Call Center Industry - Booming in the Philippines

The Philippines has been one of the top destinations for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The Call Center Industry in the country is the 2nd largest BPO industry in the world, next to India. There are now about 788 and increasing call centers nationwide. It has been tagged as the Sunshine Industry by the government because of its massive expansion in the last 10 years. It is considered as one of the fastest growing sectors within the economy. In 2007, The Philippines remain as a top BPO destination for the estimated $150-billion Call Center Industry.

Aside from the fact that the Philippines has one of the highest levels of English proficiency than any other country in Asia, Filipinos are also known for good work ethics. Foreign investors also considered the Philippines as a location of choice because of its less expensive and operational costs.

Call Center Industry began in the Philippines as plain providers of email response and managing services, these have industrial capabilities for almost all types of customer relations, ranging from travel services, technical support, education, customer care, financial services, and online business to customer support, online business to business support. The calls managed by a number of Philippine call centers can be categorized into; Outbound Calls and Inbound Calls. Outbound calls include Advisories, Sales Verification, Customer Services, Surveys and it is usually the agent who calls the client. While Inbound Calls include Inquiries, Technical Support, Inbound Sales and various Customer services and in this situation it is the client who calls the agent.

Today, Call centers are among the most lucrative source of income in the Philippines. It also seems that BPO jobs are one of the priority options for most newly college graduates.