From the blog

There is no doubt that the Philippines Call Center industry is expanding in Cebu.  And this a good thing for many parts of the economy.  There are signs of the rapid growth of the BPO ‘s everywhere in the second-largest city in the Philippines.  But this expansion can come at a cost to the environment.  While many people consider the call center a relatively green industry, there are echoing effects of any business that brings wealth and consumer consumption to an area.  So it is not the call centers themselves that are causing the environmental impact but the wealth and increased commerce they bring to the Philippines.  Hopefully,  the call center firms and the people of Cebu can use the lessons learned by the past to keep the Philippines green.

Wealth and increased consumption is a classic story of developing economies and was no different when the United States was rapidly growing over the last 100 years.  The Philippine business process outsourcing call center industry has the advantage of looking back at the US and can try to avoid some of the mistakes that have made US the highest consumer of natural resources per-capita.  If the call centers can find ways to make their businesses green and efficient users of fossil fuels right from the start then they will already be ahead of developed nations who need to go back and “makeover” their business models so that their companies can be eco-friendly.

Does any business has the right to call itself “green”? If we are really a green call center and put the environment first, then shouldn’t we just shut off all the lights and computers and let the tarsiers live in our building.   Can any business that uses power and requires people to leave their homes and burn fossil fuels to get to the office really say that it is eco-friendly?  At this level of the answer to these questions is probably, no but I like to think we are doing all we can to be  green call center and an  eco-friendly business.

 

We set up our call center business in the Philippines because we like the country and we see an opportunity to give Filipinos the same chance to make a living and support their families that people in the US have.  The economic advantages of having a call center in the Philippines are hard to deny but we also looked at the ways to set up a business here that can grow without creating an oversized carbon footprint.  We set out to create a green call center that is both client friendly and eco friendly.  We have found that it is cetainly possible to create a  contact center in a sustainable way, without damaging the environment and without needlessly burning fossil fuels.

 

As a Filipino green call center we are taking a top down and whole community approach to protecting the earth.  As an eco friendly US citizen it is often hard to deny the irony of our situation.  One one hand, people in the US use far more fossil fuels and have a bigger carbon footprint than any other society in the world.  But on the other hand, Americans are more aware about “green” living and know more about protecting the environment than many people in the developing world.

 

It is not unlike the great US paradox of obesity.  The US has  more obese people than any other nation yet  still is obsessed with diet fads and exercise. Now that there are green oil companies and green plastic garbage bag manufacturers we decided that becoming a green call center was not a hypocritical endeavor.  We have done our best to set up an community in the office where we think about what effect our business decisions have on the environment.  Are we a green call center?  Are we an eco friendly call center?  We keep trying.

There are a lot of opinions on whether the current financial crisis is going to hurt the Philippine call center and BPO industries or whether it could actually help.  In a recent outing hosted by Globe telecom, the host of the event talked about how great the crisis is going to be for the call center Philippines business because now many US companies are going to be looking for ways to save money so they will be more likely to outsource.

I have heard this “global crisis equals more call center work for Philippine outsourcing” argument many times and I wonder if it is really true.  Aren’t US companies and all businesses, for that matter, always looking for ways to save money.  I do, however, see  some logic to this argument because when times get tough, businesses are more likely to look for ways to save money that they may have overlooked when business was going great and outsourcing to the Philippines can prove beneficial to the bottom line.  But is the global recession the kind of catalyst that will make a company outsource to the Philippines and is the increase in outsourcing enough to make up for the lost revenues from other call center business that will be lost.

For example, lets say you own an airline and you use inbound call centers to process you reservations and ticket sales.  You may employ a vast number of call center agents when business is good but what happens in times like now.  People are flying less so there are fewer reservations and call volume is way down.  You probably aren’t going to need so many reservation agents  so you force the Philippine call center to reduce staff and employ fewer agents for your inbound calls.  Jobs are lost and business is not so good for that call center you were using.

This also works when thinking about a customer service campaign.  You partner with a Philippine business process outsourcing call center to answer customer service questions about the scooter your company is selling but now you are selling 40% fewer scooters.  Shouldn’t you expect to get 40% fewer inbound calls and therefore need fewer agents.

I spoke with  a human resources specialist to get his take on how the crisis is affecting hiring.  “On one hand, you have some call centers that have gotten really slow here in the Philippines.  But on the other hand you have a lot of small call centers that are growing fast.”  He added that some contact centers have had to drastically reduce staff because their clients in the US have been slow in paying.  But in general he feels that the slowdown is evident in Cebu City where he does recruiting.  “It has made it easier for us to find talented call center agents with lots of experience.”

American businesses that capitalize on BPO to gain global competitiveness make English proficiency of workers a major consideration when outsourcing. It is important that their offshore workers are able to communicate effectively with their clients. But language is not the only consideration when choosing a location for their outsourced call centers. Companies also focus on the culture affinity of the areas that they are outsourcing to. This is why the Philippines has been such a popular destination for American companies looking for offshore call centers.

The Filipinos have been influenced and exposed to US culture for the last century and are very familiar with US business practices and customs. Businesses that need call center services  can save time and money by using a Philippines business process outsourcing call center because they can get workers who already have familiarity with US culture and don’t have to be trained on cross cultural techniques and language skills.

Philippine schools start teaching English in the first grade and classes are taught in American English. 72% of the Philippine population is proficient in English and its the third largest English speaking country in the world. In addition, their verbal skills are clearer and more understandable to the U.S. buyers than other competitive English-speaking country destinations.

This English proficiency allows the Filipinos to take advantage of what really makes them relate to Americans…the media. When speaking with Filipino call center agents, they can tell you about how “Friends” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House” have showed them some things about how life is in America but they also understand that these shows are really the visions of Hollywood writers. Oprah is probably a better example of what life is like in the United States and it is one of the most popular shows in the Philippines.

American companies began to outsource many business processes such as call center services during the late 1990’s to offshore locations in order to save money and increase efficiency.  New telephony technologies gave these corporations the ability to send high volumes of phone calls oversees at lower a cost than anytime in the past.  Companies embraced outsourcing and used this opportunity to set up call centers in nations that had large English speaking populations and lower wages.  The first country to take advantage was India but as the technology spread the Philippines soon became a player in the international outsourcing arena.

Now the Philippines is host to many American companies supplying them with inbound call centers, 800 answering services and basic phone answering services.  From its humble beginnings in Manila the industry has also spread to places like Cebu and Davao. Companies that use inbound services are now looking beyond the phone call and are also offering live chat services and email support services.  Most of the top companies and other have setup their offshore call center services in the Philippines. Several factors have helped in this explosive growth of business process outsourcing: favorable government policies, excellent communication networks, comparatively low wages and skilled English speaking workforce among others. Cost savings, improved quality and productivity have encouraged companies to outsource call center services to the Philippines or to scale up their existing offshore operations.

The 12-hour time difference between western countries and the Philippines has made it an ideal call center outsourcing location, as companies can benefit from 24×7 services by outsourcing call center services to the Philippines.  The Philippines offers both inbound and outbound call center services.  Examples of outbound services that can be outsourced to the Philippines are:

lead generation
database selling
telemarketing
direct mail follow-up
sales
appointment setting services
data verification services

Examples of inbound contact center services that can be handled in the Philippines are:

help-desk services
up-selling and cross-selling
product information requests
product information requests
Claims processing services\Customer Service

Since the Philippines has a large number of English speaking professionals finding call center agents that can answer your calls accurately and efficiently should not be a problem.  And given the strong cultural ties between the United States and the Philippines many of the common communication issues between customers and offshore call center agents are eliminated.