The Philippines Is Not Disneyland
I have been really getting into allot of these podcast the last couple of weeks, some I like some I don’t but there are not many of them and it’s good to listen to what everyone has to say. Now there is one problem about some of the podcast or people trying to sale ebook’s, videos ect, they are sugar coating everything sound way to make. They are giving good information out but not giving you information on what you can expect. I will give you an idea on what I mean, take a look at replacemyself.com this guy John Jonas has put together some what of a guide on how to find, hire and train a virtual agent here in the Philippines and from what I heard he is doing very well but also heard he is a prick. I did engoy listening to his hour long video and how he has put the pack together but everything just sounds so easy but I guess it would be hard to sale if you put outsourcing to the Philippines is complicated.
How to hire a Filippino agent
Finding some one to work for your company is not difficult there are many sites out there that you can post looking for call center agents like Sulit, classifiedsph, craigslist and many others. Now here is the problem when you are hiring a agent or virtual agent or call center agent in the Philippines is that you are going to have to go through about 3 to 5 Filipino’s before you find the correct one and So you are going to lose money in that process, so might be a good idea to to hire two at a time and keep going through them tell you get one that is going to work for you. Also you can use a Philippines call center to insure that you get your biggest bang for your buck but it’s going to cost you around $1,000 or more per agent which for some people or companies is to much but at the end of the day is going to be your best bet because your going to be insured your people are there in a office being over looked after. It’s very hard to find some one here that you can really trust if you have them working from there home, I’m not saying it’s impossible but difficult you need to have the right tools and knowledge to do this successfully. I would really suggest coming out to the Philippines and hire your people that you need if you can afford it, a plane tick cost around $1,200 dollar round trip from the States and hotels are around $100 dollars a night but if you are on a budget them you can get a hostel or cheap hotel for about $20 to $50 dollars a night just depends on the part of the Philippines you are staying in.
When you are hiring a Filipino agent couple things to look into before hiring them
How old is the agent, are they signal or married Kids because if you are having them do some type work over the phone you want it to be professional as possible.
Which part of they Philippines is there house located at where they are going to be working, the Philippines has allot of power outages and some places are worse then others.
What type of Internet connection are they using and how fast is it, some people are using the 3G which works pretty well but really depends on the location of the agent, out side of Manila it don’t working well.
What type of computer are they using whats the specs.
You don’t have to come to the Philippines to hire some one, you can stay in your office or house but it’s going to be more difficult because you are not going to be able to meet the person face to face and getting to see the Philippines first hand to under stand what you are getting into.
The culture here is very different from the US, UK or AU – Here are some idea’s on what I mean
There is what you call Philippines time meaning 8:00am is really like 8:30am
Some people wipe there ass with there hand
local transpiration is very dangerous, it’s like getting in the back of a truck and then going to work or going home
Waiting in lines here is ok, no good thing about Filipinos are very patient
corruption is very poplar
Family here is very important which Im not saying is a bad thing but it almost always gets into the way of work because they will not show up for work. Most the time I call if bull shit because they just don’t want to come to work.
Because of the weather is so up and down people get sick very often then in other countries again I really think some times it’s bull shit because they don’t want to come to work.
Every one here is very religious
There are many more differences but that’s all I got for now. So this is gives you an idea on some of the differences from the Philippines to where you are from. Don’t get my wrong I like the Philippines and plan on living here but for me have have come to the point where I know or under stand the cloture because of being here for so long.
Is Call Center Seat Leasing Good For Your Company?
I started out my business years ago with seat leasing but later built my own office once we got to a bigger size that made scene and now I’m currently rent seat off a friends company called Pynk Global cost is around 150 dollars a seat but don’t include dialer and telco. Which is a good deal.
Seat leasing is by far the cheapest way to run a company in the Philippines but then you have some draw back because you are in a shared environment which can be a real pain because you are going to have five or more companies in one room all running there companies how they want to. With seat leasing you gotta remember that its not your office so it’s really hard to have any say if one of the other companies is doing some thing that could be affecting you or then reporting it to the floor manager or owner to help solve the problem but most times some one will talk to the other company that you are having the problem with but most times they will stop doing what ever you don’t like or unprofessional for 2 or 3 days and then it will start all over again so really at the end of the day you are going to just have to live with it.
Next you gotta allot of people in one room so it can get loud depending on how the office it set up also can get hot if company don’t have the correct amount if aircons set up. Also you have no control bandwith some one else from one of the other companies could be downloading allot of shit like I’m doing right now and it would be very hard to figure it would which most times would cause you choppy lines and slow internet, if your phones are shit then your shit.
One big problem that is very hard to solve in your own company is getting your agent to speak English only not this flipper bull shit but now not only do you have to worry about your company you have to worry about every one else to in the office. Most soft phones have back ground noise blocking but it don’t work that well and if you have some one behind one of your agents talking flipper chances are that the customer is going to hear them and bammmmm!!! your kicked in the balls the customer is going to know that it is an over sea’s call center which is not going to make the call any easier or if your agent is trying to close a deal say good bye to it.
