Who gets hired and work in a Call Center?

[chad_tukes]

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well i couldn't say that its for american only because even me i speak "broken english" but guess what?? i got hired and will be working this jan , there are many pinoys out there who speak english fluently and they sound good just like americans. filipino people are very talented.

IMO, it's not the way you speak English, it's how you THINK. being able to think clearly and at the same time communicating effectively makes a good cust. service rep.

EXAMPLE: i called my cellphone provider about a month ago inquiring about how to store voice messages in my cellphone until i dispose of the actual unit. this guy on the other line sounded foreign to me (with a hard accent). he said there is no actual limit on the number of days that the messages are saved. he said the messages are saved until i get rid of the unit, or if i intentionally delete all of them.

long story short... after a few weeks, i checked my voice mailbox and all the messages are gone. take note, i DID NOT delete them, they just disappeared. in other words, he WAS wrong... there IS a limit on how long the messages are saved. if only he could have been more clear and precise, this wouldn't have happened.

[Sol_Itaire]

@fruit salad
then it's a problem on the system of hiring and training these customer reps, not on their being filipino.

aren't filipino nurses preferred all over the world? and aren't filipino mall workers doing well in Dubai? They got the natural trait of being hospitable as well as the training on excellent service.

There are so many english native speakers here who work as language teachers, and i tell you, they suck at it. can't spell right, can't make good reports, can't teach. But we can't say filipinos are better teachers, right? that's my analogy.

[fruit salad]

@Sol_Itaire:

Filipinos adapt to his environment, they actually become triple better when they're in a foreign land because of human instincts, they're triple nicer too (that explains why nurses outside the country have very good work ethics than with nurses at home) ... survival. I have to disagree on the training on excellent service. Commonly, Filipinos are not customer-service oriented. Go to the mall, go to a ticketing office, go to a bank. Big difference if you've been to the US. You go in line to pay for grocery, the cashier asks you "how are you today?" people say "thank you" when you go to an establishment they will ask you "hi, how can I help you?". There? Not even a smile from bank cashiers. I tested it actually when I last went home. I needed a ticket to fly to Manila. I went into one of the travel agencies in SM, every-body were not doing anything "idle" "nada" "no customers". I just stood there and after a while, somebody from my left said "hi, can i help you?" in English. I turned to her and there she was... daughter of the owner. I jokingly told her I really was waiting who was gonna say hi first and you did.

There are reasons why Filipinos are hospitable, if we really think about it. Innately? Are we really nice people? Our hospitality, in my opinion, is first: a product of Spanish oppression, inferiority. Filipinos during that time were servants, so they're used to serving. Even up until now, Filipinos seem to become extra nice when they meet foreigners. Common people think highly of them and they tend to provide them the best. Second, there's actually a hidden side on hospitality... most Pinoys are hospitable to boast, how big their house is, how expensive and delicious their food hehehe. And of course there are some who are deeply cultured and valued Filipinos who are really hospitable (the motherly caring individual) no strings attached.

Teachers here are very highly qualified, depends on educational level to teach, elementary, high school, and college. The ideology is, they ain't aught to teach if they ain't masters of their field especially in colleges. Question is, why are those incompetent native-tongue teachers hired to teach? What are their qualifications? Did they have language credentials? Or just because they're native Americans we presume they're good with English, which is normally quite the contrary. So kinsa may nailad? Kita ra gihapon. Same with just because one can speak English the person can be a good customer service person. Kinsa may nailad? Customers diri. Ilad sila. It would be a blast for them am sure if in the packaging of every device or product they buy there would be options for A: pay regular amount (out of country customer service rep) or B: pay a little extra for (in-country customer service rep). Radio stations even mock and pose as legit callers and randomly call customer service numbers and just make fun of them. Most of the time, customer service reps flare up to their test, which just shows, they're not the right person for that kind of job, which just shows just how incompetent outsourced labor is, even if it is truly not, customers always have the final say. POV lang, don't mean to be personal okay? Mao ra ni akong opinion or view.

