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Help at your fingertips
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Madhu Bhaskar’s city-based firm tries to ensure that there is information at your fingertips, writes REMA SUNDAR
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Information hub Employees at Fingertips Telephonic Information Centre are on call 24x 7
A distraught caller dials 2722722 and asks for the phone number of a veterinary surgeon who could help remove a needle from their pet dog’s mouth. On another occasion, a group of panicky hostellers dial the same number to request help in conta
cting a snake catcher’s number. Seems a snake had decided to take a break in a bathroom in their hostel. For the employees at Fingertips Telephonic Information Centre, Sasthamangalam, answering such queries and providing help is just part of the day’s work. Day or night, trained operators, equipped with a computerised database, empathise with the callers and respond to queries in less than 15 seconds. And the phones never stop ringing …
The Centre, launched in 1996, was the idea of its executive director Madhu Bhaskar. Says Madhu: “I started work on the project nearly 10 years before it was made open to the public. There is always the need for information in our lives. My intention was to provide information on all those areas that cause a ‘mental traffic jam’ in people and calls the ‘human-to-human interaction’ a unique feature of Fingertips.” In the 11 years of its existence, Fingertips has been positioned as a service provider for sourcing telephone numbers. But what is perhaps not quite well known is the fact that this Centre is not all about providing telephone numbers. It has a growing database that contains information on some common and not-so-common information needs. Serving to attend the calls are 22 operators, who work in two shifts.
Emphasises Smitha, an operator who has been with Fingertips for six years: “We give equal importance to all the calls we receive.” The Centre, which has 25 telephone lines, answer queries in three languages, English, Malayalam and Hindi, and take between 20,000 and 30,000 calls each day.
Fingertips has also expanded with opening of another Centre in Kochi, called ‘Fingertips International.’
Database
Says Madhu: “While the Centre in the city provides information specific to the district, the centre in Kochi has a database of information from all over the world, including Thiruvananthapuram.” Some of the information available there includes public utility services such as names and contact details of hospitals, doctors, schools, repository on music, both film and classical, past and present happenings in politics and general knowledge, to name a few. Fingertips offers different registration options, including product/name based besides classified registration. Says Madhu: “As a service, we provide information on critical services even when the concerned parties have not registered with us.”
Fingertips makes use of numerous sources, including newspapers and books, to update its database.
Says Madhu: “We also have freelance reporters who work to update information.” The work on updating the database is done by six employees in Kochi. While during rush hours, Fingertips is able to answer only one query per call, it provides answers to multiple queries during non-rush hours. Madhu advises those who wish to seek answers for multiple queries to ring up between 10 p.m. and six am.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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