Bangalore: ” Hey, this is Andrew calling. Do you have a minute? Can I talk you through the new features of your card?”

 The voice of a Gurgaon call centre employee, thinly disguised as American by rolling the Rs, addressing a customer in Iowa, may become a thing of the past. The traditional voice calls that tried to sweettalk Americans into buying everything from credit cards to computers and which catapulted India to fame as the world’s back-office , is fading out.

Competition from countries that have a greater cultural affinity with the US is fast upstaging India in outsourced voice services, compelling call centres to diversify into non-voice areas and give up their efforts to change the accents of Indians. Some centres have started moving up to higher-end voice based services that requires technical knowledge and problem-solving capabilities (a space where India still has an advantage), while some others are moving to service domestic call requirements.

In voice, many customers prefer the Philippines, a country that has been a US naval base and is hence culturally far closer to the US than India has been. India has already lost tens of thousands of jobs to this Pacific Ocean nation.

Message Loud & Clear

In 2007, India had over 3 lakh call agents, the Philippines had barely half that number Today, India and the Philippines both have 3.5 lakh workers each in voice BPO South Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Australia and Ireland emerging as other major voice destinations Indian call centres moving into non-voice areas or higher-end voice-based services