AOL to expand Indian services

Circuit EC / Bangalore

America Online Member Services India, a subsidiary of AOL, plans to ramp up its headcount from 1,500 to 1,900 people by end-2003. It will also expand the portfolio of functions at its Indian centre in Bangalore that acts as a customer service centre servicing AOL’s 35 million subscribers. The Bangalore centre recently completed its first year of operation. It is the single largest customer support centre of AOL outside of the US. The company has six centres in the US, one in Manila and one in India. The Indian centre provides round-the-clock support, taking inbound phone calls relating to general billing, problems with AOL’s client software and explaining the registration process to new members.

Lloyd M Wirshba, senior vice president of Member services at AOL said, “We are planning to delegate more functions to the Indian centre, such as handling spam and some parental control functions.”