Call Centre Philippines and CX

For many, the phrases' call centre and 'good customer experience (CX)' may seem mutually exclusive. The early examples of offshore outsourcing, mainly to the Indian subcontinent, at the turn of the century had a cultural impact that lasts to this day. But perhaps it's time for a rethink. “Although the early days of outsourcing saw many mistakes made, it also meant that much was learned. And as call centres in the Philippines have shown, the outsourcing experience can actually be a positive one for both businesses and their customers,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning call centre in the Philippines.

Contact centre outsourcing to the Philippines may be one of the outsourcing industry's best-kept secrets. With an incredibly high level of English fluency, combined with the cultural influences of the West, many Filipino agents have a little discernible accent, and many people often do not even realise that their call is being answered in the Philippines. This has helped them avoid the communication problems that plagued those using more heavily accented regions for their business process outsourcing.

The consequence has been the exponential growth of the call centre outsourcing industry in the Philippines. Starting from almost nothing, they have, in twenty years, eclipsed India to become the world's largest and leading provider of contact centres. The sector now employs 1.3 million Filipinos and generates more than USD29 billion in annual revenue. “On any level, it is an unmitigated success story,” says Ellspermann.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for many is the range of BPO services that are being outsourced to the Philippines. The industry now offers support for almost every conceivable business process to clients. While inbound and outbound services like customer support and telemarketing remain the industry's backbone, there is an increasingly diverse set of back-office services that are now being offered by providers in the Philippines. In most cases, these are not customer-facing operations, for example, the processing of claims or content moderation tasks.

While everyone will recognise the importance of a high-quality CX for all customer-facing parts of the operations, these back-office functions are just as critical. Indeed, lacking the opportunity of an immediate resolution, they can carry a bigger risk when things go wrong. A simple error made during a call can be identified and corrected, but a lost claim, for example, may result in more unnecessary inconvenience for the customer who will face the frustration of having to repeat processes when they have lost confidence in the service. “For customers and businesses, it might be irrelevant whether the bad CX was struggling to understand a call agent on the phone or a time-consuming back-office mistake; the negative impact is the same,” explains Ellspermann.

Although a business might be able to cut costs with lower quality contact centres, the price can be lower customer satisfaction and customer retention. The savings of a cheap provider quickly dwarfed by lost revenue and the costs of winning customers back. So, instead, most businesses now take a customer-first approach. They will look for providers that offer a great CX then consider the price.

Call centres in the Philippines use the positive CX as a key selling point, and their clients have seen the benefits. As Apple's healthy profits demonstrate, satisfied customers tend to be much more loyal to a brand and may even pay a premium for their products or services.

And the success seen by outsourcing to the Philippines means the sector has been able to invest heavily in training and technology. Its world-class services now set the standard that other outsourcing destinations must follow. “Because of the nation's low labour costs, contact centre services in the Philippines have always been competitive on price. But it's the focus on the customer and a positive CX that has made the call centre outsourcing industry the world leader it is today,” concludes Ellspermann.