ASIAN UNIVERSITY OF BANGLADESH

INTERNSHIP REPORTON

GrameenPhone Call Center

Enhanced By

GrameenPhone Limited

THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

ASIAN UNIVERSITY OF BANGLADESH

Uttara Model Town, Dhaka-1230

Submitted To

Prof. Ashraf HossainDean

The School of Business

Asian University of Bangladesh

Submitted By

Muhammad Suhel MiahStudent of MBA

Department of Marketing

ID: 200710436

Batch: 29th

Date of Submission: 5th July 2009

2

Letter of Transmittal

Date: 5th July 2009

To

Prof. Ashraf Hossain

Dean

The School of Business

Asian University of Bangladesh.

Uttara Campus, Dhaka-1230.

Subject: Submission of report entitles GrameenPhone Call Center

Dear Sir,

It’s my pleasure to inform you that I have already finished my internship in a reputed

organization in Grameenphone Ltd. An internship report has been prepared based on

the practical experiences and different ideas obtained during working

GrameenPhone Call Center. Please find the internship report attached herewith.

Therefore I sincerely hope that you will appreciate my effort and I shall be grateful if

my report is accepted for the appropriate purpose.

Thanking you

Sincerely yours

Muhammad Suhel Miah

3

Letter of Transmittal

Date: 5th July 2009

To

Deputy Manager

Contact Center

Customer Service

GrameenPhone Ltd.

Subject: Submission of report entitles GrameenPhone Call Center

Dear Sir/Madam,

It’s my pleasure to inform you that I have already finished my report GrameenPhone

Call Center. This report has been prepared based on the practical experiences and

different ideas obtained during working GrameenPhone Call Center. Please find the

internship report attached herewith.

Therefore I sincerely hope that you will appreciate my effort.

Thanking you

Sincerely yours

Muhammad Suhel Miah

4

Acknowledgement

This report would not have been possible without the support of many people.

I am particularly like to thank and grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Ashraf Hossain,

Dean, The School of Business, Asian University of Bangladesh and GrameenPhone

ltd. Corporation for all the help, advice, support and guidance.

I am very grateful to the support of the office and my colleague to involve in this

study.

I also like to thank to all collogue for their every cooperation, support. Without them

this project would have been very difficult.

And finally, thanks to my parents, and some friends who keep on this long process

with me, always offering support and love.

5

CCONTENTSONTENTS Title Page

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…..…1

Letter of

Transmittal…………………………………………………………………………………………………

.….3

Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………………………

…………….……5

Executive

summary………………………………………………………………………………………………….

……7

History of Call

Center……………………………………………………………………………………………….……8

Call centers offer a wide range of

services…………………………………………………………………10

Calling Process………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………..11

Call Center in

Bangladesh……………………………………………………………………………………………12

Present Situation of Call Center in Bangladesh………………………….

………………………………16

Advantage of Call Center in

Bangladesh…………………………………………………………………….18

History of GrameenPhone…………………………………………………………………….

………………………20

Vision

Values

GrameenPhone Call Center…………………………………………………………………….

……………………24

Inbound

Outbound

Responsibilities Call Center

Agent……………………………………………………………………………….25

6

Employee

Categories…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…26

Call Center

Segments…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

27

Consumer (Smile and X-Plore)

djuice

Business (Corporate and SME)

Emerging (GPPP and VP)

Channel (Retailer)

Customer Mind in 121………………………………………………………………………………….

…………..…30

Call Management Center (SWOT)

……………………………………………………………………………….31

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threat

Action

Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……..…33

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……34

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……35

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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The world is full of call centers, or as they are often referred to now, customer contact

centers, high tech, customer service focused places where the business is all about customer

contact. The contact is either generated by the customer, or the call centre staff who are

either working for their own company, or on contract to one or more separate companies.

These jobs usually pay fairly well as far as entry level positions are concerned. The big money

comes only to a very few high sales producers, and upper management. The average

customer service representative usually makes more than minimum wage, but the demands

on them are fairly high.

Call centre is an emerging revenue opportunity for Bangladesh. The global market of call

centre industry was US$ 382.5 billion in 2004 and is expected to reach US$ 641.2 billion by

2009. This is an enormous opportunity for Bangladesh: at the moment all ingredients are

available in the country to seize a significant chunk of the global market. Call Center is a

business of team meetings, birthday parties, sales targets, service levels and other reasons to

tout the company line and convince everyone to be upbeat and provide excellent customer

service which results in high customer satisfaction ratings which results in more money for the

call centre. Call centers are usually very team oriented, and words like teamwork, and

cooperation and success are often hanging in picture frames around the centre. In my working

experience in GrameenPhone made the report call center in GrameenPhone. I am trying to

focus every area in call center.

