“Your call will be transferred to an operator. All operators are busy now”. These phrases are quite familiar to thousands of Bulgarian clients of mobile operators, banks, internet providers, power-distribution companies, water and sewerage companies and even some state institutions. In most cases, the customer service centers which are foreign companies serve as telephone exchange and a filter between consumers (with their complaints and questions) and the large companies.

The conversations are held in accordance to a previously planned scenario, because the personnel of such companies are mainly young people, without any work experience and knowledge in the relevant field. It sometimes hampers communication and makes customers think that the opposite side is not interested in the given problem or question.

Another more attractive business model of companies working on foreign projects was launched before the establishment of the call centers which serve the local market. These companies emerged some 10 to 11 years ago.

Public media contend that the call centers which serve the foreign markets are divided into two segments- a high and a low segment. The smaller companies usually deal with phone sales or telemarketing. They work on projects which usually go through larger companies and the chance of sealing a deal is very low. Their employees usually work on civil contracts, although it is illegal, and their remuneration is not attractive at all.

Kaloyan Kamenov who is a Key Account Manager at a large recruitment company contests the statement of the public media and divides the call centers into centers which provide distant services to clients of the organization such as Hewlet Packard or IBM for instance and ones which work for external companies. In his view, the second type of call centers prevails in Bulgaria.

The call centers are looking to recruit experts who know more than one language and have good computer skills. In most cases, the staff works on shifts and university certificate is not mandatory. More from Kaloyan Kamenov:

“The wages depend on the experience of the personnel in the respective field and the level of their language skills”, Kaloyan Kamenov comments. “A person who knows rare languages would receive higher salary due to the level of difficulty of the given language. People who use more popular languages such as French, English, German, Spanish and Italian receive a gross monthly pay of EUR 800 to EUR 1,300.”

The salaries paid to Bulgarians and foreign nationals do not differ, Mr Kamenov specifies and adds:

“The character of this job favors the foreigners, because they work with their mother language. Thus, the character of the job reflects on the career development of those who work in these companies. A French citizen would find it easier to become Quality Analyst for French clients.”

Many young and older qualified Bulgarians, who graduated before the times of the economic crisis or worked in business companies, but due to bad circumstances fail to find a proper job corresponding to their skills, prefer to work in the large call centers. They are attracted by the international working environment, the attractive labor conditions and sound organization, the social benefits, the respect paid towards the employees, the clear rights and responsibilities at work, the payment of their wages in a timely manner and the transparent bonus plans.

Unfortunately, the employees of most Bulgarian companies which do business in a different field can only dream of such working conditions.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov