Call center industry in the Philippines

A typical call center production floor in the Philippines

One of the many call centers located within Metro Manila

Call centers began in the Philippines as plain providers of email response and managing services, these have industrial capabilities for almost all types of customer relations, ranging from travel services, technical support, education, customer care, financial services, and online business to customer support, online business to business support.

The call center industry is an up-and-coming industry in the Philippines. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

The Philippines is also considered as location of choice due to its less expensive operational and labor costs.^[1] In 2007, The Philippines remain as a top BPO destination for the estimated $150-billion business process outsourcing industry.^[2].

Types of support

The calls managed by a number of Philippine call centers can be categorized into; Outbound Calls and Inbound Calls. Outbound calls include Advisories, Sales Verification, Customer Services, Surveys and it is usually the Call center agent who calls the client. While Inbound Calls include Inquiries, Technical Support, Inbound Sales and various Customer services and in this situation it is the client who calls the call center agent.

Recruitment and training process

The recruitment process for new call center agents may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Phone Screening – this stage determines the voice quality over the phone and how the applicant responds to the call;
• Initial Interview – conducted by the company human resource department or another outsource staffing firm to test the speaking skills, attitude and how confident the applicant responds to questions;
• Examination – this includes aptitude tests, computer-based call simulations and emotional quotient (EQ) or aptitude tests; and
• Final Interview – to assess customer service, technical, or sales skills.

There are various ways in which one may initiate a career in call centers. The most common of which is to apply directly to a call center's recruitment office. This process is commonly coined as a "walk-in" application. Another procedure includes employee referral where an applicant is referred by an existing employee of a call center. A person may also apply through an employment agency, which will conduct its own screening procedures, before endorsing an applicant to any call center.

An emerging manner to secure a career in call centers is through on-line application. More and more companies and job seekers have embraced this means due to its benefits. Some of its many benefits include: acquiring more details of the call center before applying, facilitation of application forms and resumes and the ability to reach out to Filipinos in far areas.^[3]

Number of centers

According to the Call Center Directory^[4] of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the Philippines now has 788 call centers over 20 key locations:

One of the many call centers located outside of Metro Manila

Bacolod City – 6 Batangas City – 1 Lipa City – 2 Baguio City – 8 Cabanatuan City – 1 Cagayan De Oro – 3 Dumaguete City – 5 Metro Cebu – 44 Metro Davao – 10 Eastwood City – 30 Gumaca, Quezon – 1

Iligan City – 2 Iloilo – 7 La Union – 1 Laguna – 12 Las Pinas City – 9 Makati City – 274 Mandaluyong City – 32            Manila City – 38

Muntinlupa City – 24 Ortigas Center – 141 Pampanga – 18 Pasig City – 27 Quezon City – 77 Rizal – 4 San Juan City – 13 Zamboanga City – 1

Outsourcing

Call center managers require graduates who are extremely fluent in English and (for technical accounts) above par IT skills. Due to the economic downturn in United States (where the outsourcing industry's revenue came from), only few potential investors are surveying for outsourcing sites.

In spite of this condition, a very well known US outsourcing giant declared recent plans for five new customer contact centers in the Philippines which signifies jobs for at least 7,000 people. In 2006, 160,000 people were employed in a US$2 billion (S$3 billion) business.

The recession also prompted the significant loss of jobs for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). This prompted the Philippine government to provide Filipino domestic helpers government-sponsored training for the OFWs to become call center agents^[5]. The program, funded by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), is part of the government's vocational scholarship program of OWWA and reintegration for OFWs.

The new project will sharpen English proficiency of applicants and provide call center training for 40 hours at $700 per student which the Philippine government has shouldered. This would hopefully give options to the OFWs to shift careers.

Philippines portal

See also

• Business process outsourcing in the Philippines
• Call center
• Cyberservices
• Medical transcription
• Offshoring
• Outsourcing
• Philippine Cyber Corridor

References

Notes

1. ^ http://www.benprise.com/Benprise_llc./Videos.html
2. ^ http://www.gmanews.tv/story/63053/Philippines-still-top-BPO-destination---consulting-firm
3. ^ http://www.webphilippines.com/v2about_us/press_archive/jobhunt_wedo.html webphilippines about us
4. ^ http://www.callcenterdirectory.net/call-center-location/Philippines/directory-2-page-1.html
5. ^ http://www.articlearchives.com/labor-employment/labor-regulation-policy-labor-departments/216819-1.html