep ur calm with a really irritating personon th othr end, and a lot more. We do learn a lot of discipline too, where breaks are fixed, even your Loo time is counted.
    Thanks again for writing out my mind, like you do many times :))

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  8. yeah,
    if there are disadvanges
    you noted good points

    and jetleg connection is good
    :)

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  9. Yeah..surely working in BPO do gives some positive benifits.

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  10. Some of the problem with call centers--
    1. They think customers are fool.
    2. They dont know when to escalte and pass to ur boss.
    3. utter disregard for customers time.

    But these are the issues with most of the customer facing industry in India today. Mera to bahut baar dil hota hai ki kisi ki gardan daba doon. whenever the requests is different from ordinary sab paagal ho jaate hain...i dread calling customer service,

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  11. # Anony...
    shukriya..

    # Aqui...
    mujhe samajh nahin aaya tumhaara comment..

    # Sam...
    nope its not...

    good money
    freedom
    availability
    confusing being modern with frequent lays

    leads to a lot of things...

    # Burf...
    I know... this is there almost anywhere... just that the call centres have been targetted with fkking up the society !!! I don't agree completely but i am not in complete disagreement either...

    # Aqui...
    yes..

    # Chakoli....
    may be... but I am not the first one to benefit !!!

    I have seen the best of professionals from BPO and trust me, most of the people outside that industry don't even match up to the bare minimum of professionalism...

    # Reema....
    glad about that :)

    # Paavani...

    There are good points... a whote lot of them... at the end it all is about the individual who is taking a call :)

    Jet lag... phew... i hope I am done with it :)

    # FighterJet...
    I agree..

    # Ankur...
    you have not talked to anyone I know :) and domestic vs. global BPOs... hell lot of difference bro.. hell lot...

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  12. Hmmm...lot of good points! Makes a lot of sense. I don't have any experience working there, but can totally see how it builds patience and teaches you to separate "emotion" from whatever rubbish is being dished out.

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