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Offshoring and outsourcing destinations like India, China and the Philippines all share a chunk of the multibillion dollar market, and as an effect, these countries and the others that have dipped their hands in the outsourcing cookie jar has developed certain specialties to better cater to their clients. India and China, for example, lean more toward providing IT services while BPOs (business process outsourcing) and call centers have focused on customer service in the Philippines.
These specialties play on the different countries’ innate affinities to certain industries; India and China produce several thousand IT graduates every year, thus providing their clients with access to a large pool of educated talent. The Philippines offer the same educated talent in vast numbers, and the country further capitalizes on the Filipino characteristics of hospitability, patience, and helpfulness. These traits are often pointed out as the secret of the high quality customer service in the Philippines.
In addition to its access to highly skilled and educated workforce, companies that contract services from providers of customer service in the Philippines can also take advantage of the Filipinos’ affinity with western culture, high English proficiency, and large experienced and trainable talent pool, among other things.
Customer Service in the Philippines: Pros
When it comes to outsourcing, the first pro would always be cost savings. The cost savings are mostly from the cheaper energy, labor, and real estate costs in developing countries. Offshoring customer service in the Philippines can give companies quality service at a relatively lower price than expanding a domestic operation.
There are several call centers that offer tech support and customer service in the Philippines and most of these service providers can facilitate a certain level of scalability. This allows both large multinational companies and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) with equal access to customer service in the Philippines. Companies that choose to outsource can also take advantage in the country’s investor friendly laws and special economic zones.
Outsourced Customer Service in the Philippines: Cons
Of course, outsourcing isn’t without its share of cons. In the US, outsourcing is a highly debated issue. The majority of its population is against contracting out jobs abroad since they fear that the domestic workforce will then face lesser opportunities and no job security.
A problem that providers of customer service in the Philippines suffer is high attrition rates; stress, long graveyard hours, and other things lead to agents resigning. This can be attributed to the stress-heavy nature of customer service and tech support in general, though a lot of other factors can play a role in this. Some companies stem this talent leak by offering a lot more work-life balance, along with giving employees access to recreational rooms and activities.
Other cons include good but still lacking language skills (some idioms and local phrases may not translate and this often results in miscommunication). In general, a long term outsourcing solution may lead to quality fade, though there are ways to prevent this. Companies will need to be vigilant in monitoring their outsourced staff to be able to ensure that their customers get high quality of service.
At any rate, companies can fully take advantage of customer service in the Philippines by taking into account its pros and cons. Service providers on the other hand, should find a middle ground that allows them to address cons while also capitalizing on pros. Finding that said balance would be important for the country to stay on the top of its game as the frontrunner in providing customer service worldwide.
It is a well known fact that the Philippines is the one of the world’s two leading offshore outsourcing destinations for customer service . Today, 4 out of the world’s top 5 financial institutions are providing their English-speaking customer support and other back office related services out the Philippines. In addition, more than 120 Fortune 500 companies have been outsourcing their inbound customer service requirements to call center service providers in the Philippines. Some of the most prominent companies that have been very successfully utilizing the Philippines as their customer service hub are JP Morgan Chase, AA, Google and Best Buy… just to name a few. In the year 2000 only a very few large companies discovered the potential of the Philippines as an offshore outsourcing hub for customer care-related services . Some of the first movers were Microsoft (MSN), Dell and American Express. Ten years later, companies of all sizes are utilizing call centers in the Philippines for their inbound customer service requirements. The large majority of customer care related services are order taking, reservations, complaint handling, account openings and updates. Apart from voice-related customer service the large majority of companies in the Philippines are also offering data-related customer support services such web chat.