Still growing

When completed this September, the 12-storey call center building of Epixtar International Contact Center Group in Libis, Quezon City, will have 1,600-agent seats.

"We will be hiring and training 250 to 300 agents a month to man our 1,600 seats," said chief marketing officer Harry Broward Fozzard II.

Epixtar, which is based in Miami, Florida, has invested so far $16.5 million in the Philippines, including the acquisition of iCall Co.’s 300-seat call center in Alabang in 2001 and its upgrading to 600 seats within the year. It is primarily engaged in business-to-business services, including outbound and inbound customer acquisition; inbound customer support; outbound/inbound customer retention; outbound/inbound win-back; and market research programs.

"Although we leased our flagship building for 10 years, we designed the building to make it into a complete working and social community that our agents would be proud of," said Fozzard, citing the fourth floor, which is a smoking area and the beginning of top-level parking as well as the seventh floor, which houses a videogame center, cafeteria/bar, and social hall.

Growing demand

"The market for telemarketers and customer service agents is growing tremendously. In the United States alone, the industry is now at three million agent seats," said senior vice-president and country head Jonathan Smith.

In the Philippines, the industry is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 seats, compared to India’s 250,000 seats. Ireland, which used to be the leader in call center operations, has slackened substantially because the market overheated and there is no new supply of a talented pool of agents.

Depending on whether or not the agents get commissions, industry pay range averages at P12,000 to P40,000 a month. At Epixtar, entry level pay is P13,500 a month, which is increased as agents upgrade their skills and training.

"Our agents are the MTV generation type, mostly fresh graduates with no work experience and who do not mind working at broken hours and who are highly trainable in both accents and marketing skills." Smith said. "Although most call centers have training for agents in skills and accents, not all of them have our kind of continuing training, including for management, which enable our agents to rise up the ladder from telemarketers to managers. This is a major reason why most of our agents have been with us for two years or more."

This early, Epixtar is already looking south of Metro Manila to areas with strong English-speaking communities such as Dumaguete, Misamis Oriental for its third outlet.

"The demand for call centers will continue to grow for as long as there is a need to resolve issues such as after-production and after-delivery of products to customers; innovations to a product that customers would like to add to their purchases; and other promotion packages customers can avail of," said Smith.