The Caribbean's next global hub for call centres
Jamaica, Barbados & Trinidad are now offering tax incentives. While US cos still use call centres in India & elsewhere for tech support, the Caribbean’s becoming increasingly competitive.
By Agencies |
PUERTO RICO: In A global search for low-cost customer service, AOL considered call centres in India and other hotspots — then settled on the tiny island of St Lucia. In choosing the Caribbean island, AOL — a unit of Time Warner — joined other US companies that have made the region a new global hub for call centres.
Plunging communication costs, workers who relate easily to American customers and the region’s famed hospitality are attracting American corporations, boosting the work force in the “nearshore” service industry in the Caribbean.
Jamaica is one of the leaders with about 14,000 employees in the sector. In the Dominican Republic, 18,000 agents, many of them bilingual, are handling calls in English and Spanish.
Call centres dedicated to customer service have also opened in Barbados, Trinidad, and Dominica. “The islands all seem to be really positive as opposed to the surly attitudes you have in some of the other places. It’s cheery weather, it’s cheery people,” Robert Goodwin, the AOL manager who chose a call centre in St Lucia, said.
AOL still uses call centres in India and elsewhere for technical support and other services — taking advantage of that country’s large numbers of workers with technical and advanced degrees.
But the Caribbean is becoming increasingly competitive in the call centre industry, with island governments offering tax and other incentives to lure companies to their shores. Jamaica, for example, granted call centres “free zone” status that allows owners to repatriate 100% of their earnings tax-free.
“You put a call centre with 100 people in Barbados and that’s God’s gift. With 100 people in India, you can’t even see it,” he said. The industry owes much of its success to a telecommunications liberalisation that began sweeping former British colonies in the Caribbean about six years ago. As new suppliers have challenged the monopoly of Britain-based Cable & Wireless, lower prices allowed the region to compete.
Large American companies have used Caribbean call centres, while often keeping operations in Asia or elsewhere in case of a hurricane or other disaster, Peters said.
While much of the profits go to US-owned operators, the islands welcome the business to diversify their economies and counter high unemployment. In Jamaica, where the vast majority of 18 call centres are owned by people outside the island, the starting wage is $2.75 to $3.20 an hour, according to Christopher McNair of Jamaica’s investment promotion agency. “In Jamaica, it’s quite an attractive salary,” he said.
Plunging communication costs, workers who relate easily to American customers and the region’s famed hospitality are attracting American corporations, boosting the work force in the “nearshore” service industry in the Caribbean.
Jamaica is one of the leaders with about 14,000 employees in the sector. In the Dominican Republic, 18,000 agents, many of them bilingual, are handling calls in English and Spanish.
Call centres dedicated to customer service have also opened in Barbados, Trinidad, and Dominica. “The islands all seem to be really positive as opposed to the surly attitudes you have in some of the other places. It’s cheery weather, it’s cheery people,” Robert Goodwin, the AOL manager who chose a call centre in St Lucia, said.
AOL still uses call centres in India and elsewhere for technical support and other services — taking advantage of that country’s large numbers of workers with technical and advanced degrees.
But the Caribbean is becoming increasingly competitive in the call centre industry, with island governments offering tax and other incentives to lure companies to their shores. Jamaica, for example, granted call centres “free zone” status that allows owners to repatriate 100% of their earnings tax-free.
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The Caribbean has taken only a tiny share of the market from still-hot India and the Philippines, but the impact is huge on islands with tiny populations, said Philip Cohen, an industry consultant based in Sweden. In Montego Bay, a resort area on Jamaica’s north coast that accounts for about half the island’s call centre jobs, developers have rapidly built thousands of concrete, single-family homes to accommodate the workers.“You put a call centre with 100 people in Barbados and that’s God’s gift. With 100 people in India, you can’t even see it,” he said. The industry owes much of its success to a telecommunications liberalisation that began sweeping former British colonies in the Caribbean about six years ago. As new suppliers have challenged the monopoly of Britain-based Cable & Wireless, lower prices allowed the region to compete.
Large American companies have used Caribbean call centres, while often keeping operations in Asia or elsewhere in case of a hurricane or other disaster, Peters said.
While much of the profits go to US-owned operators, the islands welcome the business to diversify their economies and counter high unemployment. In Jamaica, where the vast majority of 18 call centres are owned by people outside the island, the starting wage is $2.75 to $3.20 an hour, according to Christopher McNair of Jamaica’s investment promotion agency. “In Jamaica, it’s quite an attractive salary,” he said.
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One leading advocate is Dominican president Leonel Fernandez, who said call centres are key to transforming his nation from a low-end assembly centre to a knowledge-based economy. “I see the digital economy as the best opportunity we in the Dominican Republic have ever had of leapfrogging to a new level of economic development,” Fernandez said.Download
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