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
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.
Setting a Philippines call center up
I have been finding allot of sites that you pay for there information like ebooks and other resources on setting up a call center and running it. The information looks good and I’m sure it would help but at first you are going to need to get clients which is going to be the hardest part when operating a call center, setting one up is very easy, if you are at home just need good internet, computer, hosted dialer and a headset. I do not suggest at home but if you are a one band then thats all you can do, if anything get to internet conections and a load balancing software, going to cost you a little bit more money but at least you will have the back up.
When you are trying to get clients here is the best way to go around doing it.
1. website, set up a word press with Host Rocket about 6 dollars a month but one of the best hosting companies I have used. Make some small like my Philippines call center website and make sure you blog about once a day about call center related stuff. I missed one important which is picking your domain, make sure you think about this and that it is call center related like www.callcenterphilippinesblog.com see the keyword in there call center Philippines? This will help you start getting traffic right way. Also buy domain for 8 years if you can.
2. Template buy this well worth it, 67 dollars and easy to set up ultimate blogging theme also he will show you about setting the website up a little.
3. Pick your keywords realted to what you are look for like Call center Philippines I would pick ten of them and place in word press.
4. Read this and follow what it says SEO check list
5. If you have the money you can do adwords but it can be costly.
There is just a quick way to get a call center website going for about 150 dollars.
If any one needs some more help shot me a email.
In order for this to work by doing it buy your self you are going to have to read allot and research.
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.
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.
Word Press Website, Template, Content, SEO For Your Call Center Philippines Site
I just wanted to let all the new call centers out there that don’t have allot of money to set up a website that Word Press is great, it’s very easy to use and to set up with most hosting companies.
Right now I have 4 sites that are all set up on Word Press, most of them are blogs but you could set up a real call center website and mange it with out having to be a programmer. You are going to need some one to do so small design for you but you can use this website to get it down real cheap Webmaster forum you are going to have to post about 40 times before you can place an add for design but it’s well worth it to get some thing done for really cheap but still be good. Next you are going to need a host that sites up word press for you with out having any major problems, I would suggest using Simple Helix
it’s 20 dollars a month for 10 websites but the support is the best I have seen and well worth it also.
Then you are going to have to read a bit about how Word Press works and play with it while you are setting it up. These is allot of templates out there for free but I would really suggest using Ultimate Blogging Theme by Carl Cab the 13 year old blogger that is now 16 yaaaaaa, I have been using it for about 2 months and it has be every easy to set up and use. Cost about 100 dollars to buy this template but again and again well worth it.
One of the most important things is content on your website and not only content to get you on the search engines but content that people find interesting and that they want to read. I see allot of blogs or companies that wire writers to blog about keywords which is what I have also done but at the end of the day if you are on a budget best to write it your self and really put your feelings in what you are writing about.
Well there is my little bit of help to the starting call centers out there that are looking to set up a website for cheap to get started on getting clients but what is going to really get you clients is optimizing your website for the keywords that you are looking for like call center Philippines or Philippines call center. It is going to take time to do this and learn how Google works and how to get on the front page, if you are not on the front page you are not shit.
For Seo I suggest you using the SEO check list Follow this and in time you will be on the front page of google with the keywords that you want.
On another note for starting go after small keywords some thing like 3 to 4 words and work your way down from there.
Google is all the matters all over search engines don’t mean any thing.
Philippinescallcenter.ning.com
I had a friend of mine Russ add me to his page on ning a while back but I never joined so I thought but I was already a member for a couple months now but never really got into it until last night and I will have to say its pretty neat, you can make your own social networking set or next work with ours on it. Might be a good way to get some business going or at least meet people that might be able to help you.
Philippines call center
