The smile never leaves Subhro Sengupta’s face. As a team leader of a group of six sales executives in a retail outlet in South Calcutta, he acts as the troubleshooter whenever one of his team members is not able to handle a customer’s queries satisfactorily. “For us, the smile is almost like a dress that we wear and it stays until closing time,” he says, again with a smile.

Sengupta joined the outlet about two years back as a trainee and is extremely happy with the way his career is shaping up. And all this without a professional degree. “Soon after completing my higher secondary exam, I was looking for a job and joined here. I never really thought that I would enjoy this job so much,” he says.

What probably helped Sengupta was his friendliness and the calm approach with which he handles the customers in the store. Whether by design or accident, Sengupta, who is also pursuing his graduation through distance education, believes that he has landed the right job.

“The main qualities that we look for are excellent communication skills, good management qualities, ability to improve customer loyalty and build a repeat clientele base,” says a spokesperson for Westside, a Tata-owned retail store. For students who have just completed their high school and do not want to go to college, but would like to work and also study, a stint in the customer care area could be the right thing to do. The area is vast and youngsters have a lot to choose from.

“Areas in which customer care executives are in great demand are retail, financial services, FMCG, online services, ITES (IT enabled services), media, entertainment, education institutes and hospitality industries,” says Stuart Crighton, founder and COO, Cleartrip.com.

But it is not that these companies choose anybody and everybody. “We actively seek employees with the ‘customer is king’ mindset. Providing high quality customer care is not a strength that all of us possess, but having done the groundwork via profiling during our recruitment process, we find that our trainees are willing, able and eager to provide service to our clients’ customers,” says Tim Huiting, vice-president, human resources, Asia, Convergys.

One of the best things about joining as a customer care executive is that there is no need to have specialised degrees or even training as most of the companies provide training. The only thing they look for while recruiting is whether people have the right aptitude to work as a customer care executive.

The training period takes anywhere from two to six weeks in most of these establishments. “We are particular about ensuring that our employees have the skill and confidence to successfully handle customer calls from their very first day on the contact centre floor. This aids employee retention and ensures that we are meeting our stringent customer care quality thresholds,” adds Huiting.

But the training varies from industry to industry. And even culture to culture. “We believe that in-house or external training programmes will not benefit us in the long term if they are not integrated into an ongoing customer service improvement strategy. There is nothing worse for trainees than to attend training, become empowered with new techniques and ideas and then come back to an environment where they are under-appreciated and their new skills not utilised. In the end, a motivated trainee needs to be able to practice what he learns,” says Crighton.

“The biggest challenge is taking note of the cultural nuances of the English language, such as metaphors that are used in one country and not in another. We focus on culture training with our employees to ensure they understand our clients’ customers and vice versa. We provide intensive training to ensure that there are no cultural misunderstandings,” says Huiting.

In sectors like retailing, which are growing very fast, the career opportunities are pretty good. “Coupled with this is an acute shortage of trained manpower at this point. It is therefore natural that the career path for achievers will be on a fast track,” says a Westside spokesperson.

According to Westside, around 20 lakh jobs will be created in the retail sector alone by 2010. “Professionals planning to enter the sector have lots to cheer about,” says the Westside spokesperson.

Career progression in the customer care field can be very fast depending on the ability of the person. “The promotions are pretty fast. I joined here as a trainee about two years back and now I am a team leader. If I continue to do well, I can get promoted to the level of an assistant manager,” says Sengupta.

While freshers can earn anywhere between Rs 7,000 and 9,000 per month, people with some experience in the customer care sector or with basic computer skills and also in other fields could earn more.

Some organisations also fund or offer opportunities in career advancement studies, while still working. “Through Convergys University, we provide our employees with the opportunity to explore and train for different career paths available within and across the customer care space. We have trained employees in India to take on roles such as transition monitor evaluators, communication coaches, team leaders and culture and communication trainers,” says Huiting.

So if you believe in the “customer is king” mindset, then a career in customer care service is waiting for you.