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Call centres rise by 15% |
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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% up from 317 last year. Managing director Deirdre Hutchinson said the call-centre industry in Thailand had grown by at least 15% 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, Ms. 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. 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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Bangkok Post, 16.05.2008 |