Back to the topic: not all nice people can even become good in customer service. The personality requirement, knowledge, and communication skills should be substantial. Just because we know how to speak English we can effectively communicate the language.

[Sol_Itaire]

^you're speaking from your own standpoint and I respect that. however, i just don't buy the idea that the problem is us filipinos per se. customer service is a concept and skill to be taught and those who suck at it are either demotivated/demoralized (such as having oppressive work conditions and unbelievably low pay), not suitable to the job personality-wise, or not trained enough.

[chad_tukes]

with everything that's been said and done, it all comes down to the companies WANTING to save money by outsourcing jobs overseas. companies are smart enough to know that as long as there is someone who answers the phone when the customer calls---and as long as they SAVE MONEY, they're good to go.

no offense but let's all be realistic here.

but still, i must say that DELL is doing a BS job by charging customers $12/month.

[etzina]

well i couldn't say that its for american only because even me i speak "broken english" but guess what?? i got hired and will be working this jan , there are many pinoys out there who speak english fluently and they sound good just like americans. filipino people are very talented.

OT: grats! asa naka trabaho ron?

maka compare jud ko ug pinoy agent ug american agent, dako kaayo ug difference and sa level of customer service ako na kuha from them. i called up "billing" department of this company and I know nga us agents ang manubag ani, maayo kaau sila mu handle ug call... but then wala nuon na solve ako issue so nanawag ko sa tech support sa company and kani mga pinoy agents ang mu receive sa call... OMG nalang jud, paghatag lang nako sa account number sayup na, pati ako ngalan wala nila na gets... and worse pa, that guy put me on hold for more than 10 minutes just to read the case notes of the persisting issue sa account ako gitawagan about.....

[fruit salad]

Generally, we don't soar up to as High Service Levels as with US businesses own workers because simply we are from the Philippines. It is a connotation to many different things.

"when people don't identify with the organization on whose behalf they're working, their performance typically suffers. That's because in-house employees tend to be far more interested in nurturing a good reputation among clients and customers. It's human nature: Since the name of their organization isn't directly associated with the service that contractors provide, there's less motivation to make sure it's done right."

Being outsourced labor, is a compromise to quality. They only do it for economics nothing else. Not because we're extremely talented that we're very good communicators and we can take on their customers and provide high customer satisfaction ratings. So me saying because we're Filipinos is relative. Value and exercise of customer service in businesses around the country is proof enough for me that there's a big difference. Whatever the reason why the difference, may it be knowledge or awareness, the point is still the same. It is different. Ikaduha na si etzina.

"(Business 2.0) - Dell (Research) tried it, then reversed course. Capital One (Research) gave up as well, and so did JPMorgan Chase (Research). All came to the same conclusion about their attempts to farm out front-line customer-service jobs to outside contractors: The hidden costs far outweighed the potential savings in labor expenses." - money.cnn.com

"A 2005 Gartner study predicts that 60 percent of organizations that outsource customer-facing processes will see significant numbers of frustrated customers switching to competitors."

It is a challenge for Filipino call center workers to prove this reputation otherwise. A challenge for HR people in these call centers to place significance to quality recruits. Because I know India is already famous for bad customer service ratings.

So who gets hired and work in a call center? Just about anybody who can speak English.

Picking Up on Frustration, Call Centers Move Back Home - Business news | Newser

This is why Dell moved back home.

[etzina]

amen to that fruit salad, sakto jud ka. anyone who speaks english fluently gets hired kay they thought "giving good customer service" is trainable or can be taught... in reality, dili man jud... we may be taught the right responses, right protocol, pero if that person doesn't care to help the customer, walay nada ang training.

[chad_tukes]

LiveLeak.com - Dell Customer Service Hell

[fruit salad]

chad_tukes, i have to give it to the rep, he was very patient... I didn't finish listening to everything though but I listened to most of it. He did not even appear pissed off by this guy.