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Customer Service in the Philippines
November 8, 2006


The Proliferation of Call Centers in the Philippines

Many large businesses are realizing the potential of outsourcing to low-cost countries such as the Philippines and moving their offices to the Philippines. The Philippines is becoming a key location for backroom operations where skilled labor is less expensive. Advances in computing and telecommunications allow these jobs to be done almost anywhere. The opportunity for job-creation in the Philippines is huge.

International companies which move backroom operations and customer service in the Philippines would double with the success of its recent mission promoting the country as the next information technology hub in Asia. The Philippines is able to offer skilled yet inexpensive English-speaking staff for both US based countries as well as other Asian countries interested in outsourcing their service needs.

The BPO industry includes contact call centers, animation and other art services, content writing, various back-office services, software development and other service-type activities that are information technology-intensive. Philippines is taking aggressive strides to be the desired destination in BPO offshoring.

The possibility for the Philippines to enjoy hyper growth in the offshore BPO services field still remains great. The Philippines is recognized as the emerging best location for call centers, posing serious competition to other outsourcing companies. That is because the country remains an attractive location owing to its supply of qualified English-speaking professionals, the low cost of labor and the availability of a good telecommunications infrastructure. With a literacy rate of 94%, the Philippines has a large pool of information technology professionals and a cost-competitive telecoms infrastructure. Three million college graduates join the workforce each year, providing a tremendous source of talent.

An American colony for close to 50 years, the Philippines has a Western-influenced culture, a unique trait that clearly distinguishes the country from other offshore destinations. Although Asian in orientation, Filipinos watch American TV and are thus able to communicate effectively in American English.

A call center is a customer service operation where agents, 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 usually have a need for call centers.

In recent years, the Philippines has become the offshore destination of choice for call center outsourcing, specializing in customer support services. Because of the Filipinos’ high level of English proficiency and strong customer orientation, many leading multinationals have used the Philippines as a global center for customer service.

The Philippine government expects the country to corner up to 450,000 call center jobs from large United States corporations over the next five years. One estimate is that US firms will try to offshore about 50 percent of all call center jobs now based in the US. As more companies move to outsource and offshore their customer service in the Philippines, they're increasingly looking at the issue of quality and communications skills, not just cost reduction.

Offshoring, Inc, an American owned staff leasing company based in the Philippines, allows international businesses to achieve significant bottom-line savings by providing a sound business case with a full understanding of the effort and planning it takes for clients to be a success. It is also an outsourcing contact center in the Philippines that aims to help clients steer clear of the potholes along the way, measure the clients' staff’s performance, and fine-tune strategies.

Offshoring, Inc has a surplus of high skilled, qualified professionals who have undergone rigorous recruitment processes. After an initial consultation with the clients concerning their needs, the company recruits, hires, and maintains highly skilled staff dedicated exclusively to their business operations.

Offshoring, Inc is the foremost offshore staff leasing company that offers the best professionals in the labor pool, such as advanced degree holders and competently trained writers, graphic designers, programmers, media managers, quality assurance representatives, data entry clerks and contact center agents all who have practical experience in the workforce. The company helps international employers significantly reduce searching, training, and operating costs while maintaining complete control over the process. Offshoring, Inc’s edge among other staff leasing companies is the highly qualified skilled professionals that occupy their seats.

The clients exercise remote control over the development of the product and/or service from start to finish while Offshoring, Inc defines and confirms compliance to regulations and best practices of all employees. Offshoring, Inc puts in topmost priority the security of the clients' intellectual property and trade secrets so that IP theft or fraud should never be a problem.

Companies searching for a more effective way to access cutting-edge technology without the huge capital outlay and driven by an increasing cost structure in a competitive business are lured by business process outsourcing, mainly outsourcing customer service in the Philippines.

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