History of Call Center

8

The overall Call Center outsourcing market is expected to continue grow steadily, according to

a recent research done by Frost & Sullivan Inc. the San Antonio-based research and consulting

firm. This firm states that the call center outsourcing market reached $19.5 billion in revenues

in 2005 and is likely to reach $20.1 billion by 2012.

The market is growing no doubt, but the outsourcers are also under increasing pressure to do

more than just increase efficiencies. Clients expect outsourced call centers to improve

retention, and loyalty as well.

These days, companies are looking for an outsourcing partner who has hundreds of vendors

and dozens of geographies and sites to choose from. It makes for a difficult selection process.

They basically see the vendor's geographical location that matches their customer base and

cultural needs. They always try to make sure the vendors on their short list have expertise in

the call center mechanism. One very important thing they look during vendor selection

process is political stability of the location. They will certainly make sure that the location is in

a politically stable place for doing business comfortably. As Bangladesh perspective offers

little advantage. It needs to work hard to prove that the company will get 100 per cent support

from the government and leading political groups.

From a Corporate perspective, outsourcers extensively research vendor availability and

capabilities. Most of the time, corporations and clients want to make sure if the vendors or call

center providers are willing and able to provide the desired outsourcing services? Also they

will make sure if they have previous experience? Have they been successful? What

capabilities and capacity do they have? Are they willing or able to offer a trial run? Another

very important thing corporation looks for how the vendor resolves unsatisfactory

performance. The outsourcing vendor should assume responsibility and the risk for not

meeting the service levels specified in the contract.

As call center outsourcing business is another dotcom phenomenon and all the excitement is

going to be short-lived, with the current boom ending in a bust, the call center excitement

could die down, with most jobs, at the risk of getting eliminated.

9

For the Bangladeshi organizations enter into successful call center outsourcing relationship

requires a major time commitment. So be sure to demonstrate the right people and quality

services in a timely manner to provide help.

Bangladesh to win needs is to concentrate and improve the knowledge of how US companies

go about selecting vendors and outsourcing location, what are the typical SLA's (Service Level

Agreement), what are the little-known facts and why these are important to win contract or

business. Bangladesh also needs to understand what the often-misunderstood issues about

outsourcing are and why those need to be corrected? Buy doing the homework in this area

Bangladesh will get advantage in the call canter business.

Call centers offer a wide range of services

Customer acquisition: It is one of the effective services offered by call centers. The aim

of this scheme is not only to generate customers but also to allow consumers to contact a

10

representative to make a purchase. Basically, a business nominates a call centre to conduct

marketing services on behalf of them.

Customer care: Customer care is one of the common services offered by the call centre.

When a customer buys any product or service from a particular company, they are advised to

contact the customer care division of the call centre. Many companies in the western world

outsource their customer support facility. This in effect reduces the operations cost of hiring

new workforce.

Direct response: It is one of the important services offered by the call centre to the

business. During product advertisement, companies mention a phone number for the

customers. When any call is initiated to this number, the call centre provides adequate

information to make an informed purchase decision.

Business to business: It is a potential call centre solution for any company to generate

business-to-business sales. The role of the call centers in this regard is to reduce cost and

provide resources for a business to beef up its revenue.

Calling Process

11

Call Center in Bangladesh

Call Center is the new window of the Bangladesh. Here the Call Center is a new idea and the

local people and investors are thinking about the Call center in Bangladesh. Call Center is a

physical place where customers and other inquiries through phone calls are handled by live

persons or agents, organization. The whole Call Center activities usually maintained with some

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amount of computer automation. Usually, a Call Center or Call Centre has the ability to handle

a large volume of calls at the same time. Mainly the Call Center agents are ready to screen

calls to multi level and forward them to someone experience and qualified to handle those

incoming call, and to log calls.

The Call Center is used by phone, Skype, various types of messenger (like msn messenger,

yahoo messenger), mail order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer

product help desks, and large companies that uses the telephone to sell products and services

or provide information or help customer to resolve an problem. Some most popular terms of

Call Center is Virtual Call center and Contact Center.

The Call Center is used by phone, Skype, various types of messenger (like msn messenger,

yahoo messenger), mail order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer

product help desks, and large companies that uses the telephone to sell products and services

or provide information or help customer to resolve an problem. Some most popular terms of

Call Center is Virtual Call center and Contact Center.

