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Market
analysts have high hopes for the Asian call center market in the
next five years. At $655 million in 2002, the customer service
industry is expected to rake in $1.5 billion by 2007.
The
call center industry will be one of the major segments to contribute
to the economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region as more North
American and European countries look to Asia for their customer
service requirements.
A
call center is a customer service operation where
agents (now called “customer care specialists”), on
behalf of a client, place and receive customer calls or e-mails
on issues ranging from complaints to inquiries, and even product
promotions. Companies that value customer relationship management—such
as those in the financial services and insurance, transportation
and freight handling, banking, and IT industries—usually
have a need for call centers.
The
size of a call center is referred to in terms of “seats”
instead of “agents” as phone operators work in three
shifts to adjust to the different time zones of the countries
where the calls originate.
Cheaper
by the Dozen
Asia is still the cheapest place to acquire skilled, knowledgeable,
and English-proficient call center agents, where the wages of
customer service representatives (CSRs) can be as much as 80 percent
lower than those of their American counterparts.
In the Philippines, where the rates range from $6 to $10 per hour
per seat, the customer service industry is flourishing. The world’s
second-largest English-speaking country has become the ideal destination
for outsourced call center operations of multinational companies.
In 2002, the Philippine call center industry reached a whopping
$10.5 million and is fast catching up with dominant player India,
which raked in $12 million.
There
are about 30 to 40 call centers in the Philippines, although most
major call center outsourcers would rather not publicize that
they are outsourcing their requirements to the Philippines. America
OnLine in Clark, Pampanga, maintains an offshore facility of 600
“cybergeeks” who answer e-mail inquiries. Citibank
call center agents holding office in Eastwood City Cyberpark in
Quezon City handle the credit card operations for the bank.
Filipinos
Better Call Center Agents
Culture compatibility. English proficiency. Neutral accents. More
foreign investors are choosing the Philippines as a base for their
offshore customer service facilities because culturally, Filipinos
are more Westernized than their Asian neighbors.
The
Philippines was an American colony for almost 50 years and Western
business practices have rubbed off on Filipinos. The commercial
code of the U.S. is no different from Philippine mercantile laws,
such as the bill of lading and negotiable instruments. The Philippines
and America have similar requirements for certified public accountants
as well.
Filipinos
watch American TV and are thus more familiar with the nuances
of American English. They also have neutral accents, compared
with Indians. When clients dial a 1-800 number, they think they
are still talking to an American, when in fact it is a Filipino
on the other end.
In
addition, Filipinos are more customer oriented and more patient
in handling calls, aside from being helpful and friendly.
A
1999 regional study conducted by the Australia-based Call Center
Research shows that the Philippines invests heavily in keeping
the quality of customer service. CRC ranked the Philippines second
to Australia.
Rising
Competition
But while Filipinos are better American English speakers than
Indians, this should not make them complacent. In the coming years,
the Philippines faces greater competition from Singapore, Hong
Kong, and even China. Outsourcers prefer call center facilities
that could handle calls from all over the world, not just from
English-speaking nations.
Europe,
for one, is a big and lucrative market, but Filipinos are not
really educated in European languages. If the Philippines intends
to keep ahead of the call center outsourcing race, it should place
emphasis on language training not only in English, but also Spanish,
and even Chinese and Japanese. Proficiency in Chinese and Japanese
would ensure that the Philippines retains its connectivity to
the Asian market and assure more business from non-English-speaking
clients.
Call
Center Hub
India markets itself as “cheap but good.” To make
business, the Philippines need not sell itself cheap but capitalize
on its inherent advantages in the international market. Quality
more than quantity should be the cutting edge.
Intent
on seeing the Philippines become the call center hub of Asia,
the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) has been giving out
perks to the IT sector. An IT firm could get pioneer incentives
as long as it would provide new and untried technology, has substantial
venture capital, introduces major innovation in software development,
locates its office in specified IT zones, and costs at least 100
million pesos.
Outsourcing
has become an attractive investment in recent years. Among the
services offered in Philippine-based outsourcing companies are
copyediting and indexing; web design and maintenance; data conversion,
data warehousing, data capture and data entry; OCR and scanning
services; proofreading; encoding and keyboarding; imaging services
and graphics design; call center and customer service; abstracting
and document conversion; typesetting; and tagging, among others.
Find a business solution right for you. Visit Outsourcing Services now!
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