What the Philippines can learn from the Irish success in call centers

The success of the Philippines call center industry continues to defy the critics but the truth is that the hard work is yet to be done. As the market for offshore call centers from developed countries grows, so does the amount and quality of competition from other countries. India is still the largest competitor but many other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Sri Lanka are expanding their offshore call centers as do countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the new EU member-countries from Eastern and Central Europe. Coupled with this is the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the call centers to fill the vacancies that they have. So the question I plan to answer is "How do we differentiate ourselves?" If we try to be the cheapest, we will simply fail to improve the lives of people in this country. Eventually we will be overtaken by countries such as China and Vietnam which are trying desperately hard to improve their standards of English and will always be able to undercut our costs. It is true that some of the call centers here are already doing a fantastic job. They have spent significant amounts of time, effort and money to ensure that their employees have the skills to do their current and future jobs, inside and outside of the call center industry. However, there are some call centers which are sadly lacking.

In the 1990s, there was a similar debate in Europe as to which country would become the "Destination of Choice" for companies looking to consolidate their pan-European call centers. Companies were looking for locations where they could find hardworking, intelligent people with good language skills at the right price which are exactly what today’s offshore outsourcers are looking for. In Europe, there were a number of smaller countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and The Republic of Ireland which saw themselves as ideal locations. However, there was competition from the low-cost regions of the UK (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northeast England) and from the newly reunited Germany. In the end, a lot of different destinations benefited from these pan-European call centers but the country where it made the most difference was Ireland. I believe that we can learn from the Irish experience to develop the industry here.

Ireland does have significant advantages over the Philippines. It has a population of less than four million so 30,000 call center jobs have a far greater impact on the overall economy. It also has vast sums of money invested into it by the European Union to develop its economy. In addition, it has one of the world’s best educational systems for decades. Despite these differences, there are a few things we can learn from Ireland to improve our chances in the competitive call center market.

The first thing we need in the Philippines is a complete support structure. My experiences with a number of technology companies here have been positive. However, when I assessed outsourced call centers for clients, there was one thing which was significantly clear: clients judge the quality of a call center by the ability of the people much more than any other aspect. Thus, there is a need for better quality offerings in HR consulting, recruitment and training. I know these are the services offered by Asian Call Centres but there are only a limited number of companies we can help. As with any industry experiencing sudden fast growth, there is a shortage of skills, and however experienced a call center, there is always a need for an infusion of new, quality ideas. Without a similar support structure like Ireland’s, we will always find call centers fighting a continual battle to recruit and retain quality staff.

The second thing we need to do is improve the standard of English assessment. It is very difficult for someone whose second language is English to assess the ability of another non-native speaker to communicate with an American. At present, the quality of English is the main reason for call centers to turn down agents. As the market has grown, the percentage of people being turned down has risen dramatically and many call centers now talk of their high rejection rate like a "badge of honor." However, despite the high rejection rate, there are a number of clients of call centers who still complain that the level of English is not good enough. This means something is clearly wrong and which needs urgent attention. At Asian Call Centres, we have even taken the move to stop sending candidates to three call centers whose assessment process we have seen as flawed; we believe these centers are letting down themselves, the industry and most importantly, their successful and unsuccessful applicants. This is similar to the situation Ireland used to be in. During the early stages of companies diverting calls from Germany and France to Ireland, there were a lot of issues on miscommunication with the Irish speaking a "different type of German" than the native Germans. So, a friend of mine set up a language assessment business and brought native Germans, French and other continental Europeans to Dublin to assess the standard of the applicants’ language skills. The idea worked very well and the standard of language skills improved dramatically among his clients. In fact, the idea worked too well and some of his clients simply brought in their own assessors from Europe. If we are serious about making the Philippines the best offshore location, we need to use native speakers to assess English or use the services of American-based companies who provide these services. In addition, we need to look at the people who fail in their English and then give them the skills they need. There are limited opportunities for graduates but I believe that we can turn candidates around from failing to passing if we are prepared to spend a little time and effort in developing their competence in English.

The third thing we need to do is improve the perception of the Philippines as a serious place to do business. The Irish Investment Authority would always be at events around the world promoting itself as a call center destination. If you hung around their booth long enough, they would surely take you out to show the Irish art of Guinness drinking and then talk to you for hours about what Ireland and its people have to offer. It is true that the relevant government agencies in the Philippines have clearly done a good job in promoting the country but there is only so much they can and in fact, should ever do. The Philippines hasn’t been given a pot of gold like what the European Union gave the Irish but there are things all of us can do to promote the country as the destination of choice. I know there are a lot of individuals and businesses already actively promoting the Philippines but we need to do more to redress the imbalance created by the unfair media reporting of the country. Every time there is an opportunity to present the case for moving call centers to the Philippines, we need to exploit it.

Another thing the Irish did was they were very careful about the type of call center work they wanted to attract. They always pitched themselves as the quality alternative to other destinations in Europe, especially when talking about the availability of human talent. The Philippines should not try to pitch itself as a "little India." Filipinos are blessed with naturally better communication and English skills than their Indian counterparts so we should not seek to compete with them in the pursuit of low-value call center activity. Low-value call center work will always be subject to the principle of "lowest bid takes all." Businesses which approach the call center industry in this way will see their clients move to India and similar countries in the same way the garment industry moved to countries such as China and Vietnam.

Both the challenges and the rewards are even greater now for the Philippines than they were for Ireland. The Philippines seems to have found an industry where it can compete against any other country. However, we do need to spend a lot more time and effort developing the people as opposed to simply talking about it. If we are to do what the Irish did to improve the standard of life for many of their people, then we need a lot more focus. Finally, let’s never forget that the reason these call centers moved here in the first place was the quality of the people who live here.

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Robert O’Malley is the COO of Asian Call Centres, a subsidiary of Active Business Solutions Inc. and is a member of Yapster e-Conglomerate Inc. You may contact him at [email protected].