A call centre at its Worli office has saved the lives of many, like 49-year-old Subhash Dharne, who had to shut down his PCO shop as mobile phones started eating into his business. The centre handles sales calls for Vodafone.
The National Association of Blind (NAB) is living up to its name – coming to the aid of about 50 visually impaired Mumbaikars.
A call centre at its Worli office has saved the lives of many, like 49-year-old Subhash Dharne, who had to shut down his PCO shop as mobile phones started eating into his business. The centre handles sales calls for Vodafone.
"I had my own PCO. With mobile phones getting popular, my business suffered and I had to shut shop. Since I was 45+, I couldn't apply for a government job. To earn a living, I came to NAB and joined the call centre," he said.
Dharne joined NAB's call centre two years ago and earns only Rs 3,500. When he joined, he had to manually dial the numbers. "We used to be dependent on Braille printouts which had the numbers. We had to manually dial them. This affected our efficiency," he said.
Life changed for Dharne and others from Monday as the call centre was automated. "Now, we can make more calls. We are also expecting a hike in salary," he said.
There are 50 more people who work at the newly inaugurated automated call centre. Chanchal Ankush (26), who travels from Ulhasnagar every day, said: "The earlier procedure was quiet cumbersome. We had to hold the Braille paper in one hand and dial the numbers with the other. Each person could make only 200-250 calls, out of which only 15-20 got converted as customers. Now, with the upgraded technology, we will make more calls. It will increase our productivity," said Chanchal.
"We started the call centre in 2006 for 15 people. We felt the need to upgrade it. Premlata Vandravan Shah Charities and Rotary Club of Bombay Hanging Garden helped us with the infrastructure. It is the first fully computerised and automated call centre, where 50 visually impaired telecallers sit," said Pallavi Kadam, executive director, NAB.
The system will use the latest Jaws software that converts visual data on a computer screen into voice.
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