Call Center Philippines

The demand for efficient and knowledgeable customer service has never been greater than it is today. Regardless of what they sell or what service they provide companies need loyal, patient, and efficient customer service agents to man their call centers and make their company look good through excellent customer service that solves the customer’s problem the first time.

Good customer service is a must and costs a lot. The equipment and the manpower needed to provide excellent customer service can have a staggering cost. Finding personnel who are truly dedicated to providing excellent customer service is a challenge in some markets where every employee thinks they are a manager.

Outsourcing call center customer service is a cost effective and reliable means of providing excellent customer service with personnel who really want to do the job as well as it can possibly be done.

An ever increasing number of companies are opting to choose the Philippines to offshore outsource their call center requirements. The benefits are substantial and the long standing harmonious relationship between the United States and the Philippines helps to facilitate the operation and ease the intergovernmental regulations.

Opting to offshore outsource your call center requirements to the Philippines has several distinct advantages. The low labor cost in the Philippines is a primary factor in choosing the Philippines. Many people have been deceived by news pundits who claim that outsourced labor is slave labor. The fact is an outsourced call center employee in the Philippines makes more than most other Philippinos.

The close cultural affinity between the United States and the Philippines builds a high level of customer confidence in the reliability of call center service by Philippines. The 94% literacy rate – one of the highest Asia – and the excellent English language proficiency provides a work force that can deliver a higher service quality at lower cost.

The Philippines has developed a world class infrastructure that provides an excellent education system. Many United States business training schools have operations in the Philippines. This educational infrastructure provides a high level of customer service orientation and a choice of companies with years of experience in business process outsourcing (BPO) and a trained BPO workforce.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines started back in the early 1990s with a number of companies that offered non-voice and software-related services such as software application development, system design, data entry and email support. These companies started to offer other services such as teleservices in response to their clients with voice requirements. Clients who wanted their customers’ concerns addressed directly and promptly through technical support and customer care services employed the services of a call center in the Philippines. Many contact centers also started offering travel and financial services, both of which are customer relations services. The services being offered by call centers in the Philippines became essential in the development of the country’s call center and BPO industry and in defining its important role in the outsourcing industry worldwide.

Many foreign companies are aware of the advantages that a call center in the Philippines will bring to their businesses. A company that decides to hire a contact center in the country will be able to focus more on its core competencies. By transferring most customer relations services to a contact center equipped with the necessary technology and skilled and knowledgeable agents, the client company can make the most out of its investment since it can now focus more on advertising, marketing and improving its sales and products.
Lower operational and labor costs are among the many advantages that hiring a call center in the Philippines can give to a company. These foreign businesses are aware of the fact that contact centers can provide the same kind and level of customer service at lower costs. They will not spend as much money when hiring a call center in the Philippines as they would if they hired and trained customer support agents themselves and paid for overhead costs.

Another good reason for foreign businesses to get the services of a call center in the Philippines is the Philippine government’s support for the IT and BPO industries. The government is focused on expanding its already large talent pool by providing individuals with free training and seminars that will equip them with the skills needed to meet the demands of the BPO industry.

The importance of call centers in the Philippines is further established when companies come to realize that they can attract and maintain customers more efficiently if they employ the services of an excellent contact center. As mentioned, contact centers offer different types of services such as sales verification, customer service, surveys and technical support. Most of these are services that companies need in order to attract more customers and maintain or improve customer relationships. Through these services and by using the information a call center in the Philippines gathers, they will be able to learn how to serve their customers better by improving their products or services.

Many foreign businesses are aware that the Philippines has a big talent pool composed of highly educated individuals, most of whom are fluent in spoken English (the country being the third largest English-speaking country in the world). This makes the country an ideal and important offshore outsourcing destination for these foreign businesses. Unlike other BPO companies located in other countries, customer support or technical support agents working in a call center in the Philippines will require little training when it comes to speaking English. Most of the time, training related to the English language only requires accent neutralization.

BPO companies and call centers in the Philippines do not only pose advantages for foreign businesses but also give great benefits to the country. The emergence of business process outsourcing has created jobs in the country and has generated some $7.3 billion in total industry revenues in 2009 alone. This year, call centers, BPO companies and KPO firms are expected to generate more jobs and industry revenues, as well as expand its hold on the global outsourcing market.