A Call Center is operated by an organization to administer incoming product support or

information inquiries from customers. Outgoing calls for product marketing, product or service

feedback, telemarketing, and debt collection are also done. In addition to a Call Centre,

collective handling of any kind of live personal helps with the voice and verbal communication.

The Call Center in Bangladesh is new topic here. Bangladesh is also trying hard and soul to

grab a share of the multibillion dollar outsourcing share by gearing up to join the bandwagon.

Licenses for the Bangladesh’s first ever telephone based Call Centers are issued in February

2008 and try to find it out about the future of Bangladeshi Call Center’s? So arrange some

interview Habibullah N. Karim, President of Bangladesh Association of Software and

Information Services (BASIS). During the interview, taken over phone, Karim also the

Chairman of the IT Committee of American Chamber in Bangladesh (AmCham) talked

elaborately about the prospects and future of this dotcom phenomenon.

Karim, 23 years veterans in ICT industry said that the call centre opportunity is real and

Bangladesh can have a share of this market through aggressive entrepreneurship.

He said that Bangladeshis are joining the party late. The window of opportunity remains for

hardly 5-years at the most, he said. As IVR technology improves and matures side-by-side with

artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities over the next 5 years voice-based human-operated call

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centers is likely to decline.

About the Call Center myths and realities Karim thinks the hype around the call centers should

be moderated with reason. Call centers are a good business opportunity and can bring

fortunes only if executed right which means carrying out with due diligence, both the supply

and demand sides of the industry, allowing sufficient time to unlearn the myths or wild

assumptions while learning the hands-on fundamentals of this industry and finally provisioning

sufficient working capital funds to sustain business operations during the learning phase which

could take two years.

What type of commitments and support the Bangladesh government is willing to provide to

this business? His answer to this question was, "First and foremost the internet bandwidth and

VoIP tariffs must come down to the levels of the other countries of the region. In a recent

meeting of the infrastructure sub-committee of the Better Business Forum the chairmen of

BTRC and BTTB acknowledged that costing of these services shows that the government can

offer competitive tariffs if it so chooses. In many countries internet service is considered part

of the public service obligation (PSO) and accordingly it is subsidized. We don't want subsidy -

we only want the government to pass on the cost to consumers without profit. Is that too

much to ask?"

To another question he said, "At the political level, of course, economic issues including export

growth of IT/BPO services took the back burner in the last three years as political and

governance issues took precedence over everything else. Generally, however, no political

party or leader publicly decried the prospects of the IT/BPO services industry though few

concrete and sustained measures were taken by the political party-led governments in the last

ten years despite big plans and optimism."

Karim thinks the 'clients in the USA and EU should look give business to Bangladesh for two

reasons, the costs rose in India by (27 per cent in 2007 alone, according to World Bank). The

costs rose in the Philippines too due to rise in wages and local currency appreciation against

US Dollar and risk mitigation of dependence on one or two countries. Bangladesh with its dual

advantages of low wages and large labour force qualifies as alternative destination of such

services.

To whether Bangladeshis are capable of handling the VoIP technology he said, "Not quite but

getting there. BTRC has put in place the necessary policy frameworks and is working with the

industry to figure out the best way forward."

Karim said, "Only with full-cycle natural-gas generator backup in duplicate. Bangladesh can

14

guarantee 24/7 coverage in its declining power supply situation. Any entrepreneur planning to

set up export-oriented IT services firm must keep capital provisions for this," he said.

About the BTRC licensing process in Bangladesh, Karim thinks, so far it appears quite

transparent and quick, and added, "I haven't heard any complaints yet. However, BTRC still

needs to work out the VoIP bulk usage rules for call centers."

To the question what are the big challenges for Bangladeshi companies to get competitive

advantage, he said, "VoIP bulk usage rates are one, the other would be uninterrupted power

and internet connection and finally the most important, locating, training and retaining

English-speaking call-centre agents."

To the question what's the minimum educational qualification for a call center operator, Karim

said, "Anyone with good conversation skills in English should qualify irrespective of

educational background. However, Indian and Philippino experiences show that

college/university students and graduates make for better call centre agents."

He said the call centers provided hot business opportunity but Bangladesh is a late entrant. As

such Bangladesh does not have the starter advantage. Bangladesh must study the mistakes

made by entrepreneurs in India and Philippines and carefully execute its business plans after

going through the full diligence cycle. Any miss-step early on could spell disaster for the whole

industry.

