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INB Team
August 19, 2025
Imagine: 8:30 AM, messages are flying into messengers from employees from three continents. One chat is in French, the second in Arabic, the third in English with local slang. Somewhere in Côte d’Ivoire, an urgent power-outage issue needs to be solved; in Algeria, the workday hasn’t started yet, while in countries on the other side of the globe it’s already drawing to a close.
This is the reality when you sell dietary supplements around the world. There’s no “stop” button here. And if you want dozens of call centers to work like a single mechanism, you have to keep your finger on the pulse 24/7.
Call centers are the operational heart of the business. This is where a customer either makes a purchase or closes the website tab forever. And it’s here that the small details — from intonation to an agent’s response speed — decide everything.
We asked our Head of Quality Control Department, Iryna, about the nuances of working across different geos, and here’s what she shared.
The start of the workday isn’t coffee – it’s analytics.
“Usually, the workday starts with analyzing the previous day’s metrics across all countries. Then, depending on what the numbers show – whether there are any issues or everything’s okay – we distribute tasks for the day for each geo. The main thing is to check the metrics in time and spot anomalies. First, we put out ‘fires’ where it’s most necessary, and then we move on according to criticality.”
Working with data is the key secret of success. You don’t need to wait for complaints or breakdowns. The trick is to see the risk before it becomes reality. And that’s exactly what allows you to run dozens of call centers in different countries without chaos.
It may seem that working with countries in different time zones is a huge problem. But no, on the contrary, it’s a great opportunity to distribute workload.
“In fact, the time difference between our geos helps a lot. Some countries start working in the morning along with me, some start even before my workday begins, and others are online after lunch. This way you can allocate your resources and working time according to each country’s schedule.”
So instead of doing ten tasks at once, you can tier them by urgency: close the top-priority items in the morning, plan daytime activities for geos that ‘wake up’ later, and leave the evening for countries with the biggest time shift. That gives you a lot of flexibility in planning the day.
Is there a universal approach? Of course, there’s a standard sales approach, but it’s only the framework, and everything else needs to be adapted to the audience. That’s why you need experienced agents and solid upfront analytics.
“Usually we use a standard sales approach that our agents follow. But that’s just the skeleton. After that, things differ greatly in each GEO. In some countries, a drier, fact-based approach works better — you need to explain everything more scientifically. In other GEOs, on the contrary, you should talk to customers more informally and friendly, giving examples of relatives or friends who have also used the product.”
The ability to feel the audience and adapt to its specifics is the key to successful sales.
Many rely solely on research and analytics. But practice shows that the deepest understanding comes from talking to real people. Job interviews for call-center roles help a lot with this.
“When we open a new country, we naturally look for a local team and conduct a lot of interviews. During those, we learn not only about professional skills, but also watch how people behave, how they think, how they react. We ask additional questions about local culture, mentality, sales approaches, how you should speak to people, and what actually concerns them. Such conversations, in my view, are the main source of information about a new country.”
That’s why the hiring team isn’t just HR. They’re the first researchers of new territory.
Different mentalities are probably the biggest challenge in communicating with local teams. It takes time to understand clearly in which geo a reply like “well received” truly means the task will be done, and where you’ll need to remind people a few more times to get a result.
“When I received a reply to my task or question ‘yes, mam’, it didn’t always mean the task would actually be completed. In the culture of some geos, it’s customary to agree to everything, nod, and say ‘I understand, I’ll do everything,’ but it’s not a fact that the task will be done, or done exactly as you need. So it took time to figure out where you need more control, explain in more detail, and ask again if everything is clear, so the task gets done.”
This isn’t about distrust. It’s more about sensitivity to nuances and the importance of adapting your management style to a country’s mentality. Somewhere, one message is enough. Elsewhere, you need multiple clarifications and control at every stage.
People are at the core of everything. It’s the motivation of teams, both local and at head office, that most influences results. If the work is a joy and a person genuinely likes what they do, you feel it immediately.
“What I like most in my work is the engagement of the team both from the head office and the teams directly in the geos. That’s a very strong personal motivator for me. I really love working with people who also truly enjoy their work.”
When the team doesn’t just mechanically complete tasks but empathizes when there’s a sense of unity results follow quickly. Selling “by force” doesn’t work.
We approach hiring for call centers very carefully. We have a clear understanding of whom we’re looking for, for which role, and why.
“For every position, we have a candidate profile that guides our hiring. There are several interview stages, plus test tasks, based on which we select the best candidates.”
The main requirements are the ability to work quickly in a CRM system, conduct a dialogue, and sense the client’s mood and emotions. And most importantly, the person must have motivation without it, everything is in vain. Even a perfect script won’t help without inner energy, because customers feel when someone is speaking “by the book” and when it’s sincere.
Weirdly, sometimes the greatest satisfaction comes from the countries that resist “standardization” the most.
“Yes, I have a favorite geo and, oddly enough, it’s the one where the largest number of problems arises. But that’s probably why it’s my favorite – you invest a lot of effort, energy, and time there, and it’s gratifying when you see the results.”
It’s like watching order emerge from chaos. And that’s more energizing than stable processes.
We’re often asked: “Why do we need these rules at all? What happens if we ignore them?” It’s not only about the quality of creatives and how the audience receives them, but also about local laws and the company’s image.
“Following creative guidelines is extremely important for several reasons. First, these are the rules and internal laws of the country. We can’t violate certain laws because that can lead to very serious consequences for the company and, especially, for our local team. The second point is responsibility to customers. Some customers are very meticulous, and if they see information that clearly doesn’t match reality, it severely undermines their trust in our company and product.”
When a customer sees something suspicious, they start to doubt. And doubt is the enemy of sales.
Every country has its own quirks and challenges. Algeria, for example, is about slow but high-quality scaling.
“Algeria is one of the countries where you need the most time to scale a call center and hire new agents, because the team there is very stable and professional. And to find worthy candidates for this team, you have to spend a lot of time.”
Côte d’Ivoire, in turn, presents a completely different, more down-to-earth kind of challenge.
“Here the problems are more mundane like periodic power outages. As in most similar countries, this is a standard issue. For such situations, we have a solution – instructions on how to act, what to do, and how to minimize the impact of these, let’s say, difficulties on achieving results and on the call center’s operation. But yes, this problem exists and arises quite regularly.”
Each country has its specifics, and there’s no universal solution. That’s why flexibility and the ability to adapt are so important.
Managing call centers isn’t about micromanagement. And it isn’t about unification. It’s about a subtle understanding of the market, people, and context.
It’s about the ability to see risk before it becomes reality. About the capacity to build a clear system where there are no templates. And about a team that doesn’t just “exist,” but is truly engaged.
Without this, even with high-quality scripts and solid analytics, there will be no results.
