Call Centers

[silver_corolla]

Call center boom outgrows Manila
(Malaya)

Philippine call centers have higher average staff tenure and better customer satisfaction ratings than India, industry studies have shown.




BAGUIO - There never used to be much to do after midnight in this university city except study or hit the lively bar scene.

Since Baguio got its first call center, though, nightlife has taken on a new meaning for hundreds of graduates.

At 3 a.m., row upon row of them stared at monitors, speaking into headsets in the near flawless American accents that give the Philippines an edge in its battle with India for the fast-growing outsourcing market.

Faced with rising wage costs as the pool of qualified candidates in Manila and central Cebu empties, outsourcing firms are moving to parts of the country that are still rich in English-speaking graduates willing to work for P12,000 pesos ($220) a month.

In Baguio, more than a third of the 300,000 population are students. So far there is only one call center, run by ClientLogic Corp., a unit of Canadian firm Onex Corp.

"It’s a gold mine," said Ramon Dimacali, head of industry group Outsource Philippines, who sees benefits beyond pay rates that are a third lower Manila’s for the same caliber of graduate.

"There’s definitely higher loyalty, less attrition, less churn," he said.

Philippine call centers have higher average staff tenure and better customer satisfaction ratings than India, industry studies have shown.

But there are signs the boom, a rare bright spot for the indebted economy in recent years, could soon start to run up against the shortcomings of an underfunded education system, poor infrastructure and a limited labor supply.

Bangalore alone churns out nearly as many graduates each year as the 400,000 produced by the whole Philippines, and Indian workers are renowned for their expertise in areas like engineering, which opens the door to high-end outsourcing jobs.

When outsourcing firms such as Convergys Corp., Nasdaq-listed PeopleSupport and Sykes Enterprises started expanding in Manila a few years back, they would hire more than 10 out of every 100 applicants.

Industry officials said that ratio has now fallen to as low as two out of 100.

"We’re facing a hiring crunch," said Carol Dominguez, president of recruitment firm John Clements Consultants.

"You’re losing more people than you can hire. Call centers have to figure out a retention strategy."

Outsourcing firms in India are facing the same problem, but Dominguez said India had done a better job moving beyond call centers to higher-margin jobs like animation, accounting and financial analysis.

That could cost the Philippines in the years ahead.

"In a few years, they’re going to develop technology that will take over some of that voice work," Dominguez said. "Then we’re going to lose jobs here."

Competition is also heating up.

In 2001, there were only about six countries seen as serious competitors for the outsourcing dollar. Now there are about 30, with Eastern Europe, China and South Africa among them.

London-based research firm Datamonitor said in a February report that the Philippines was a strong competitor to India for the nearly 250,000 new call center jobs expected to be created in the two countries through 2009.

The Philippines now has around 60,000 outsourcing jobs, compared to 245,000 in India, according to Datamonitor.

But Datamonitor analyst Peter Ryan said barriers to growth were also emerging.

"There is definitely the issue of good graduates outside of the major centers, a phenomenon that is being felt in many other offshore locations," Ryan said.

"There is also the worry of technology in outer locations not necessarily being at the level necessary to accommodate large-scale contact center operations."

Davao got its first call center last October, and Iloilo has lured two to set up there, but most are in Manila and Cebu.

The stakes, economic and social, are high.

Dominguez, a former banker, said the Philippines has the potential to add $1 billion to its $89 billion GDP by 2010 if it achieved its potential of creating 250,000 outsourcing jobs.

At its current rate, though, it was on course to fall short of that by about 100,000 jobs.

In Baguio, graduates now feel they have a realistic chance of staying in their home town instead of joining the exodus overseas to escape one of Asia’s highest unemployment rates.

"It’s like the downstream effect," said Jose Ferreros, director of operations at ClientLogic’s Baguio plant. "The benefit is not just on people we hire but on the transport industry, the food industry."

Ferreros plans to ramp up the staff numbers at ClientLogic’s Baguio center to 825 in the months ahead.

The competition, with India and other firms, is palpable as ClientLogic’s 350 agents push on through the night.

Clients give their feedback on the agents’ performance every day for comparison with rival call centers in India and elsewhere in the Philippines.

