I started writing about my overseas call center opening experiences in 2004 and now with 2010 just around the corner; I would like to reflect on the changes that I have observed over the years and give some predictions of what I think will happen in the near future.
My outsourcing experience started when I was looking for a call center to make appointments for my mortgage / real estate office in Orlando, Florida. I tried many companies and spent tens of thousands of dollars with little success. I finally decided to rent seats at a call center in India and manage the process remotely. Within a few months I found myself on a plane heading to Bangalore, India. After the initial shock of leaving my protected life in America, I realized how big the industry’s call center outsourcing had become.
My process grew rapidly due to the great cost savings. After being in India for 9 months I applied for Vonage phone service and spoke with their agent for almost 15 minutes before realizing that I was not at a US based call center and actually ended up being Filipino . Then I realized that there were large BPO operations that were around me, as Dell, Sprint and Orbitz.com had closed their call center from India to also relocate to the Philippines. I thought to myself that this must be the beginning of a great migration.
Philippines call centers
Our company started researching and making contacts in the Philippines and just 6 months later I was sent to Manila to tour the call center facilities. We were able to set up a store and establish our Philippine branch in Ortigas Center, which is located in the heart of Metro Manila’s call center district. The Philippines were occupied by the Spanish for almost 400 years, as well as the United States after WWII, so they not only speak great English, but also have a very westernized culture, especially compared to India and elsewhere. from Asia.
At the moment, India is still the number one outsourcing center in the world, but the signs of that change are all around us and this is something that everyone living in India is already aware of. The BPO industry in India has slowed down considerably, while the call centers in the Philippines have formed one of the fastest growing outsourcing centers in the world and my prediction is that it will soon overtake India.
While I still work at our facilities in India and may continue to do so for years to come, most of our call center processes are fulfilled in our call centers in the Philippines. Not only have we saved staggering amounts on our overall costs, but we have also been able to increase process throughput. Some examples are increased collections, better customer reviews from customer service departments and the help desk.
The reason for this is simple, in the United States, telemarketing does not require strict credentials to be employed and since the Philippines is a developing country, the unemployment rate and competition for well-paying jobs are high. For example, you must have a college degree just to work at McDonalds in the Philippines. In America I was only able to support collage kids or drug addicts, but in the Philippines you can get the cream of the crop and these are people looking for careers, not just a paycheck every week.
In conclusion, I am convinced that call centers in the Philippines are going to be the outsourcing mecca of the world. Business process outsourcing, also known as BPO, is already a $ 108 billion industry and growing, and I believe the Philippines will dominate market share for years to come.