Outsourcing has become a common business practice. Using specialist providers to perform ancillary functions has become a standard business practice. Call centres in the Philippines have become the world’s most popular option for those looking to outsource functions like customer services. The attraction is obvious; when you can save 40–50% on your in-house costs while maintaining and enhancing quality, who wouldn’t outsource?
But many fall into the trap of making a bad outsourcing decision. When a better service is possible at 50% cost savings, why not push for even bigger savings? “It is a path that many have gone down, but when it comes to choosing a call centre in the Philippines, it pays to understand how the price affects quality,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning call centre in the Philippines.
The 40–50% saving is a reasonable expectation. Some operators try to lure clients with promises of bigger savings, but the risk of failure grows exponentially with every extra penny of perceived saving. A key point to remember about the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines and, indeed, the world is that it’s a mature and competitive sector. While businesses need to attract and retain clients, they also recognise that they must be sustainable. The competition is therefore often on quality as much as price.
“It means that premier providers will all have broadly similar fixed costs, with only small differences caused by different specialisms and ways of operating. A typical premier call centre in the Philippines will work from a custom-built centre, and they will also use similar infrastructure to support their staff. The best will also invest in training and developing their agents, which benefits all their clients,” says Ellspermann.
It is, therefore, on staff costs that budget operators make most of their savings. And this is where the danger lies. Much of the success of call centres in the Philippines is down to the exceptional English skills of their employees. The best call agents have the fluency of a native speaker and frequently with no accent. They are in demand in an industry that has grown enormously and typically start at around US$4 an hour. With about 70% of the call centre workforce employed by the country’s top 50 BPOs, top-quality agents have no problem securing a good salary by Philippine standards.
This means that the remaining 30% of the providers, on the budget end, can only afford to hire agents that did not make the cut with the country’s leading outsourcing providers. Typically offering as little as US$2-2.5 an hour, their staff frequently have poor English skills or cannot properly handle calls. The consequence for clients is obvious: poor communication and frustrated customers.
“Using a call centre in the Philippines is a great option for businesses, saving up to half their costs and keeping the same standard of customer services. But the temptation to save that tiny bit more should always be resisted. Using a premier provider still offers a big saving, but it also guarantees quality,” explains Ellspermann.
