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beau@callcenterguy.com
Its funny how the Philippines can impacted you in both ways and bad ways, It seem like the longer you stay here you either learn to live with it or get out. Most of my close friends are leaving here one by one, one from the States, one from Australia and one from Korea pretty much the reason why is that they could not handle the government, corruption people or culture.
If you really want enjoy your stay in the Philippines and still have a good time I would suggest finding a nice and safe city to leave in like Ortigas, its right in the middle of every where and do your best not to go to places Manila because they are not say and most likley and you will get hassled AND it will end up costing you money. When you are dealing with local government be honest and do everything by the book so they will not be able to hassle you and also something I have had to learn the hard way is paying under the table because once you have paid then every year they will be back but if you don’t pay pretty much you will be ok and they should never come back. Also make sure you outsource your accounting and book keeping to professional company that has reference cost is cheap and well worth it.
I would really suggest just outsourcing your work to a company that is already established and set up here so you don’t have to worry about all the problems of running the company and would only have to look after your team, would cost you a little more but in my eyes well worth it.
The Philippines is a great place to live and some of the greatest people I have meet but there are some thing that you have to turn a blind eye to or just say for get about it. it’s a different culture.
Couples things to look forward to
Cheap cost of living if you do it right.
Girls every where
Bars every
Beer is cheap
Malls every where
lots of beaches
Some people hate the Philippines or get fed up with it at time because they do not under stand the culture which is far different then from all first wold countries. On one of my other blogs I posted about the Philippines norm which talking about the culture and how it’s normal here for things like waiting in line, traffic, living two hours away from work where as for where I come from the states this would drive people mad. After being here for six years I would have to say for the most part I have embraced the fact that this is how it pretty much going to be and there was nothing that I could do about it outside the office but inside the office there would be some little changes I could make that would help teach the agents that are working with my on my culture.
Today it really hit me in the head when I asked my son that is 11 why he had two days a week where he only went to school for 3 hours and he could not really answer me like that’s normal dad. Were we would be going to school 7 hours a day or in other countries like Korea they do like 12 hours a day. This is not to say that the Philippines is fully of dummies but does tell you that there is a flaw in the schooling system or at least at the school that my son is going to.
to give you and idea, My wife was eating Chicken ass and I said WTF then she looked other and I had made a Doritos sandwich and she went WTF! Our cultures are different from each others and that is very difficult to change and if you are working with the Philippines or living here you really have to adjust. I first thought that the Philippines is just like the US 100% but boy was I wrong.
I have been thinking about this for a long time now on where is right and when should the agent be paid once they quit or resign, finally got the correct information.
30 days from the date that when they quit or resign they will be able to get there back pay and 13 month pay.
If you do not tell you this our agents that have resigned will just nag you tell they get it.
I have been in the Philippines for about 6 years on and and have really began to adapted to the life of a Filipino which is crazy to me but tell you what you can sure learn allot and save allot. Pretty much most people that you will talk to will tell you that there life is good and they are happy but you will give some that are saying life could be better but not every often. Most agents will bring there rich lunch which is a cup of rice and then a little bit of meat, pork or chicken or they will get some thing like cup of noodles or a cheap store around where they are working. Going to the office and leaving the office most take the bus and a jeep which are both very cheap, about $2 dollars round trip. so over all for food and travel is less then $4 dollars a day. Most agents are making around 14 dollars day.
But then you got to under stand that most agents are living with there families like mom and dad, which you would say that’s nice but what they do is live with mom and dad and mom and dad want a part of all there kids pay checks that are leaving with them. This is pretty much most of the call center agents but not every one in the Philippines.
Here are some problems that you have when you a talking to sales men trying to sale call center services.
1. They have never been to the Philippines.
2. They have never operated a Philippines call center.
3. The person has not lived in the US for a long time and don’t under stand the US culture.
4. Most don’t have American management on site to under stand the gaps in both cultures.
Make sure that the company that you are working with has both experience in the States and the Philippines to bridge the gap that your client might get.
You can be very successfully with a Philippine call center but you need to make sure that you are working with the right company with the right tools.
