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Thursday, November 11, 2004
RP as call center capital
MASSIVE and extensive perhaps are the two words that best describe the growth of the call center industry in the Philippines.
In barely seven years, call centers in the Philippines presently has an estimated value of $846 million, with an expected annual growth of 100 percent.
The Philippines is tagged as the Darling of the Call Center Industry because of
its resource potential.
In a few years, our country is projected to surpass India, which is presently the leading host of call centers.
However, despite call centers growth in the past few years, very little is known about its operations especially in places outside Manila and Cebu (these cities are the leading hosts of call centers in the country).
Call center is a physical location where calls are placed or received in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support and other specialized activity.
These calls are placed or received by call center agents (sometimes called customer care representatives or customer care specialists). Being an agent is not as simple as giving a caller the telephone number of the nearest bakery.
Agents answer queries and complaints (and sometimes sell) in behalf of a client or a product.
Calls may range from someone who bought a digital camera but does not know how to properly operate it, to a disgruntled credit card client who wants to know why he was charged more than he purchased. It is the job of the agent to help these callers in their concerns.
There are five major reasons why the Philippines have become the darling of the call center industry: quality of human resource, expanding international multi-media infrastructure, cultural and business affinity, hospitable lifestyle and strategic business location.
Not only are Filipinos proficient in English (we can even pull off an American accent), but the country also has a huge pool of highly trainable and technically capable workers. The education system of the Philippines is patterned to the West, which is the main clientele of call centers. Filipinos need not much training and cultural orientation because much of our culture is "Americanized".
Being a customer care representative, it would entail a lot of patience when entertaining a call from a customer. This fits like a glove for Filipinos who are naturally hospitable and friendly. Aside from all that, the Philippine government is very supportive in making the Philippines as a call center hub with its business friendly policies.
With the present demand of 40,000 seats (120,000 openings) to meet the targeted annual growth, the Philippines has to catch up in providing quality workers for call centers or else it will lose to other Asian countries like India, Malaysia, Indonesia and even China which is now beefing up its English language education.
The Arroyo government is now strengthening the English and IT curriculum in schools.
Call centers in the Philippines are now extensively extending its reach to provinces and other cities to recruit more agents and evaluate the feasibility of new call center sites.
The largest and most reliable call centers in the country-People Support (Philippines) Incorporated is in town to screen and hire potential employees for their Manila and Cebu operations.
They will process applications from November 8, to 21 at the L'Fisher Hotel. Not only are the salary, benefits and retention plans lucrative in PeopleSupport and other call centers, but they also offer rewarding long term careers.
Surely, the growth of call centers in the Philippines would mean a domino effect in the economy.
Expansion or additional call centers would mean more jobs to bulk the unemployment rate it would also mean business for suppliers, construction companies, as well as other Philippine industries.
(November 11, 2004 issue)
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