Call Center in the Philippines

hello bjcyrix, I find your post very amusing. It may be true for many businesses that Manila is one the biggest business hubs and that you would normally find in the bigger of customers in the urban areas, but this statement would be a little bit off. Let me explain. Last year, we undertook studies for two call center companies who are operating in the Philippines, each one already having more than 5,000 seats, to put up service operations outside of Metro-Manila, where Davao and Clark were the primary choices. These cities were the preferred locations for operations because compensation for the call center agents can be lower by as much as two to three thousand pesos per month. Why is this so? Prices outside Metro-manila are lower - lower cost of housing, food, and other consumer products. This is referred to as the cost-of-living index or consumer index in economics. Call center companies are always on the lookout for these locations as these places can offer better alternatives for them to set-up business because of the cheaper environment. The primary objective of any business is profit. The lower the salaries, the better for the capitalist. It is as simple as that. Contrary to your posted views, call centers do not cater to a mass market, nor do they have consumer products where exposure in a metropolis like Manila is very necessary. Call centers get business from the off-shore, big-volume foreign businesses and the customers of these foreign companies even believe that they are actually calling these foreign companies, when in fact, their inquiries and even orders/purchases are being serviced in the Philippines. A call center may need a nice address for its executive offices, but it may locate its operations in any remote area, even in the highlands of the Himalayas, for as long as the state-of-the-art fiber-optics communications systems would be in place, and there is an assured stream of qualified labor who can speak their language. Have a nice day.

Hey Mr. Federer, Thanks for the very informative comment. I was merely speaking on what I think and since you seem more experienced on the matter, as well as backed up by facts on studies, then my opinion is off the mark. I have seen the kind of set-up that you have described, in the movie "Outsourced". The actual operational building was just an unfinished structure somewhere in the remote areas of India. Again, thank you for taking the time to educate me as well as the other people who might read this thread. Merry Christmas!^_^

True. I know of a U.P. undergrad who chose not to complete his degree even if he is only one semester shy, because he opted to start working in a call center, initially because all of his friends were there, then he became a Spanish-speaking trainor within three months, and was given a brand-new Mazda 3, then annually sent to Florida for further training, and after 3 years in this top-notch call center, he now lives in an Ortigas Center condo that was bought from his earnings. No desk job for a fresh graduate can ever beat that.