There are some people here that will really take advantage of you in any way that they can. 99% of the time it’s all money, some times it could be true that you might owe them money for back pay or 13th month but most of the time it’s all bull shit. You need to make sure that you having an accounting company work with you that is really good a company that you can hold reliable in case some thing goes wrong, not some one that is an account or book keeper.
On another note never hire any a book keeper, outsource it some where here in the Philippines, most times it will cost you less and you will not have the hassle of contracts or labor problems in the end.
It’s very very important here that you follow all the rules because the Philippines is labor pro which means they are for the workers not your company! I have been in a couple battles with x agents but all has been taken cared but for the most part it could have went any way. Make sure that you get your self a copy of the labor laws that they have in the Philippines because it’s very different then most other country and make sure that you get a good lawyer that can help you incase some thing like this happens.
Next is place your self around good people both from the Philippines and other countries that might have to help you when in need, this will go a long way.
If you go through a case and it’s all settled at that point let it go! There are to many other thing to worry about then them.
This is not to scare any one away from outsourcing to a Philippines call center but to prepare you for what you might go through when you are here, again make sure that you follow all the rules and get things done correct and you will be fine and love it here.
In short don’t cut corners
I love the Philippines but made some mistakes when I started and want to make sure that no one has to go through it.
Also there are allot of great people here in the Philippines which many I call my best friends but be wise when you choose your friends here.
I have allot of friends that bank there head on the wall because the Culture here is so different then many other country that are not third world. I have realized at this point that it is never going to change and you are best if you just give into the way the Philippines is. If you have not been to the Philippines then here are some thing that happen that you don’t see in most first world countries.
1. 4 to 5 people on a motor bike.
2. Throughout garbage on the ground is ok.
3. A guy on a motor bike with 200 papers in between him.
4. Every one is always like, called Philippines time.
5. Washing a toaster.
6. Stop lights don’t matter at night.
7. There is no pound for dogs, the walk freely Cats too.
8.
I will put some more on later but this is what I got off the top of my head.
These are just some things that you can expect if you ever come to the Philippines but it’s best if you just go with the follow it will make it allot easier.
Malacanang just announced that August 5th is going to be a non working holiday in Honer of the past President Cory Aquino’s funeral. I don’t want to knock on Cory because she did allot but doesn’t the Philippines already have way to many holidays? Now if you own a call center you are going to have to Pay your people one and a half more, I cant imagine what it would feel like if you had a 2000 or 3000 seat call center. If sure that all the call center agents are licking there chop’s for the extra pay on the 5th.
When you are running a call center you want inbound work not outbound if you can get inbound work but most small call centers will never get the chance to run any inbound call center work because it is very had to find but some will get lucky. If you get luck and get an inbound account hold on to that shit as long as you can because they don’t come along often. Outbound call center work is all over the place but most times it’s shit, some thing like Direct TV, stay away from that. Inbound call center work is what the Philippines call center is the best at, the Philippines was made for customer services, it don’t get better in an other country. If you are looking to outsource your customer service you are an idiot if you don’t pick the Philippines. As far as outbound call centers it’s ok as long as you are paid hourly or paid in advance for your sales if commission based but if not it’s not worth your time. With inbound call center work make sure that you have PBX that is bullet proof or some type of system that is Ayava, it has to work well or you are going to shoot your self in the foot. Training the agents is not going to be that hard because the culture is already customer service oriented but you will need to make sure that they know they product that they are services to the T if not you will shoot your self in the foot again. If you get anything that is inbound work hold it like it’s your god dam baby and make sure you give that baby all your love.
Well we got everything up and running for one agent at this stage of the game, there was some problems but it was the way that I set up Bria, it was wrong codec.
First day of testing went well but granted it was only one agent and we were using auto dial not click to dial the next number but they say it works better so we will give it a shot, had about 30 second wait time but other then that the call quality was good and did not run into any other issues but the real test is when we are doing three or more agents to see what happen. I will say the support has been very good and most accommodating to get everything working correctly.