Call centre is an emerging revenue opportunity for Bangladesh. The global market of call

centre industry was US$ 382.5 billion in 2004 and is expected to reach US$ 641.2 billion by

2009.This is an enorm4ous opportunity for Bangladesh: at the moment all ingredients are

available in the country to seize a significant chunk of the global market. According to World

Call Centre Report 2007, 70 percent call centers in India hired college graduates to conduct

their operation. This could be equally true for Bangladesh if we properly use the talents of our

youngsters.

India has shown its successes in call centre business. Pragmatic government approach was

key to creating a huge outsourcing flow to the neighbouring country. The Indian government

gives tax exemption on the export of ITES (Information technology Enabled Services) and

provides other assistances for Indians in building software technology parks. Time factor also

drives global companies to choose India as an outsourcing destination.

15

India's twelve-hour time difference enables global organizations to provide their customers

with 24x7x365 days services. By taking advantage of India's time difference, companies in the

US have been able to ensure that their customers receive round-the-clock customer support.

Remarkable IT-enabled services in India are helpdesk services, accounting services,

transaction processing services, remote network management and end-to-end processing etc.

Call centers in India can offer expert product specific solutions, such as risk modeling, data

mining, actuarial services and underwriting variation analysis.

China's continuing economic growth holds a bright future for the call centre industry. Revenue

of call-centre technology vendors grew by 34 percent in 2005 and by 40 percent in 2006,

according to marketresearch.com.

Call centre industry in the Philippines also shows dynamic growth. A research forecasts that

more than one million Filipinos would be employed in the call centre industry and the market

will reach US$ 12 billion by 2010.

It is very much clear that Call Center in Bangladesh has a bright future. The all important

resources that are needed for Call Center in Bangladesh are available here; not only available

but also cheap. Call Center in India is successful because of the cheap human resource and

technology. The Call Center in Bangladesh also can enjoy the same benefit. Just we need to

take another forward step to reach to the top.

Bangladesh has all kinds of opportunity to become a successful country in Call Center

industry; just need some more effort and also hope a bright future for Call Center in

Bangladesh and today or tomorrow the Call Center in Bangladesh will success to reach its

destination.

Present Situation of Call Center in Bangladesh

16

According to a recent research done by the San Antonio-based research and consulting firm

Frost & Sullivan Inc., the call center outsourcing market reached $19.5 billion in revenues in

2005 and is likely to reach $20.1 billion in the course of 2012. The outsourcers are also under

increasing demands to do more than just increase efficiencies. Clients expect outsourced call

centers to improve retention, and reliability as well. These days, companies look during

vendor selection process is political stability of the location. They will certainly make sure that

the location is in a politically stable place for doing business at ease. As Bangladesh from this

perspective needs to work hard to prove that the company will get 100 per cent support from

the government and leading political groups. For the Bangladeshi organizations entering into

successful call center outsourcing relationship requires a major time commitment.

The prospects of this industry very new to Bangladesh, Bangladeshi companies initiated joint

venture with USA and India to open up training academy in collaboration with Call Center

School, the leading for the professional development of individuals in the Call Center industry.

It has been claimed that Bangladesh can take advantage of the rising costs of operating call

Canter in Philippines and India in recent years by utilizing its low wages and large labor force.

There is man power available for employment in Call Centers at much lower rates here than in

neighboring India, capability of the existing work force of carrying out the complex

responsibilities of Call Centers.

The call centers provided hot business prospect but Bangladesh is a late entrant. As such

Bangladesh does not have the starter benefit. Bangladesh must study the mistakes made by

entrepreneurs in India and Philippines and carefully perform its business plans after going

through the full diligence rotation. Any miss-step early on could curse disaster for the whole

industry. It’s a large chunk of today's Bangladeshi youth is aspiring to work in a call center.

Good salaries, professional work environments, and chances to enhance one's communication

skills, and exposure to customers on the other side of the globe, all have proved to be enough

to ensnare candidates in huge numbers.

But because of lack of exposure to the extremely aggressive standards of Call Centers that

there is an acute lack of human resources in Bangladesh with the specific set of skills that are

required to excel in this industry. That is why, although a Call Centers operative can be hired

for 20,000 rupees a month in India, a salary of more than 50,000 taka will be sufficient to

induce a person with similar sets of skills to become a call center operative in Bangladesh

under current circumstances Mr.Saif the call center is a dot com phenomenon which may soon

be dispensed with like its predecessors. On the country, it believes that this is a HR intensive

industry which uses IT as a support mechanism. Bangladesh has access to the similar

17

technology available in the United States and India.

Although Bangladesh is a late entrant in the market, it is optimistic about the long run

possibilities for Bangladesh. But for these possibilities to materialize, Bangladeshi

organizations need to have a major time commitment and make investments in developing

the man power to meet the international standards. Comparing the training academies for call

center that have sprung up like mushrooms all over the country.

