Philippines Call Center Life
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
Under Standing The Philippines Culture
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.
Live Like A Philippines Call Center Agent
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.
Philippines And Becoming One With The Culture
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.
Handling Your Call Center Outsoucing Agents
I have pounded my head into the wall many times because I have asked or explained to one of the agents or techs what to do or how to do it and then I leave and come back to see how it is going and again hitting the head on the wall.
Here is the deal the Philippines in a way is like programing a computer or telling it what to do and it will pretty much do 100% what you asked for its the same thing here, you need to explain in depth what you are asking for and really really make sure that they under stand what you want because most times even if they don’t know what you said and you said do you under stand they will say yes so you have to ask them a couple times to make sure they got it.
Don’t get me wrong not talking bad on the Philippines at all, I think that it’s the cloture gap or something that makes it difficult at times.
I read a story about a company in Australia pulling out because of Philippines bad customer server which I think it crazy, the Philippines has the because customer service, its just making sure that you have the girl agents and you train them correctly. Allot of things that I have seen is these large companies are outsourcing to big of groups at one time which makes it to hard to handle so you are going to get shitty training and everything will be done way to fast and that is not only the companies fault but also the call center for taking the deal.
When you are call center outsourcing start with something small and prove the concept works and slowly grow it from there.
Vicidial
Vicidial as just came out with a new down load that if just like Trixbox where you can install right off a cd and you are pretty much ready to do other then some sip info.
Check it out.
Please take note that this is not vicidial now!!!
Dave Kreitzer Philippines
David might be coming to the Philippines!
http://www.myspace.com/davekreitzermusic
Top Ten Largest Cities In The Philippines
This was really cool, I have always wanted to know this.
1 Quezon City - 2,679,450
2 City of Manila - 1,660,714
3 Caloocan City - 1,378,856
4 Davao City - 1,363,337
5 Cebu City - 798,809
6 Zamboanga City - 774,407
7 Antipolo City - 633,971
8 Pasig City - 617,301
9 Taguig City - 613,343
10 Valenzuela City - 568,928
Call Center Philippines Website
When you are making your website for your call center is to look at all the other call center websites for the keywords that you are going after to get an idea of what they are doing to help you get a jump start on getting on the front page of google.
You are going to have to spend hours and hours of time to figure out what every one is doing to get on the front page of google but it will be worth it when you are next to them on the front page. Look at there site and the way that it is set up, flash or static, meta tags and title tags but most important is the content that is on the site.
From there start to build your site and copy what they are doing not the content but in the same manner.
Make sure that you connect with google and google site maps, it only takes a little bit of time and make sure you register your domain for 8 years, google says that it don’t matter but every down I have that is register of 8 years is doing better then the one that are 1 year.
Remember that content is king but it must be content that will keep your readers readin which I hope I’m doing 
Also that google is King, it’s the only search engine that matters, everything else is shit.
Contact Form for Philippines Call Center Websites
I have tried many ways to collect as much information from customers that are requesting more information on Philippines call centers and I think I finally got it.
Simple is safe!
I see so many call center websites out there asking for to much information other then just name, number, email and a short discription about there campaign. When you are feeling some thing out on the internet you want some thing that is short as possblie right? The longer it is you are going to get up set and go to the next one that is shorter to make it easier on you hahahaha. So if you own a call center and have a website in the Philippines then make sure that your contact form is short and to the point, you will get allot more leads.
