Associated Press . San Juan, 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 Inc — 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 from his company’s headquarters in Dulles, Va.