Call Center Agents | Back pay | 13 Month pay?
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.
Call Center Philippines Sales Men
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.
Philippines Call center and Trust In The People That You Are Working With
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.
Inbound Call Center
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.
Philippines Call Center? Who Can You Trust?
I have heard so many story’s about people setting up call centers because its one of the biggest things here in the Philippines and most business men think that they can do it and they probable can but they mix them self’s up with the wrong partners or consultants.
There is money in call center outsourcing but you have to make sure that you are working with the right person and have the right technology which at times in very hard if you don’t know what you are doing. Try to find the right partner is something that I can help you with because reading people here some times can be very difficult, best if to do back ground check and ask around to see if you can hear any bad or good things about that person before you get married.
Best if you can do it on your own with no partners if you need help on setting up the call center then follow the guide that I have written and it will get you started or pay a professional company to come in and set it up but remember that its going to cost you an arm and a leg. We have always operated on a very low set up cost because we set up everything which will save you allot of money, if you are a penny pincher.
Getting call center clients is going to be the hardest thing to do and that is why you need to set up a website and start to learn SEO or pay some one to do it for you, if you have cash and want to be number one on google then Pay per click is the way to go, its going to cost you any where from 10 to 100 dollars a day but it will get you up there and start to get you clients calling you looking for outsourcing. Also blog or pay some one to blog for you.
Don’t set your prices to low or buy shitty equipment at the end it will bit you in the ass, I have done it before it don’t work and like they say you get what you pay for! Try to price your call center outsourcing around 1,200 dollars per agent per month so you have some more for your customer to haggle because they will 
anything under a 1,000 dollars per month is not enough for your call center to operate correctly unless you are operating out of your house or something which I think is not the best way to do it at this point.
If you are starting and on a budget starting out of your house might be a way to start if you have a good size house and your compound will let you but from what I know most will not let you in Manila but if you are in the provance you might be able to get away with it but the problem that you are going to have is your internet and power so invest in a load balancing router and get to to good internet connection. Also get a generator something that cost maybe 400 dollars just to be safe in case the power goes out.
Best option is to seat lease in a call center that already has everything set up but its going to cost you a little bit more but much more professional.
Another way in finding client is social networking site which everyone is all ready on but you can start adding friends and plugging about your services that you are offering and link back to your web site, I don’t do this that much but I know allot of call centers that are doing it now. Places like facebook, Twitter and myspace.
Call Center Home Agent? Does It Work?
I have heard of some companies offer this service in the States which I think is a great idea if you can get the price reasonable rate but if you are going to try to do it in a Third world country then good luck.
Problem you have with countries like the Philippines is once you are out of the major cities and get into the provenances the internet and the eclectic are not the best, even at my house I would say I have good internet but it goes done a couple times a day but other days no problems.
Also it rains allot here which means power outages and floods.
If you are looking for something that is dependable, you need to be in a coperate office.
Call Center Philippines, Ortigas, Makati, Cebu, Baguio And Manila. What’s The Best To Set Up A Business.
I love Ortigas because there is allot of things to do here and everything is very close or walking distance which makes it nice but then again Makiti is about the same but allot bigger.
Pretty much when you are setting up here in the Philippines you really want to pick a location that is going to be best for your business in both operating and government friendly which is hard finding which is way office are setting up two office one to operate in and one to have as a head office to work with friendly government.
Ortigas is a great place to set up and every near the MRT and SM Mega mall and it’s not a huge city so it’s every for you to get around in and for your staff to, they don’t need to take a bus, Taxi or Trick to get to your office. Ortigas is clean, the police are not to bad and its not to expensive compared to Makiti but there are some bad sides. BIR is very hungry here, the city is grow and traffic is getting very bad but in about two years it will be allot worse so if you are driving not sure if you will like it but hey what can you do traffic is the Philippines.
Makiti is also a great place but it’s really big and the police are not very nice there but the government there is very friendly to business not sure why but I hear allot of good things about it there. It also connected to MRT but this is a big city so walking to work is out of the questions, I would like to say Makiti is like the center of Manila it’s where pretty much everything happens.
Cebu I would say is like Makiti but maybe bigger, getting allot of call centers setting up there and I think another big with just opened a office there, agents slayers are a little lower and there is not a million call centers there but soon there will be. It’s about a hour flight from Manila and then about the 30 minute taxi ride to get to the main part of the city, also its not to expensive there.
Baguio is nice because it’s cold and there are not many call centers there but there are some pretty big companies setting offices out there but I will say that there is not much to do there and I don’t think the network infuriating is that well there but not 100%
Manila to far away cost to much and dirty.
Just Because You are A Member Of CCAP Don’t Mean You Are A Good Philippines Call Center ATA Microsoft Certified
Allot of call center companies are places the CCAP logo on there website or ATA which means nothing more then they paid money to be apart of there company, any one with deep pockets can do this. When you are looking for an outsource company to work with make sure that you do your time studies on them every way that you can, just don’t pick one because they are big or because they are members of any origination, pick them because you did your research on them and there price.
Don’t start off with anything other 6 agents to start with, you have to test the waters first to see what happens and then go fro there, anything over 6 people is going to be over kill because it’s going to take time for the call center outsourcing company that you are working with to get everything working the way that you want it and its going to at least take a month before your campaign really starts working any company that tell you they are going to be able to get your team up and running in the first month is full of shit.
Allot of call centers will tell you what you want to hear so you are goign to have to give your best judgment on who is full of shit and who is real.
Don’t believe everything that you see on the call center outsourcing website, most is BS.
Microsoft Certified means nothing, all the agents that are hired here are very good with all Microsoft products.
You have to remember that any one can make a website and put anything that they want on it!
Some of these clubs do have there advantages but I don’t know if it’s worth it with the amount of money they want to become a member.
Philippines Wimax
I have been using Wimax for a while now and its worked pretty good! The only problem that I can see is that if you are getting a connection at 512KBPS then you are going to run into problems, why have no idea,m the company will say that its on your side and you are making out the connection but everything was fine before when we had a 2MB connection. Whats nice about the Wimax company that we are using is there service is pretty good and it’s cheap and only month to month which has been great.
If you want more information on where to get Wimax contact me.
Cold Months And Fans
One thing that has been nice about the cold months and working nights is that the temperature is very nice, just enough for us to turn off all the aircons in the office and open the one window that we have with three big fans pushing the air all over the room. I never thought of it tell my friend Aaron who also owns a call center told me about it and me being a dummy I just started doing it.
Any ways if you want to save allot on your next power bill in the Philippines call center go buy some fans.