Advantage of Call Center in Bangladesh

18

The whole of the world is now looking for a modern and aggressive business policy that can

serve the customers effectively and efficiently. To meet the entire customer satisfaction the

organizations are trying to deliver a high quality service. People are no longer wanted to wait

for get any information and service about any business. The modern business bodies are

much more conscious about the customer service. To meet that demand the companies and

the organizations are going to setup call center. The organization may have their own call

center or they may make it happen through outsourcing.

There have many countries in world who offer inboard and out board call center service. But

the cost and other issuers are matter. The companies of course will go to the cheapest and

reliable call center. The South Asia is the most suitable place to establish call center. And the

Bangladesh is the new comer in this sector. But the Bangladesh has a great opportunity to

progress in call center industry. There have many reasons behind? Why you choose

Bangladesh to setup a call center?? Just have a look at the following; we have discussed some

point about the advantage of call center in Bangladesh.

Efficient Human Resource from Bangladesh It is very well known that Bangladesh is the

country where the most attractive resource is? Human? We can offer highly skilled and

educated workforce because of our increasing number of universities and training industries.

Our training institutes are successful for preparing the efficient manpower for the Call Center.

The young generation wants to get a call center job willingly. Bangladesh has many university

students. They also can do a part-time job at the call centre. And it is also another advantage

because the demand of the students is lees than a professional worker.

Location of our call center Bangladesh has the location advantage because of the 11 hour

time difference with the USA. For the time zone advantage American, West European and Asia

Pacific’s organizations can enjoy 24 hours customer service round the week. Our geographic

location is also very suitable to establish a call center. Because our environment is support us

to work round the whole year. The geographical advantage and the time zone will provide a

great opportunity to reach the height.

Limited Cost In spite of the lowest cost of manpower, Bangladesh can provide the Call Center

Service in cheap rate. Today we also have a vast amount of educated people from inside or

outside of the country in IT sector and they are ready to serve at a very minimum cost rather

than the rest of the world. The call center investors can invest to the Bangladesh because of

19

the cheap rate of human resource, equipments, and all other assets that may need for

establish a call center in Bangladesh.

Appropriate Government’s Policy the Government of Bangladesh offers the tax free import

policy for the IT sectors that will able to create a wide range of opportunity to establish a Call

Center. The Bangladesh Government wants a great improvement in IT sector; especially they

keep focusing on the call center business. They believe that as like the Bangladesh garments

sector the call center industry also can earn huge amount of foreign currency. The

Government’s Policy is also suitable for continuing the business for long run. They always

welcome the foreign investors to invest in country without any hesitation. Bangladesh

Government will provide all kinds of support to establish a call center.

Infrastructure The infrastructure of Bangladesh is very much updated to setup a call center in

Bangladesh. It is also another great advantage of call center business in Bangladesh. Our low

tariff on communication sectors will add an extra advantage for the Call Center business. Here

we can easily run a call center business and the whole infrastructure of our country will

encourage us directly.

High Potentiality Bangladesh is the country where the potentiality of IT related business is

very high. Our comparative advantage is successful for get the attention of the multinational

organizations. The whole economical and geographical situations are developing rapidly. For

the future benefit it is the right decision to establish a call center in Bangladesh.

The advantage of call center in Bangladesh is many. People just want a smooth solution to

setup new types of business like call center and Bangladesh is all-time ready to help.

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History of GrameenPhone

November 28, 1996

Grameenphone was offered a cellular license in Bangladesh by the Ministry of Posts and

Telecommunications

March 26, 1997

Grameenphone launched its service on the Independence Day of Bangladesh

November 5, 2006

After almost 10 years of operation, Grameenphone has over 10 million subscribers

September 20, 2007

GrameenPhone announces 15 million subscribers.

GrameenPhone is now the leading telecommunications service provider in the country with

more than 20 million subscribers as of June 2008.

Presently, there are about 30 million telephone users in the country, of which, a little over one

million are fixed-phone users and the rest mobile phone subscribers.

21

Starting its operations on March 26, 1997, the Independence Day of Bangladesh,

Grameenphone has come a long way. It is a joint venture enterprise between Telenor (62%),

the largest telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12

other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%), a non-profit sister concern of the

internationally acclaimed micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank.

Over the years, Grameenphone has always been a pioneer in introducing new products and

services in the local market. GP was the first company to introduce GSM technology in

Bangladesh when it launched its services in March 1997.The technological know-how and

managerial expertise of Telenor has been instrumental in setting up such an international

standard mobile phone operation in Bangladesh. Being one of the pioneers in developing the

GSM service in Europe, Telenor has also helped to transfer this knowledge to the local

employees over the years.

