Teaching knowledge workers what they should know

When Yohlie Jarlego decided to leave call center operations last year, it was because she found a much better use for her 15 solid years in customer relationship management (CRM). She decided to teach the next generation of knowledge professionals who will fuel the growth of the country’s booming contact center industry.

As chief operating officer of Call Center Academy, the first CRM-focused training center in the Philippines, Jarlego wants to share her expertise with aspiring customer service professionals so that the country can compete globally.

"I want to help the government enhance the skills of Filipinos who wish to work in a call center environment. That way, we can produce the workforce required by the market, increase employment opportunities and boost the economy," Jarlego says.

A certified customer relationship manager from the CRM University in Boston, Jarlego has always been a hands-on, proactive manager. During her stint with the Southern California regional call center of Robinsons-May, her staff of 400 supported a 1.5 million cardholder base, handling credit card applications, credit authorization, fraud management, bill adjustment control and customer care.

She even learned the job of an internal communications engineer. "I am not an electronic communications engineer but I can work like one. I had to understand the configuration of the telephony, which is the life of a call center. I learned by attending courses and I am a graduate of AT&T University," Jarlego says.

During her years in SkyCable, she personally trained batches upon batches of customer service representatives (CSRs), many of whom are now managers and supervisors of various call centers in Manila and Singapore.

The Call Center Academy aims to shorten the in-house training period of contact centers so that recruits could be immediately deployed. "Our graduates are no strangers to the applications and technologies being used in call centers. They are taught to handle calls, attend to inquiries, close sales and appease angry customers or difficult ones. They already learn the call center lingo so their employers can just focus on product-specific training," Jarlego says.

The Call Center Academy was recently chosen as Avaya’s first training center in the Philippines under the Avaya Contact Center Academy Program. Avaya is the world leader in unified messaging systems, call centers and structured cabling systems. The Call Center Academy’s courses are also fully certified by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Aside from good communications skills and a positive attitude, Jarlego says a CSR should "value the customer, understand his needs, wants and expectations, know how to listen, empathize, apologize and act appropriately."

As for educational background, call center work is not course-specific. "Even if you only have two years of college education, as long as you are trained properly, you have that chance to perform as well as anybody," says Jarlego, who happens to be an accountant by education.

In July, the Call Center Academy is offering the country’s first Associate course in CRM at both its main campus in Pasig and at its newest campus, the Avaya Customer Contact Training Center in Makati.

Jarlego hopes her new venture will help future knowledge workers receive the training they need to make a difference in an increasingly competitive world where the customer happens to be king.

(The Call Center Academy can be reached at 671-6717.)