Your Call Center In The Philippines
If you’re in business, you’ve probably heard the talk about using Call Centers in the Philippines and have wondered exactly what your Call Center In The Philippines could do for you. The short answer is…”A lot!”

But let’s be more specific about the exact benefits, OK?

For one thing, because the Philippines is on a completely different time zone than the continental US, having a Call Center in The Philippines means your business would never have to ‘go to sleep’ in the evening. While all your US employees go home to enjoy an evening with the family, your Call Center Philippines could be making calls in the evening across all US time zones (assuming this is appropriate for your product or service of course)to set appointments for the next day.

Of course appointment setting isn’t the only thing your Call Center in the Philippines can do. They can also do Customer Tech Support, Help Desk Support, Inbound Upselling, Inbound Telemarketing, Live Chat Sales, Email Support, Claim Processing and…..etc.

We know that money doesn’t grow on trees and your business is tough going today. We know that your customers are demanding better products and services and better service. Sure, it sounds contradictory but that’s the reality, right?

Using a call center can be one of the main answers to that problem because so much of the perceived value your customers get from your company is based on the impressions they get from your employees or representatives.

Todays high-tech communication means that you can have anywhere from 5 to 500 loyal, enthusiastic, courteous, call center agents ‘on your team’, even though they’re a half way around the globe, for pennies-on-the-dollar of equivalent stateside services (depending on the size of your need of course).

Call Center agents in the Philippines, even though Philippines wages are minimal in comparison to US wages, highly prize their jobs and love coming to work and their work environment. This is why so many big, name brand companies have been outsourcing as much as possible of their daily operations abroad (especially to the Philippines) for years now.

The fact is that almost anything that can be done via the phone can be done from the Philippines. Selling or straight administrative and clerical work…it doesn’t make any different. Why wouldn’t you want to save 30-60% on what you pay for those tasks?

Welcome Don the last ten years, the global business process (BPO) industry became the niche for call center service providers in the Philippines to competitively stay in the forefront of this fairly new industry. While BPO paved a way for call center in the Philippines to flourish, investors flocked into the country to seek ways to battle the global economic crisis. A number of big names in the outsourcing industry put up shop in the country and quite a number of small to medium sized outsourcing firms also took advantage of the trend. Today, the nation is still highly depending on the call center industry as one of the major players who will bring in the most revenue at the end of the year.
This 2010, the call center industry in the Philippines is expected to grow after yielding 22% higher revenues than it did in 2008. Since then, various firms in the call center Philippines space has opened their doors to hire more and more talented individuals to take part of the global industry. In February 2010, it was announced that the call center Philippines industry is expected to create as much as 90,000 new jobs this year. This reflects a high, unwavering demand for Filipino talent when it comes to customer service and support.
But why is the call center industry in the Philippines such an attractive marketplace for organizations worldwide? The core competencies of a Philippine call center lies in its workforce. The Philippines has a competitive workforce who is backed by good education, excellent English proficiency and a natural affinity for Western culture and work practices. We have strong, youthful university graduates who are well aware of the BPO industry and how it works. This is because the government and other BPO organizations are making efforts to promote the call center industry in the Philippines to as much schools as possible.
“What universities are doing is to have internal promotion of call centers and put up enhancement programs related to skills that the call centers need, and currently those skills have focus on English proficiency,” President of Jose Rizal University, Dr. Vicente Fabella said during the Call Center & BPO Training Convention 2010. Through this promotion, the call center Philippines industry may yield better talent. Moreover, the Filipino workforce is tech-savvy and very familiar with the Internet and how it impacts the way people do business. This awareness becomes an advantage for them as they constantly need to communicate with clients all over the world.
More than just talent, the call center Philippines’ core competency includes the nation’s I.T. infrastructure. The Philippines’ exiting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has boasted of her I.T. infrastructure development projects in most if not all of her State of the Nation Addresses. The outsourcing industry has taken over the Philippines so overwhelmingly that growth has sparked not only in Manila, the country’s capital, but also in second wave cities that are now seen as the future hosts to the outsourcing and call center Philippines industry. These cities include Metro Laguna, Metro Cavite, Iloilo City, Davao City, Metro Pampanga, East and West Bulacan, Cagayan de Oro City and Lipa City, all of which are infrastructure-wise ready to meet the demands of the global call center space. The Philippines offers more than just one option for investors to put up shop in the country. The reason why the Philippines is one of the world’s best outsource offshore destination for voice-related services is that we offer such a wide array of sites in which investors can come in and set up shop. By having this competitive type of infrastructure in several parts of the country and not just the nation’s capital, we can further utilize a wider spectrum of talent in all parts of the country.
More than just space and workforce, the call center Philippines industry boasts of a supportive government and other business organizations that work together to support the industry. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) holds two programs, Finishing Course for Call Center Agents (FCCA) and the Finishing Course for Medical Transcriptionist (FCMT), for those who need to hone their skills in customer service and medical transcription. Moreover, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) in cooperation with Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI), Animation Council of the Philippines (ACPI), and the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) also held a series of workshops for aspiring professionals who want to make it big in the industry.
“There is no stopping the Philippine call center industry in eyeing positive growth because of the competencies we bring as world-class Filipino Knowledge Professionals,” Fred Chua, chief executive officer of one of Manila’s more competitive outsourcing providers said in an interview with a broadsheet newspaper. This year, the call center Philippines industry, as one of the world’s best outsourcing destinations, will create 90,000 more jobs, 55% of which will be for call center agents. This is a significant indicator that the Philippine outsourcing industry is still in the peak of its growth and development to be the world’s best outsourcing destination for voice-related services.

