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.