How to get hired
Our article on non-voice and back-office jobs explains what "non-voice" means. This guide is about the four kinds of seat and how each one tests you.
Chat support
You handle customers in a chat window, usually two or three at a time ("concurrency"), with canned responses you edit to fit. E-commerce, travel, telecom and fintech brands and their BPO partners hire for it. Tests: typing speed and accuracy, a grammar and comprehension test, and a mock chat with an annoyed customer where they check tone, spelling and whether you solve the problem in few messages. Each process sets its own words-per-minute and accuracy cut-off; ask the recruiter for it, then practise on a free typing site until you clear it with room to spare, because test-day nerves cost a few words a minute.
Email and ticket support
Slower, more careful writing: refund disputes, account issues, complaints that need a full reply. The test is usually an email to write in a set time. Use short paragraphs, answer the actual question in the first two lines, state the next step and timeline, and never promise what the process can't deliver.
Back office and transaction processing
Titles: Process Associate, Process Executive, Back Office Executive. You process orders, update records, verify documents (KYC, insurance claims, loan files), or moderate content against guidelines. Tests: typing, attention-to-detail exercises (spot the mismatch between two records), basic Excel, and sometimes a reasoning test. 12th pass and any graduate are accepted widely.
Finance and accounting (F&A) and healthcare processes
These need a domain. F&A processes (accounts payable, receivables, reconciliation, record-to-report) at IT-services and analytics firms prefer B.Com, M.Com and sometimes semi-qualified CA or CMA candidates, and test accounting basics: journal entries, what a three-way match is in payables, debit and credit notes, GST basics, and Excel. US healthcare revenue-cycle companies hire for charge entry, payment posting and claims processing (non-voice) alongside AR calling (voice); they test reading comprehension and attention to detail, and teach the US insurance terms in training.
What to bring
Resume, Aadhaar, PAN, marksheets, two photos; for F&A, your degree certificate and any Tally or Excel certificate. Some non-voice processes ask you to sign a service agreement or bond. Read the amount and the period before signing; see job and training bonds.
What the work is like
Most of the day is at the screen with targets on volume (transactions or tickets per hour) and accuracy (often audited by a quality team, with high accuracy expected). Processes serving US clients run night shifts; UK clients, afternoon to late evening; domestic processes, day or rotational. Many floors don't allow phones at your desk because you see customer data, and some restrict personal bags or paper.
The way up depends on the seat. Chat and email agents move into quality, training, team leader or knowledge-base and content roles. Back-office agents move to SME, team leader, MIS and reporting. F&A associates move up the most steadily: Senior Process Associate, Process Lead, then Assistant Manager in an accounting tower, with a CA, CMA or Excel and ERP skill speeding it up. Our guide to team leader and quality roles covers that step.