The move towards customer service and retention has put a quite a heavy responsibility on customer service agents, whose key role in a corporation is vital in keeping the business alive. Because of the global financial crisis, organizations are moving the focus to customer service and retention, a job often outsourced to outfits such as call center Philippines.
For investors putting up shop in the call center Philippines space, they find that there is an abundant supply of talent, with as much as 380,000 college graduates every year. One of the country’s core competencies against other outsourcing nations is its highly trainable workforce that works diligently despite the odd working hours. The call center Philippines space is growing partly because of the excellence of these people in terms of exceeding expectations when it comes to training. Because the Filipinos are naturally accommodating and hospitable, the job becomes more fitting for their personality. They take on a proactive approach to communicating with their customers from all around the world, enabling clients to better understand their customers’ needs.
Training is a vital part of the process in which agents acquire the needed skills to perform well in their mission to maintain excellent customer relationships. Most companies in the call center Philippines sector highly invest in call center agent training to make sure they perform well and deliver relevant results. Depending on how large the outsourcing firm is, each call center Philippines service provider has specific training plans that focus on honing the agent’s communication skills. More than just basic training, other call center Philippines service providers have specific training for particular campaigns, as some clients require a more specific process.
What makes call center Philippines agent training more globally competitive than others is that the training process is divided into several steps. In the Philippines, training is a continuous process of learning, where new skills are developed early on to face bigger tasks and responsibilities. Think of it as a career ladder—at every level, the agent acquires certain skills that will mold him or her to fit leadership role.
Upon passing the rigorous process out hiring qualified individuals for the call center agent role, these new agents are put through a two to four week basic training that will introduce them to the company, its processes and how the deal with their clients. This basic training also includes communication skill tests, accent-neutralization tests that will hone their communication skills to better communicate with their customers.
Upon completing communication skills training, call center Philippines companies require their agents to undergo systems training, in which they learn how to operate with various hardware and software needed to handle for the job. A basic requirement for a call center agent is to be knowledgeable when it comes to operating a computer. The purpose of systems training is for call center agents to familiarize themselves with the customer relations management (CRM) system used by the client to pull up records and the dialing software used to make and receive calls.
Depending on the campaign, a particular group of agents might have to undergo specific retention training, in which they will learn how to deal with even the most difficult customers. If a campaign is solely focused on customer retention, the company may allow a firm investment in extensive retention training.
The different types of training for call center Philippines agent position are invaluable as it not only hones the skills of the agents but also prepares them for a career in the industry. Through intensive training, agents can determine their areas of excellence and areas of improvement, which they can consciously work on and become better at.
Aside from the organizational or in-house training held by the call center Philippines companies, other training includes those from outside the company space. Government agencies such as Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) handles technical education and skills development through training scholarship specifically designed for call center Philippines industry. TESDA’s training serves as an evaluation to determine if an applicant’s English proficiency meets the industry’s requirements. Applicants may undergo several tests on sentence mastery, vocabulary, fluency and pronunciation through various methods, including the ProSpeak 7 software. For those who meet the English proficiency requirements, they may proceed to undergo a 100-hour training at TESDA’s accredited training institution, where they receive training for accent, speaking proficiency, grammar and listening skills development as well as computer hardware and software training.
Aside from TESDA, aspiring agents may also undergo training with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the nation’s largest group of labor federations. TUCP, in cooperation with several BPO industry trade associates, conducts a 100-hour program that enables aspiring call center Philippines agents to improve language proficiency and better communicate effectively.
Through the various in-house and government-sponsored training programs, aspiring outsourcing professionals now have access to extensive training that will make them valuable resources for the call center Philippines industry.