With seat leasing also I would suggest your getting your own computers and headset and request to the company that you are seat leasing with that they are not used make sure its in the contact that they are not allowed to use your PCs also make sure you lock them up tight so no one can get into them.
Also make sure that you have your own router or firewall so you can have your agents all connect to your own net work, so you can manage it also make sure this is in the contract.
Get your own voip if you can APN and Pynk are good.
Getting allot of your own stuff slowly over the first couple of months is going to make it easier on you because bye the time you move into your own office you will have a couple of the basic needs when setting up a call center.
I think its a good idea to seat out seat leasing problem that your project or campaign is working then set up your own office and company. I don’t think I would seat lease for over three months, that should be well enough time to see if your going to make it.
Or if your loaded set up your own office.
Cheap Call Center Outsourcing
I getting a couple of leads a month from all of my websites but most of them are commission type jobs or a very low hourly job sorry pretty much put them right in the trash but then I would thinking what would be the cheapest way to hot source. I’m shooting my self in the foot because this is a good way in saving or 75% of outsourcing cost but it is a little risky and might take you some time and money to get it correct.
Now couple things you have to under stand about setting up a call center in the Philippines running it and maintaining it. Every one things that it is dirt cheap here and its not when you are running a call center or operating a business cost are a little bit less in some areas and allot more in other, take internet here for a 2MB for $1,00 dollars a month which is a must have if you are operating a call center. Setting up a corporation here cost around $1,500 to get all your bs paper done for you and then setting up your office is about $700 to $1000 dollars a station but that is not including a predictive dialer, Predictive dialer can run from free all the way up to $400 dollars a person. Now you got to renew all the company shit every year which is going to cost another $500 plus dollars or more and then if you are leaving here you are going to have to get a so type of visa which most of them run about $1000 dollar or so and are a pain in the because its at the other side of town and getting there takes about and hour and you got to go there like 4 times to do a much of interview that are all a joke.
You got a couple of call centers here in the Philippines that will let you operate seat leasing office and allot of them don’t care if you have a company here or not so that gets rid of setting up an corporation here. Next with seat leasing the cost is very low some thing like 200 dollars a seat but most times you have some plus pluses in there like voip or a predictive dialer Or you can go for a work at home type set up but not suggested unless you are doing some type of back where there is no incoming or out going calls. Now you have to find a call center agents, there are allot of place to post adds for free like Sulit or you can go paid Jobstreet your going to get allot of bull shit on sulit so it will take some time to find some good applicants but Jobstreet will be allot easier but cost around $150 dollars.
Here is one of the problems you are going to run into if you are not here in the Philippines to get the office set up. You will not have any one on site to manage the place and you are going to get allot of cases where you talk to an agent and they don’t show or they agents are messing around. Couple of things I would suggest when you are getting started, ask the person managing your office to set you up on your own net work for you to manage so it don’t affact you or them so pretty much you want to have your own router if they dont have one tell them you will pay them to buy one cost is like $50 dollars, the reason we want our own next work is because you are going to want to set up open DNS this is a free fire wall program that is very easy to use and set up. Next you want to have a fresh installed Window XP I suggest but don’t matter what windows you use. Next you are going to want to install Team Viewer This is a free remote desktop program that will allow you to get access to our agents pc to install software of if you need to show them some thing on your computer, software works great. Now how do you pay your agents, best is Western Union payments should only be on the 15th and 30th cost of an agent is $350 dollars which is good because they are not going to be paying any taxes and its some thing that you must explain to them so they under stand that it’s an under the table type job. If you are only starting with one agent above will work but if you are starting with a couple of agents you are going to want to hire some one to work and manage them because it gets a little tricky the more people that you have working for you.
Every thing I have said you can do cheap as hell, pretty much around $600 dollars a month around $3.75 an hour which is a price you can’t get any where.
Ok now here are they problems with doing them. Agents are going to be harder to find and hire because you are not here in the Philippines plus they will be working out of a seat lease office which is some but strange. Next you might get some agents come in and work and then you will never here for them again or the will get there pay and there gone. Depending on the Phone system you are using its hard to track the agents time again to see what they are doing. If you are doing some thing long distance like in the Philippines you are going to have to be really hands on to back sure the agent is doing the job that you want them to.
Whats Better WIFI Or Lan
One of the things I have always wondered is if you could set up a call center on Wifi only so pretty much you could cut all the cabling and other work. I had a friend set it up and was a nightmare and when you are using voip on wifi even worse because Wifi is so unreliable. If you are using WIfi for personal use great it will work provide you are not to far away from the Router. Also the other problem that you have is that hacking Wifi is becoming allot easier then you would thing and allot of people don’t know that, I have a friend that can hack a wep key in about 30 minutes. Best I would say for both business and personal would be Lan connection so many things that you don’t have to worry about.
Vicidial And Vicidial Recordings
Need Help Getting Started In The Philippines
I meet allot of people that first get into the Philippines that don’t have a clue about anything like most people would being in a third world country things like Phone load, buy a cellphone, places to eat, changing money or even were to go for vacation.
If it’s your first time in the Philippines and you are looking for these things or tired of getting ripped off from the locals in Ortigas or Manila hit me up info@callcenterguy.com
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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.
