CALL CENTER WORLD

Call centers or contact centers in the Philippines have grown rampantly over the years, giving thousands of people high paying jobs that provides services to western markets, specially American companies. Approximately around 10 to 20% of Filipinos employed in the country work for off shore contact centers. This is one of the most sought-after jobs in the country, you just have to sit and talk to irate customers and you get paid big time. This being the major trend in the industry, there are now courses that focus on working on a call center.

Western investors pick Philippines as top priority in outsourcing their companies for several grounds. One of the major reasons is the fluency of Filipinos in English. According to several reviews, natives from the Philippines have the highest level of proficiency in the English language all across Asia. Filipinos are eloquent speakers and have the most naturalized accent that can be easily understood by western customers. (Love your own, right?) They are secure that we can communicate effectively even to customers off-shore.

American, British, and Aussie employers hand-pick Philippines as their target because of the fair labor costs. It is way expensive to hire someone from United States, or United Kingdom than getting people from our country work for them, which is good, for without this kind of industry, I'm probably jobless or not being paid well.

Filipinos are also known to have good work ethics, being able to adapt easily, making it another basis why people from the west prefer to outsource in the country. They are confident that they are investing their money correctly. It is also believed that we, Filipinos, are already familiar with their culture, thus, we can easily adapt to their environment.

So how does it work? Or how do you get a career in this type of industry? What skills you should acquire to be able to land a job as a call center agent or customer service representative? What are the benefits? What are the pro's and con"s of being in one of the most talk flourishing jobs in the Philippines?

It's pretty simple. SPEAK ENGLISH with a good twang and you're ready to go. You really don't need to have that heavy Brit accent to work for a contact center. As long as you can construct a coherent sentence, can understand the language, and can speak clearly (since you will undergo culture and communications training anyway), then all you need is to polish your English vocabulary.

Next rule of the thumb: instill in your mind that PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE. Like what I've said earlier, you will be talking to irate customers. Most of the time, customers will call because they have problems, they will not be calling in the first place if they are just doing great and they feel like just talking to a customer representative of her cable provider just for the heck of it.

Flexibility to shifting schedule should also be put into consideration. If you will work for a call center, you should be aware that it has 24/7 operation hours, which means, you have to work at nights, Sundays and holidays (Even on Christmas Day). So you'd have to give up your usual night-outs or dates with your boyfriend. You need to adjust your body clock because changes in schedule can happen in a short span of time.

Computer skills can also be an advantage. I'm not saying that you have to be a computer savvy that you know how a mother board looks like or what have you, just basic knowledge on how to run a computer will be fine. It will be to your edge if you know some technicalities though. Since you will be using computers to access your customer's info (I doubt if we still have call centers who don't use computers), you'll need to know keyboard shortcuts, like control V for pasting and control C for copying, etc.

Ofcourse, you should also have the ability to make the customer believe you are giving accurate info, the skill to pacify a very outrageous customer and most specially, you have to be analytical or you woudln't understand, what more assist your customers.

Some would say it's one of the easiest job you can have, next to being a dancer, well, I completely beg to disagree. If you are already working for a contact center, you'd think again. FOR THOSE INTERESTED, AND WANTS TO TRY YOUR LUCK, JUST EMAIL ME YOUR RESUME AND I'LL HELP YOU.