On one wall, individual agents’ names are pinned on a map of the United States, indicating southern states where they have achieved a perfect customer satisfaction rating.

The first agent to get a full house of states wins a Sony PlayStation 2.

"The opportunity for growth here is very vast," said Michael Batac, a 23-year-old team leader and coach at ClientLogic.

"Now I have this position I’m thinking of staying here in the Philippines. If I can make it here, why do I need to go abroad?" – Reuters

[silver_corolla]

World’s largest call center to expand operations in RP
(PhilStar, Aurea Calica)

Convergys’ expansion plans will help the GMA administration attain its goal of creating 10 million jobs in six years.




The world’s largest call center is planning to double its capacity in the Philippines to 10,000 operators, Malacañang said yesterday.

Convergys Corp. officials met with President Arroyo and informed her of the company’s desire to expand operations here, a Palace statement said.

At the meeting with Mrs. Arroyo were Convergys senior vice-president Frank Kelly of the customer management group, vice-president and country manager Marife Zamora, and customs management group senior director for operations Terry Seaford.

They had a meeting with the President shortly before noon yesterday at the Music Room of Malacañang to convey their company’s expansion plans in the country.

Convergys is a global leader in integrated billing, customer care, employee care and transaction management software and services.

Among its long list of clients are government entities and top companies in telecommunications, Internet, cable and broadband services, technology, financial services and other industries in more than 40 countries.

The President was pleased to hear of Convergys’ expansion plans, which would help her administration attain its goal of creating 10 million jobs in six years, the Palace said.

The Florida-based company has seven call center facilities in the Philippines, six of them in Metro Manila and one in Cebu.

Apart from the current workforce of 5,300 in the Philippines, Convergys has also tapped its first Filipino expatriate to join the company in Jacksonville, Florida.

Filipina Malu Ros, who served as senior manager in the Philippine office, is now the director for global communications and culture training of Convergys.

"Convergys is committed to expansion and growth and wants to translate this to employment opportunities in the country. We are rallying with government institutions and academe to ensure that we continue to have a steady stream of highly skilled, quality people," Zamora said.

Apart from providing employment opportunities for Filipinos, Convergys and the Department of Education have also trained 330 public school teachers in English skills improvement to enable the school system to produce more fluent English speakers who could serve in call centers.

[fireblade]

I am currently working for senior management in the call center industry and I beg to disagree that people from bpo may be boxed eventually. I have had worked for a european airline, it company and the biggest consumer company in the Philippines and nothing beats the challenge of the call center business. It may sound easy as the task of taking in calls may also sound monotonous but this is where I found myself wrong. It all depends on how you make life interesting and challenging for yourself while you are into any career.Call center agents are a special breed as they rose to the challenge that no one thought of before. No brainer, not at all as you are put into a different situation every now and then.

At the end of day, wherever you may be working, your happiness can only be determined by you.

[BeetOls]

If you guys are after good technical training (routers, wireless, etc.) you oughta try Link2support..its really good for a 1st job...the pay sucks but the extensive technical training compensates for it...stay with the company for about a year and you'll have no prob switching to other call centers which give support of same nature...i know coz i work there...hehe...been there too long, currently working for qA dept.

[bluntz]

ok pag technical stuff like ive tried workin for CL (client logic) last year.ur gna be trained for a month.1 week american accent then tech stuff the rest.very effective ang accent training nila.salary starts low back then, like 12k then after a couple of months 15k na.badtrip nga lang ang payroll system nila kasi d acurate.minsan lugi ka minsan para kang may bonus.tapos, may mga makakasama ka ding mga power trippers na coaches at feeling coaches na ka level mo din.nde mawawala yun.lalo na ang mga overtime na mandatory kuno pero pinapataas lang ng coaches ang stats nila without having u paid enuf.coz they sumtyms dnt pass ur o.t. slips n **** yah know.tapos sobrang strick nila in implementing rules.ok din naman yung callcenter pero u cant go on doin the same **** for the rest of ur life kasi la ka maiipon sa ganon.its up to u nalang.ok lang talaga ang callcenter jobs para sa maintainance ng lifestyle mo ;)

[blainc88@yahoo]

hi everyone! I am a housewife looking for a job after being dormant from working in an office for quite sometime. Perhaps you could give any feedbacks on this article I came across the net, I am interested in joining the pool of call center agents in our country...or enroll a training center in medical transcription rather..

