The constant need to manage costs has long been a driver behind outsourcing decisions. A business wants to keep profits high. That’s the point of business, after all. Investors or shareholders will demand a good return on their money. Meanwhile, customers that the company needs to succeed will want prices kept as low as possible. These twin pressures provide the incentive that leads many people to outsource their ancillary functions and services.
Call centers in the Philippines have been popular for outsourcing things like customer service, technical support, and many other routine business processes. But why have the Philippines emerged as such an attractive outsourcing destination? One of the most attractive factors is the scale of the call center industry in the Philippines. “It forms a significant part of the Philippine economy. It has grown over the last two decades to the extent that it employs more than 1.3 million Filipinos. Such scale benefits those looking to outsource,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning call center in the Philippines.
The first is that it’s a competitive market. It has become a mature sector in which providers compete on price and service with so many providers. But the size also means it has near endless capacity to serve Western businesses. “The large and experienced workforce, for example, means that providers can flex and scale quickly to respond to changes in demand from their clients. The market’s maturity also means it can offer a well-developed range of services. Premier providers have focused on specific industry verticals for their services,” says Ellspermann.
Providers have also invested heavily in their services. Many work from custom-built call centers, designed from the ground up to be contact centres and fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure. The best providers also invest heavily in their staff, offering good pay, conditions, and opportunities to attract the best-qualified agents to work for them.
“Premier providers will have call agents who are fluent to a native level, avoiding the communication difficulties that customers will frequently experience with call centers in other nations,” explains Ellspermann. And perhaps the biggest advantage they offer is those Filipinos. The nation has an incredibly high level of English fluency, not just understanding the language but also having a strong bond with Western culture.”
But despite all these advantages, a call center in the Philippines offers significant savings. The low labor costs mean that outsourcing to the Philippines typically saves 40–50% compared to standard onshore vendor rates. And, frequently, the service level will be higher, helping to increase customer satisfaction. “The combination of low costs and high quality is something that only the Philippines offers those looking to outsource, and thousands of global businesses have offshored there: it’s now the world’s leading call center provider, and with good reason,” explains Ellspermann.