The company has so far invested more than BDT 10,700 crore (USD 1.6 billion) to build the

network infrastructure since its inception in 1997. It has invested over BDT 3,100 crore (USD

450 million) during the first three quarters of 2007 while BDT 2,100 crore (USD 310 million)

was invested in 2006 alone. Grameenphone is also one the largest taxpayers in the country,

having contributed nearly BDT 7000 crore in direct and indirect taxes to the Government

Exchequer over the years. Of this amount, over BDT 2000 crore was paid in 2006 alone.

Since its inception in March 1997, Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the

country with over 10,000 base stations in more than 5700 locations. Presently, nearly 98

percent of the country's population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network.

Grameenphone was also the first operator to introduce the pre-paid service in September

1999. It established the first 24-hour Call Center, introduced value-added services such as

VMS, SMS, fax and data transmission services, international roaming service, WAP, SMS-based

push-pull services, EDGE, personal ring back tone and many other products and services.

The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing access to high-speed

Internet and data services from anywhere within the coverage area. There are currently nearly

3 million EDGE/GPRS users in the Grameenphone network.

GrameenPhone nearly doubled its subscriber base during the initial years while the growth

was much faster during the later years. It ended the inaugural year with 18,000 customers,

30,000 by the end of 1998, 60,000 in 1999, 193,000 in 2000, 471,000 in 2001, 775,000 in

22

2002, 1.16 million in 2003, 2.4 million in 2004, 5.5 million in 2005, 11.3 million in 2006, and it

ended 2007 with 16.5 million customers.

From the very beginning, Grameenphone placed emphasis on providing good after-sales

services. In recent years, the focus has been to provide after-sales within a short distance

from where the customers live. There are now more than 600 GP Service Desks across the

country covering nearly all upazilas of 61 districts. In addition, there are 72 Grameenphone

Centers in all the divisional cities and they remain open from 8am-7pm every day including all

holidays.

GP has generated direct and indirect employment for a large number of people over the years.

The company presently has more than 5,000 full and temporary employees. Another 100,000

people are directly dependent on Grameenphone for their livelihood, working for the

Grameenphone dealers, retailers, scratch card outlets, suppliers, vendors, contractors and

others.

In addition, the Village Phone Program, also started in 1997, provides a good income-earning

opportunity to more than 210,000 mostly women Village Phone operators living in rural areas.

The Village Phone Program is a unique initiative to provide universal access to

telecommunications service in remote, rural areas. Administered by Grameen Telecom

Corporation, it enables rural people who normally cannot afford to own a telephone to avail

the service while providing the VP operators an opportunity to earn a living.

The Village Phone initiative was given the "GSM in the Community" award at the global GSM

Congress held in Cannes, France in February 2000. Grameenphone was also adjudged the

Best Joint Venture Enterprise of the Year at the Bangladesh Business Awards in 2002.

Grameenphone was presented with the GSM Association's Global Mobile Award for ‘Best use of

Mobile for Social and Economic Development' at the 3GSM World Congress held in Singapore,

in October 2006, for its Community Information Center (CIC) project, and for its Health Line

Service project at the 3GSM World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2007.

GrameenPhone considers its employees to be one of its most important assets. GP has an

extensive employee benefit scheme in place including Gratuity, Provident Fund, Group

Insurance, Family Health Insurance, Transportation Facility, Day Care Centre, Children's

Education Support, and Higher Education Support for employees, in-house medical support

and other initiatives.

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Vision

We are here to help

This means that we help our customers get the best out of communications services in their

daily lives by making it easy to buy and use our services, delivering on our promises, being

respectful of differences and inspiring people both inside and outside the company to reach

higher goals.

In short “we’re here to help” isn’t a slogan; it’s a way of life for all of us.

Values

Make it Easy 

Be inspiring 

Be Respectful 

Keep Promises 

Leadership expectation

Integrity 

Operational Excellence  

Passion for Business  

Change & Constant Renewal  

Empowering People

24

GrameenPhone Call Center

A call centre is a place used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of

requests by telephone. GrameenPhone call centre has both automated and human-agent

interactions with its customers for 24 hours round the year. Call centre hotline 121 is running

through Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

GrameenPhone was the first company in Bangladesh to set up a 24-hour call centre in 1999

and today it has the largest call centre in the country. GrameenPhone is a flexible call centre

model doing both inbound and outbound calls serving our different customers according to

their needs. Currently there are around 1000 customer managers in our call centre.