KMU slaps Philippines Call Center Industry as "Hub for Exploitation"
Even as the contact center industry continues to provide jobs to Filipinos, civil rights group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) is accusing the contact center industry of being a "hub for exploitation" and even blamed the industry for stunting the country’s economic growth. KMU Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat said in a statement that Filipino contact center agents are paid much lower wages than their US counterparts, pointing to exploitation by multinational firms. He noted that entry-level workers have an average salary of 15,000 pesos while their US counterparts earn nearly 40,000 pesos per month. (April 04, 2006 -Inquirer.net)

[nugundam93]

He noted that entry-level workers have an average salary of 15,000 pesos while their US counterparts earn nearly 40,000 pesos per month. (April 04, 2006 -Inquirer.net)

yes, that is true. and to think, mas malakas pumetiks ang mga kano, while the pinoy agents get to work agad, leading to a speedy resolution.

but the kano callers don't mind, mindset nila eh basta kano kausap, ok lang. kung hindi kano, unless you don't have an accent which would give your location away, be prepared for some offhand near-racist stuff.




and indeed, exploited...in a sense na they'll ask from you "flexibility" pero all it boils down to is be prepared to work anytime. gah.

[bunge]

KMU slaps Philippines Call Center Industry as "Hub for Exploitation"
Even as the contact center industry continues to provide jobs to Filipinos, civil rights group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) is accusing the contact center industry of being a "hub for exploitation" and even blamed the industry for stunting the country’s economic growth. KMU Spokesperson Prestoline Suyat said in a statement that Filipino contact center agents are paid much lower wages than their US counterparts, pointing to exploitation by multinational firms. He noted that entry-level workers have an average salary of 15,000 pesos while their US counterparts earn nearly 40,000 pesos per month. (April 04, 2006 -Inquirer.net)

Ay nakow! ano bang kabobohan itow? Meron ba namang mag-a-outsource kung magbabayad din sila ng katulad ng binabayad nila doon sa US? Nasabing mga communista utak ng mga KMU na ito pero mga lamok at kamote! Nakow! haaaay wala na bang masabing medyo matino yang mga yan!...

Punta sila ng China, North Korea, Cuba... at doon nila makikita ang tunay na exploitation ng maliliit... mas mapalad pa nga tayo at malaki-laki ng konti ang binabayad sa mga manggagawa dito kumpara sa mga bansang nabanggit ko.

[mikmik316]

yes we have a lot of I.T. graduates pero I doubt if they are really capable...

The last time I read some statistics... tayo ang may pinakakonting Microsoft Certified I.T. people, CCNA konti din... SAP, Crystal Reports, Oracle ang konti din... Linux, Perl, Apache experts konti din...

I think some graduates are still stuck C & Visual Basic... Java nga yata di pa standardized e...

Sa observation ng multinational companies.. Our I.T. graduates are a bunch of end users... wala man lang kayang mag-innovate except for those na nananalo sa Intel Science Fairs... talo tayo ng India because they spend more on R&D...

[seonadancing]

Whoever made that KMU statement is an idiot. Anyway, I've been working for a call center for 6 years now and there's definitely a career opportunity in it. I've seen staff get promoted even before they were regularized because of good performance. Yun mga naiipit sa pagiging agent are those that are not good enough for the next level, but even as an agent, your salary increases every year and you have generous OT pay and incentives for good performance. Ang di kasi maganda sa mga tao ngayon, 6 years ago, people were very driven to succeed, but now, sa dami ng call center, an agent would perform poorly just because there's another call center out there waiting to hire him. Ang sama na nga ng level ng tao yun nakukuha namin bec of the competition.

China and India are both same, they are not good call center destination because of their heavy accent. Most of the call centers in China and Singapore actually gets their agents here because of their heavy accent. I don't think that the call center companies will ever leave the Philippines, because we offer the most bang for their buck. The day will come when the Philippines is going to be left with little resources that they need to push the pay scale up to keep the agents working here instead of going abroad. There's been constant salary adjustments happening and it's good when you're affected.

The job is very rewarding as you get paid for helping people. Unfortunately. most people look at their salaries and whine and not work hard enough to get promoted.