Call Centers Focusing on Sales Techniques and High-Value Services
The Business Process Outsourcing industry is set to shift its resources toward higher-value services next year as the global financial crisis takes its toll on traditional markets. According to the results of a recent survey, the BPO sector sees "good to outstanding" prospects for non-voice services. The survey was conducted by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and Outsource2Philippines (O2P) and managed by strategic marketing operations firm TeamAsia. The results showed that 65 percent of respondents felt that the prospects for this year were "excellent to outstanding." Another 30 percent said prospects for next year were good, while only 5 percent said the business outlook would only be "fair". The survey results come amid fears of a sharp downturn in the industry on which the government is banking to keep the unemployment rate at manageable levels. The survey results confirm that despite the impact of the global financial crisis on business activity in major markets, providers of non-voice outsourced business process services are optimistic that their businesses will continue to grow next year.
BPO industry officials estimate that as many as 400,000 will be employed by the sector by the end of 2008, although many concede that the government goal of having a million call center workers nationwide by 2010 will be difficult to achieve. The combined gross revenues of Philippine-based BPO firms are expected to hit $6.8 billion this year, up from $4.9 billion in 2007. Together with an estimated $14 billion in remittances from expatriate Filipinos, the industry is a vital source of foreign exchange for the country.
A total of 188 respondents participated in the survey, which was sent to 583 BPO executives, providing a 32 percent response rate, 84 percent of respondents provide non-voice outsourced business process services. Most respondents of the 91 percent, said the value added of their services was moderate, high, or very high, indicating that most non-voice BPO services provided in the Philippines are at least reasonably sophisticated. Non-voice business process services include animation and graphics, back-office services such as HR administration and accounting, customer care, engineering services, financial services, software development and other services and tech support.
The Sydney-based online publishing firm recently came out with industry forecasts for the Asia Pacific region. Its study covered nearly 2,500 companies with call center operations across Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Filipino call center agents must improve their sales techniques to compete more strongly with outsourcing giant India, according to an industry observer. India's "classic" outsourcing model derives its strength from outbound sales.
However, they acknowledged that the Philippines' strength lies in customer support, which makes up the bulk of the contact center industry in the country. Results of the said study showed that call centers are now in a period of transition from providing traditional services and support to revenue-generation. Among Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines is leading the way in this transition from the initial model of call centers as cost center.
The study shows that 65 percent of contact centers recognize the opportunity to up-sell or cross-sell during a typical call, meaning more opportunities to generate revenue, about 70 percent of contact centers in the Philippines are already measured as profit centers. The results strongly suggest that the industry has recognized further opportunities and is on top of developing trends, and the contact center is fast becoming an organization's most valuable revenue generating asset. The industry, however, must continue to address human resource challenges such as agent attrition. The search for the people with the right skills still remains a major concern for Philippine-based call centers and that training schools geared towards contact center careers focus more on sales techniques, not only on customer service or language skills.
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
Business Process Outsourcing
,business process services
,call center services
,customer service
,philippine call center
Business process outsourcing is the act of assigning one or more of a business’ non-core business activities to an offshore company that specializes in the said activities. The primary advantage of BPO was traditionally much lesser expenses, a huge portion of which derived from the complete or almost complete elimination of fixed expenses, leaving the company to worry only for its variable costs. But as decades passed and the BPO industry grew in epic proportions, its main benefit eventually...
The demand for offshore call centers continues its form hold as the leader in the BPO boom in the Philippines. The Philippines put itself on the spotlight of the BPO map in 2006 when it generated business process service revenues of $2.1 billion, ranking third behind India and China. The Philippine BPO industry reaped a $0.8 billion or an outstanding 62% from its 2004 revenues of $1.3 billion and now has an estimated 200, 000 employees working in an estimated 120 BPO companies in the country.
In the last few years, the Philippine economy has seen the proliferation of quite a number of call centers or contact centers providing thousands of high-paying jobs to Filipinos. Philippine call center industry, Call Centers are fast spreading in the country.
According to many industry experts, part of the reason why the call center industry of the Philippines became unique, as well as the best source of call center solutions, in the world market is because of the country's workforce.
The inbound or outbound customer service outsourcing provides a huge advantage to companies to experience business efficiency and companies will get plenty of time to analyze and think about several core business processes.
When BPO companies look to benefit from business process outsourcing, what are the main services that a BPO firm like Island Logic Inc., might provide? Some customers benefit from offshoring their IT infrastructure management. Doing so not only improves a company's bottom line, but also frees up valuable resources and time by allowing the company to benefit from a proactive and resourceful 24/7 service, available 365 days a year.
In USA, one of the leading brands that offer diverse and high quality products promoting proper hygiene is Difresh USA. If you are looking for the best opportunity to grow and have the opportunity for a new business Difresh USA can help you for they are looking for Exclusive Local Distributors
Getting clean and refresh doesn't sacrifice the place where you are for it should be a habit. Having a healthy body will allow you to do things right and good. And no matter where you are you should practice a healthy and proper hygiene even in little things you do.
Maintaining a healthy and proper hygiene badly needs products that are truly effective and could truly answer our need for this. No matter where we are and at anytime we want to get clean we basically need these products right away and only Difresh USA can supply these in a very easy way
The key reason why some firms thrive while some implode during an financial recession is still a puzzle to many people business-owning business owners. Some wrongly assume that all businesses should suffer via recessionary cycles. But the truth is that some companies are usually essentially recession-proof, and it is not necessarily because they are much larger, better known, or a lot more generously capitalized.
Companies like Arch Coal (ACI) and Massey Energy (MEE) watched his or her stock climbed.
An enormous amount of customer information passes through an organization's hands in the course of its day-to-day operations. Much of it can play a vital role in developing marketing and customer relationships to existing clients and prospects, but only if it is pulled together in an accessible form and actually used to gain insight into the consumers being targeted.
Cloud-based solutions are suited to help meet the service and profitability goals of business process outsourcers (BPOs) worldwide, and particularly those in the Philippines, that need to rapidly scale as the market grows. Read the article to learn more about this topic.
Businesses must improve their contact centre operations to deal with angry post-recession customers, according to a report. Read the article to learn more about this topic.
Small and Medium Call Center companies urged the government for additional tax incentives to help them compete with the large companies amid the talent war and higher power rates. Read the article to learn more about this topic.
Outsourcing hubs such as countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia have seen growth in outsourcing business over the past few months. Read the article to learn more about this topic.
Discuss this Article
