November 28, 2011
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Call center capital of the world
With more than 400,000 in the workforce, the Philippines has trampled India in the battle for supremacy in the contact center industry.According to a New York Times report American companies are starting to realize that despite the higher wage paid to Filipino agents, as compared to Indian agents, the "Americanized" culture of the Philippines have made it a more suitable destination for outsourced customer and technical service.
"It helps that Filipinos learn American English in the first grade, eat hamburgers, follow the N.B.A. and watch the TV show “Friends” long before they enter a call center. In India, by contrast, public schools introduce British English in the third grade, only the urban elite eat American fast food, cricket is the national pastime and “Friends” is a teaching aid for Indian call center trainers," the report said.
India is more accustomed to British culture than American culture.
Based on personal experience, having worked for a call-center, I found it stressful talking to American customers with trouble, after all, I would say that 90 percent of those who call customer or technical support are those who are having problems with the products they bought or the services that they availed. And most of those who discriminate agents, saying that they prefer to talk with native speaking agents rather than from some hungry third world country who's stealing jobs from Americans, are actually cultural minorities who can't even speak straight American English.
One time I entertained a call from an old lady with a heavy Asian accent, who's obviously not a native speaker. When I greeted her, she immediately harangued about agents from the Philippines who could not understand her and insisted that she talk with a REAL American.
She was like: "You not American, me American. You English not good. Me understand not you English. You poor, I will not give you food. Hayaaaa!"
I couldn't help but laugh. She, by the way, simply wanted an extension for her payment because she could not pay on her due date. But really, we are kind of powerful in a way. Imagine, we can reset a customer's cable, mobile, and internet service real-time with just a push of a button. Now ain't that amazing. The value of technology.
In the same report, an Indian executive in the outsourcing industry said that the Philippines has a "unique combination of Eastern, attentive hospitality and attitude of care and compassion mixed with... Americanization.” These qualities make the country an ideal destination for outsourcing.
So, what would this mean for the Philippines? More volatile and high paying service oriented industries equals lesser stable and significant manufacturing and agriculture industries. For Americans, this may mean thousands, if not millions, of jobs lost, which could translate to an unstable global economy. Basically, this is what globalization of the world's industries is all about: Profit.
In the Philippines we have companies that handle customer and technical support for JP Morgan Chase, Intel, GE, and ATT Wireless among others.
Here's a hilarious short film about call centers. Promise, you'll love this.
(Source: New York Times | Photo credit: Anything Goes | Video credit: Call Center Movie)
Comments (21)
India seems to still be the go-to support for technical things, computer networks, servers, and network equipment, to my experience.
If the job keeps the children in school and is able to pay for their education, then that is the final goal. Education of children.
@Ricardo98 - From what I hear, India is still the go to place for software and application development
the non-speaking outsourcing industry 
@ZSA_MD - definitely... education is always key to a better society.. but education laced with moral values and spirituality
The video was hilarious. I have never worked in a call center but it seems very stressful. We have a lot of those jobs here in my country too, but call centers are not the big problem here but the huge clothes industries, they often refuse to cover the basic requirements the law asks to.
Hehe the video.
I've been doing call center work since 2009, and I must say I dislike taking phone calls. Your English seems perfect and I wouldn't know that it's your second language given the way you write. Unfortunately not every agent understands English well enough to take calls - some just read off a script. I've taken escalations for them a few times.
A few examples were cold transferring a lady to our spanish queue because her name was "Maria Valenzuela de los fuentes". He thought she was speaking spanish, she was just saying her name. Another time an agent got completely lost because somebody asked the agent how many calories were in a plastic hamburger as a prank call.
I do find that agents in the Philipenes rarely get angry with even the most irate customers. I find I don't get angry when I speak spanish, so that's actually probably an advantage.
It's funny because I speak English with absolutely no accent, and people think I'm in India just because. I don't mind the outsourced help all the time since everybody has to work. You can always send me your escalated calls!
Somehow, I rather enjoy taking calls from the customers.
Nagwork din ako sa call center before. I didn't realize na number one competitor pala natin ang Indians. Haha. Kaya pala palaging ang accusation ng mga irate callers ay Indian ang mga call center agents.
Meron nga tayong advantage kasi super americanized talaga natin.
Ritz nga pala name ko. From Paranaque. Ikaw?
It always amuses me when third world countries like the Philippines or India are accused of taking jobs away from Americans. That's ridiculous. How many Americans would work in a call center? Most think it's beneath them.
@xXxlovelylollipop - the manufacturing industry is really an unfair industry, must be because if they become fair the owners would only have less profit...
@PrincessDiyanaAleeya - :D never fails to make me laugh...
@ItIsAllGravy - hehehe I can totally relate... the last one I had was in 2007... I attempted to apply again this year, but decided otherwise
maybe next year 
@RestlessButterfly - you are always a helpful gal
@Rainboxx - hahaha so true... Ritch naman ako from Dumaguete City, Central Visayas
masaya naman ako at dami dami na ring Filipino Xangans nakilala ko... Xanga meet-up din tayo minsan 
@heart_leigh - Oh, I didn't know that heart_leigh... but I guess the US workforce is just feeling the crunch of a job crisis... its a realization with the loss of these jobs in their country,,, you know, something like when you lose something you used to take for granted, that's when you start giving it importance...
@tribong_upos -
Lol, ikaw lang ang kilala kong Filipino na nasa Philippines din. Uhm, wala akong plans to go to Visayas soon, pero kung pupunta ka sa Manila, hahaha, tara!!!
@Rainboxx - wow, this is cool... meaning Pinoy Xangans mataas ang chances makalabas bwahahahhaa
=)) =)) =))!!!
Love the Christmas layout
That’s very good news for Filipino. Well Call center job is a very challenging indeed convincing customers, sealing products , answering call inbound call , making survey are really tough being a member of distinct community. If the culture are different, that’s make every thing different. May be that’s the reason for Filipino to get priorities.
Ronald Grice
Internet Marketing
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