GrameenPhone call centre is a very effective and customer friendly way to give over 20

millions GrameenPhone customers a professional after-sales service. In addition, all time

informing customers about products and services in order to enable them to take the right

purchase decisions. GrameenPhone Call Center working time shifts based and GrameenPhone

call center environment is world class. Call centers can be divided into various categories

based on their strategy of function and nature of service. But there are mainly two types of

call centers such as inbound call centre and outbound call centre.

1. Inbound

2. Outbound

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Inbound call centers: In an inbound call centre, customers generally place their queries

about product information and report any technical glitches, Inbound call centers are often a

little easier on the employee because the caller initiates the first contact, often calling for help

with a product, or responding to an advertisement. Therefore, they are already at least slightly

interested in discussing the product with the agent. However, the emphasis is often on

'upwelling' the customer to a more expensive product or package as part of responding to the

customer’s original request.

Outbound call centers: Outbound call centers are usually, if not always, sales jobs over

the phone and are the origin of the name now much despised 'telemarketer'. These are the

folks who call you at what always seems to be suppertime, and try to sell you on a product or

service, or try to talk you into taking part in a survey, which ultimately will either turn into a

sales pitch, or will generate a sales lead for the sales department who will contact you at a

later date.

Other types of call centre include CRM call centre, interactive call centre, phone call centre,

telemarketing call centre, virtual call centre, web-enabled call centre, etc.

Responsibilities Call Center Agent:

1. Provide one-stop quality Customer Services to ensure positive customer

experiences.

2. Conducting service awareness and telesales to retain the existing customers

and acquire potential customers.

3. Maintain targeted KPI on a regular basis

4. To be more caring, reliable, inspiring and friendly with the subscribers to

enhance and maintain Grameenphone Brand promise

5. Capture customer insights, follow-up and escalate critical issues / complaints

and provide timely feedback to ensure customer satisfaction

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Employee Categories

1. Regular

2. Part-Timer

1. Regular: Regular employment at entry-level (officer position) does not require experience;

but is preferred in certain cases depending on job scope. Mid to senior level positions require

relevant experience.

2. Part-Time: Part-time work in GrameenPhone is on an hourly basis and based on business

needs and requirements. Part-time employment requires a minimum of two years of

undergraduate (Bachelor’s) education. Competition is intense, and qualifications and skill

requirements vary according to role/scope or work. Call centers can create huge employment

opportunity for students in Bangladesh. Every year many university graduates in our country

remain unemployed. Call centre business can open a new horizon for them. They are working

6 hour.

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Call Center Segments

Segments:

Consumer (Smile and X-Plore)

djuice

Business (Corporate and SME)

Emerging (GPPP and VP)

Channel (Retailer)

Consumer (Smile and X-Plore):

Smile Prepaid: SMILE prepaid has been designed to keep you smiling. It brings you great

rewards and benefits, amazing rates, and exciting new features. And this is just the beginning

of a happy story.

xplore Postpaid : xplore postpaid, discover the pleasure of doing much more. Packed

with a treasure of new features and facilities it keeps you in touch with your loved ones and

gives you access to unlimited information and entertainment.

Consumer segments serve all smile and xplore related query. When smile or xplore subscriber

dials 121 then receive call consumer segment.

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Djuice: Djuice is the product for young generation. These segments dedicate only for djuice

subscriber. This segment provide service only djuice subscriber.

Business (Corporate and SME : Business Solutions is a complete, quality business

communications service from Grameenphone – designed especially for the business

community in Bangladesh. At office or on the move – stay connected through Business

Solutions. These segments dedicate for GrameenPhone Business Solutions subscribers.

Emerging (GPPP and VP): These segments receive call for grameenphone Public

phone (GPPP) and Village Phone Subscribers.

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Channel (Retailer): These segments dedicate for flexi load retailer and service touch

point. Touch point customer agent, flexi load retailer and Village phone manager call this

hotline.

Charge: GrameenPhone call center 121 charge 1 taka every minute for all prepaid

subscriber and all post paid subscriber charge free.

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Customer Mind in 121

The incident took place on 20th December, 2007, the night before last Eid Ul Azha. A launch -

MV Saikat - was enroute from Sadar Ghat, Dhaka, to Barisal. Like the other motorboats, this

one too was over-packed with people - some 5000 passengers bound for in Barisal to

celebrate Eid with their loved ones. However, these people were least aware of the misfortune

that was waiting for them at Chhoy-Nodir-Mukh.

