Before anything else, decide what kind of floor you are building
Most people who ask how to start a call center in Pakistan already have a picture in mind: a room in Johar Town or Gulberg, thirty seats, US campaigns. That picture is fine, but it skips the first real decision, which is what your floor will sell and to whom.
The common model for a new floor is outbound lead generation for US insurance and home services. Your fronters qualify a US consumer and pass them by live transfer to a licensed closer, who is usually with your buyer. You get paid per qualified transfer or per sale. The other models are closing floors (which need licensed agents and are harder to start), inbound support for a US company, and non-voice work.
Everything below assumes an outbound transfer floor, because that is where most new Pakistani owners begin. It needs the least capital, no US licenses on your side and no long client approval process. It also has the thinnest margin for error, because you are paid only for transfers the buyer accepts.
How to start a call center in Pakistan, step by step
Here is the order I would do it in. Each step depends on the one before, and skipping ahead (renting the office before you have a buyer, for example) is the most common way new floors lose money in their first months.
- Pick one campaign and learn it: Medicare, ACA, final expense, auto insurance or solar. Learn its script, its season and its rules.
- Find a buyer before you hire: someone who will take your transfers and pay you on agreed terms, in writing.
- Register the business so you can sign contracts, open a business bank account and receive payments from abroad.
- Secure a location with power and internet backup that can run all night.
- Set up the dialer, VoIP carrier and caller IDs, then test them before the first agent sits down.
- Get your data and compliance in order: where your leads come from, consent, calling windows and do-not-call handling.
- Hire and train fronters, a team lead and someone for QA.
- Plan night-shift logistics: transport, security and food.
- Start small, measure, fix and only then add seats or bots.
Registration: sole proprietor or private limited company
You have two broad options. The simplest is to operate as a sole proprietor, registered with the FBR for a National Tax Number (NTN). It is quick and suits a small floor run by one owner. The other is a private limited company registered with the SECP, which separates the business from you personally and tends to look more serious to foreign buyers and banks.
IT and IT-enabled services exporters can also look at registering with the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). Call centers serving foreign clients have generally been treated as IT-enabled services, and registration can matter for tax treatment and some banking processes. The rules and benefits change, so check current fees and requirements with the SECP, the FBR and PSEB directly, and have an accountant or lawyer confirm what applies to you before you register.
Whichever route you take, open a business bank account early. You will need it for your buyer's payments, and banks ask questions about foreign remittances that are easier to answer with registration papers and a contract in hand.
Choosing a campaign and a buyer
A buyer is the US company or agency that takes your transfers. They set the qualifying rules (age, state, coverage, homeownership and so on), the hours they accept transfers and the price they pay. Some pay per billable transfer, which usually means the caller stayed on the line for a minimum time with the closer. Others pay per sale. Get the definition of a billable transfer in writing, because most disputes start there.
Pick a campaign that fits your team and the calendar. Medicare is huge but seasonal, with its busy months around the Annual Enrollment Period in the fall. ACA has its own open enrollment window. Final expense, auto insurance and solar run more evenly through the year. Our comparison of US call center campaigns covers the trade-offs.
Talk to more than one buyer before you commit. Ask how long they have paid their current vendors, how they handle returns and chargebacks, and how quickly they pay. A buyer who pays late is a cash-flow problem you cannot hire your way out of.
Office, power and internet
Your office has to run all night, every night. In Pakistan that means planning for load-shedding from day one. Every seat needs a UPS, and the floor needs a generator or a solar and battery setup that can carry the whole shift, not just the lights. Test the switchover during a real shift, before a buyer is on the other end.
Internet needs the same care. Get two connections from different providers, ideally one fiber line and one backup over a different route, and a router that fails over on its own. VoIP quality falls apart on a weak line long before the line goes down, so watch call quality as well as uptime.
Location affects hiring and transport. Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad have the deepest pools of agents with US process experience. A building on a main road, with parking for the pick and drop vans and security at night, saves you trouble later.
Dialer, VoIP and data
Most Pakistani outbound floors run ViciDial, an open-source dialer, hosted on a server in the US or Europe. Some use Convoso or another hosted dialer. You will also need a VoIP carrier for outbound minutes and US caller IDs (DIDs). Our guide to what ViciDial is and how it is set up covers the basics. Whoever runs your dialer should be reachable during the shift, because a server or carrier problem at 2 a.m. stops every seat at once.
Data is where new floors get into the most trouble. Know where every list came from and what consent it carries. Set calling windows by the called person's time zone in the dialer, scrub against do-not-call lists before dialing, and honor every request not to be called again. Read TCPA basics for offshore call centers and talk to US counsel before you dial. US rules apply to your calls even though your office is in Pakistan.
Hiring, the night shift and getting paid
For a transfer floor you need fronters, a team lead, someone on QA, and an IT person who knows the dialer. Hire for clear spoken English and a calm manner, then train on the script, the campaign and the US basics (states, ZIP codes, how Americans say dates). Agents with US process experience start faster but expect more.
The night shift needs its own plan. Arrange pick and drop for staff who finish in the early hours, with extra care for women staff. Keep the building secure, give people a proper break and food, and plan for the roster change when US clocks move.
Getting paid from a US buyer usually means an international bank transfer into your business account, against an invoice that matches your contract. Keep the invoice, the contract and your call records together for every payment. Ask an accountant how export income from services is taxed and what your bank needs from you to process foreign remittances. Do not accept payment arrangements you cannot document.
Where bots can replace seats
Fronting is the seat that costs a new floor the most effort: constant hiring, constant training, and a transfer rate that slides as the night goes on. It is also the most repetitive seat, which is why many floors now run AI fronter bots on part or all of their list, with human closers taking the transfers.
B3 Voice is a Pakistani company, and our bots log into ViciDial and transfer qualified callers into your existing queue. A fronter bot asks your qualifying questions and transfers, and a verifier bot confirms the details and writes them into your CRM and the ViciDial comments. Our page for Pakistani call centers explains how we work with floors here, and pricing is published.
You do not need bots to start. You need a buyer, a clean list and a floor that runs all night. But when you plan seats, it helps to know that a fronting seat no longer has to be a person.