Tagged as the “Sunshine Industry” of the country, the Philippine call center industry has not only grown to be one of today’s most modern and prolific spaces in the developing country but has also been one of the biggest sources of revenues. In 2009, it earned as much as $5 billion, an impressive 22% increase from its 2008 ending numbers. This year, several industry experts are expecting an even bigger increase with the global financial crisis slowly waning. This year, the Philippine call center industry, among other outsourcing spaces in the country, are optimistic that it will create as much as 90,000 jobs and beyond. The steady growth of the Philippine call center industry and other services sector has led National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) to believe that all in all, 2010 will see as much as 1.5 million new jobs created for the Filipino people. Out of these 90,000 jobs the Philippine call center industry is about to create, 55% will be call center agents while 45% will account for non-voice service agents. Nonetheless, it is a fairly large number that can accommodate the thousands of fresh graduates this year.
While the Philippine call center industry is experiencing slow and steady growth, we must highlight the possible reasons why there is a growing demand for the Filipino type of service.
The abundant Filipino workforce is highly capable, flexible and easily trainable.
As one of the world’s best destinations for outsourced services, the Philippine call center industry boasts of a large number of highly capable college graduates equipped with excellent English and information technology skills, basic requirements for entry-level call center agents. The typical Filipino workforce is highly capable of communicating well with both co-workers and clients, a skill deeply rooted in our culture. The Philippine call center industry is composed of naturally hospitable, accommodating individuals who work towards putting the clients’ needs first. Their core values are diligence and flexibility–values which carry over to the type of service they provide to customers all over the world. Because of these traits, our talent is one of the most sought-after in the world for customer service and support.
The Philippines has sufficient and capable I.T. infrastructure.
One of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s biggest accomplishments was pushing for infrastructure development during her term. February 2010 saw her heading to the province of Pampanga to promote her cyber corridor tour, which highlighted her developments in the ICT (information communication technology) sector. With the President’s support, the Philippine call center industry further penetrated Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and next wave cities Metro Laguna, Metro Cavite, Iloilo, Davao, Bacolod, Metro Pampanga, Metro Bulacan, Central Bulacan, Cagayan de Oro and Lipa. All of these cities are now being developed to accommodate the Philippine call center industry and the outsourcing industry’s demands. During her term, the president helped create incentives to IT companies and in turn lower internet costs to a single digit, providing businesses with cost efficient connectivity.
The Philippines is constantly growing in terms of infrastructure development, making it a better, more conducive business environment.
The growth of the Philippine call center industry has not only tapped into the nation’s talent but also helped other industries grow. For instance, the real estate industry witnessed a surge in the demand for office space. Because the Metro can only provide so much office space, second wave cities are now rising to be the future sites of BPO organizations. This enables the Philippine call center industry access to a wider array of Filipino talent.
The Philippine government and outsourcing organizations work together to support the Philippine call center industry.
The Philippine call center industry and outsourcing/offshoring industry is fully backed by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, an organization composed of the nation’s best BPO experts and corporate leaders aiming to “promote the competitive advantages and the growth potential of the Philippines in existing and new areas of outsourcing and supports the industry in areas such as offshore marketing, education and training, security and privacy, legislation and public policy, among others.” Their mission is to “create a supportive environment for the Philippine O&O (offshoring and outsourcing) industry and strengthen the Philippine case to be the preferred O&O destination” in the global market. Among others, organizations that have shown their support through hosting skills development programs and industry studies include the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI), Animation Council of the Philippines (ACPI) and the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA).
The Philippines is competitive—we have the drive to succeed.
The Philippine call center industry is an attractive space in which Filipinos are passionate about honing their skills because it provides a career path towards success. Their passion to succeed is well benefited by a wide array of opportunities in career advancement and attractive compensation.