At about approximately 8:45 pm as the motorboat neared Chhoy-Nodir-Mukh, Goshirehat, a

place near Shariatpur, the deck of the vessel started to crack in places. The passengers were

terrified - most didn't know what their next move should be. Despite the panic that swept

across the motorboat, one passenger kept his calm... and called 121 and informed the GP Call

Center of the imminent catastrophe. 

Inbound Call Management Center agent received the call that night. On receiving the

information, immediately made urgent calls to the Police Control rooms at Shariatpur, Gazipur

and Goshirehat, and informed the Police there about the imminent mishap that threatened

thousands of innocent lives. Then agent called the GP subscriber back and assured him that

Police teams would soon reach the spot to rescue the passengers. Rescue teams of Police

from Shariatpur and Chandpur rushed to Chhoy-Nodir-Mukh and saved the stranded

passengers. 

Later at 12:45 am, Sub-Inspector Mr. Anwar of Shariatpur SP Control Room called 121 and said

that if the Police weren't informed on time, the aftermath could have been disastrous, as

water was profusely flowing into the launch through the cracks from the broken deck.It is

essential that a company has the necessary information at fingertips to provide such a

humanitarian service. Call center agent observed, "It wouldn't have been possible for me to

take such quick steps in such an emergency if my colleagues, hadn’t created a database of

useful telephone numbers. They created the database not as part of their core job

responsibility, but from their desire to help subscribers during such emergencies. They

believed that their database would someday come handy. They belief proved prophetic, for

their database did indeed help save thousands of lives from the jaws of death. 

Many incident happened call center. Some times people call 121 shares only his emotion,

share belief, and want advice and many things.

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Call Management Center (SWOT)

Strength

Manpower: Manpower is easily utilized to different functional areas of CMC as per

need & urgency.

Flexible Working Hour: Maximize the level of trade off between working hour &

private hour. It works positively specially for student employees.

Environment: Lively & friendly working environment. Availability of same generation

people makes it more visible.

Weakness

Marginal Quality: In terms of manpower, quantity is prioritized over quality. There

should be a specific benchmark.

Lack of Bonding: Lack of bonding or no bonding exists among the different teams

of CMC which hinder the flow of activities.

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Opportunity

Proper Utilization of Manpower: People working in different functional areas

need to be utilized properly for better output. Under-utilized people need to be

identified to gear them up towards maximum output.

Skilled People: People with specialized skill should be identified & utilize then

accordingly.

Tele Marketing: As we know that the marketing is the key element of any business

activity. And if it is a service oriented firm then there have nothing to do without

marketing the products to the target customer so it is another opportunity to sale

product by telemarketing.

Threat

Limited scope of Positioning: Team/individuals, who are highlighted or

performing beyond expectation, are not welcomed accordingly by others. It happens

due to limited scope of positioning & may leads towards unhealthy competition.

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Action Plan

(Ref: Marginal Quality): People with smart voice should be recruited in CMC as

voice carries maximum weights during over the phone conversation.

(Ref: Limited scope of Positioning): Considering the huge bunch of people,

position should be created accordingly.

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Conclusion

GrameenPhone call centre is a very effective and customer friendly way to give over 20

millions GrameenPhone customers a professional after-sales service. In addition, all time

informing customers about products and services in order to enable them to take the right

purchase decisions and No doubt call centre operation is a big opportunity for Bangladesh.

The all important resources that are needed for Call Center in Bangladesh are available here;

not only available but also cheap. But most importantly, expert human resources are vital in

order to ensure the development of the call centre industry. In this regard, private companies

should come forward to train people and the government must ensure the quality issues so

that the entire system works smoothly and perfectly. The Call Center in Bangladesh also can

enjoy the same benefit. Call Center sector may positively help the country to achieve its

economic social goals. Development of call center in Bangladesh may help the people of the

country to get economic benefits directly and indirectly, which ultimately will strengthen the

economy of the country. On the other hand, call center industry has very low impact on the

environment of a country. In coming years no less than two million new jobseekers will enter

job market of the country annually. A developed call center industry will create quite a large

number of jobs for the country’s unemployed and underemployed workforce. We must not

forget that 40 percent of our population is less than fourteen years age. Now it’s the time for

the policy makers of Bangladesh to take strong decision in favor of developing call center

industry in the country; and make a down to earth plan and strategy to attain that goal. Only

motivated workforce can implement and execute such a plan and strategy. We want to be the

winner, that what we can be. Just we need to take another forward step to reach to the top.

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Bibliography

GrameenPhone Website

Daily Star

Daily News Paper

Web Site

www.callcenter.com

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