Agents take calls from customers at the KM2 call-centre firm in Bridgetown, Barbados, August 31. Plunging communication costs, workers who relate easily to American customers, and the region's famed hospitality are attracting American corporations, boosting the workforce in the 'nearshore' service industry in the Caribbean.- AP

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 UnitedStates 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 workforce 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, Virginia.

aol centres in India

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 per cent of their earnings tax free.

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 a 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 PLC, lower prices allowed the region to compete.

The collections and call-centre firm KM2, which holds the AOL contract in St. Lucia, has opened a site in Barbados and owner David Kreiss said he is looking to expand again as new telecoms install fibre-optic cable.

"Whichever island they go to, we follow," Kreiss said from his office in Atlanta.

The number of people working at Caribbean call centres has increased from 11,300 in 2002 to a current total of 55,000, with an annual economic impact of $2.5 billion, according to Philip Peters, chief executive of Coral Gables, Florida-based Zagada Markets.

Peters, whose company surveys the call-centre industry in regions around the world, said the Caribbean has set itself apart with high service, a quality he attributes to cultural similarities and the influence of the tourism industry.

companies using call centres

"They have a history of troubleshooting with Americans without getting upset," he said.

Large American companies including Verizon, AT&T, Delta Air Lines, AIG and Nortel have used Caribbean call centers, 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 U.S.-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 is owned by people outside the island, the starting wage is US$2.75 to US$3.20 an hour, according to Christopher McNair of Jamaica's investment promotion agency. "In Jamaica, it's quite an attractive salary," he said. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory subject to the Federal minimum wage of US$5.85 an hour, about 4,000 people work in call centres.

One leading advocate is Dominican President Leonel Fernández, who said call centers are key to transforming his nation froma 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," Fernández told a business conference recently.

Many of the jobs involve simple, repetitive tasks, such as handling phone orders, but governments describe the goal as gradually evolving to offer more demanding, expensive services such as technical support.

One Jamaican company, e-Services Group, began as a data-entry operation but now also provides a range of support, including help building websites and processing insurance claims.

"We've started with customer service, and as we proved we could do more, they've started driving more business in," said Patrick Casserly, the chief executive officer.

- AP