Death of a Call Center
After being in the business for more than three years, a call center that i know so well decided to fold and close down the business. I was actually surprised when I first heard the news and thought it was just one of those closing-call-center-gossips but when my old colleagues who were working there asked me for a job, I knew right there and then that the news was true.
It was a call center located in the heart of Manila, my first ever call center. It’s what you may call my “portal” to the call center industry. I still remember my days there as an agent and as supervisor, my first conversation with an American over the phone, my first rejection, my first sale, my first ‘closer’ award and my first promotion. I actually thought that it would be my first and last call center but like what my mentor said, there is a bigger world out there… venture, and I just found myself out of Manila and into the corporate area of Ortigas. But anyway, going back to the topic, I honestly believed that that call center would do well and grow big since it is backed by two of the biggest business entities here in the Philippines but I guess I was wrong. From what I’ve found out, conflict after conflict from the owner and the backer slowly weakened what were once the strong pillars of the company. It was a domino effect, management slowly crumbled, people started leaving, campaigns started pulling out and then the inevitable happened, after more than three years of survival, the company that I thought was going to be great closed its doors and decided to leave the industry. It just proves that it’s not just about who is backing you up because at the end of the day, it all boils down to you and your people. Why worry about someone catching you when you can just avoid falling simply by taking the right steps.
Looking back on that event, I am proud to say that the organization that I am with right now is doing a great job. More power to you guys and keep up the good work.
-rgs
Call Center Crash Course, Does It Help?
During the early years of the call center industry, one of the most in-demand services is English proficiency training, since customer service and outbound telemarketing for the US that time was something relatively new to Filipinos and that for us to be able to cope with it, an excellent command of the English language is a must and we have to admit that those kind of training really helped a lot. Now, as years go by, because of the rapid growth of the industry and the huge demand of agents it entails, most BPO companies decided to do in-house training, fusing it with the company’s existing training procedure which actually help them save time and of course money. Because of this, the need for training services from third party companies had lessened dramatically. During its silence, a new breed of training centers came out, the call center training institutes that offers short term courses for people who wants to enter the call center industry, they provide basic trainings such as grammar, American culture, geography and a little bit of everything.
I would say it’s a good idea but If you would really want to be a competitive candidate for any call center, it would take more than a crash course to get you in, especially if you are competing with other candidates that already had call center experiences, I’ve done recruitment before for a call center in Ortigas and I would say that I’m not that impressed with applicants that boasts about their call center training, I’m not saying that they are terrible, all I’m trying to say is, if I want myself trained, I would definitely want to know what’s really important. What I’m pointing out is to go more in dept and focus on the important parts. If you want to train call center agents, train them on phone skills, phone ethics, build confidence, spontaneity and train them to think on their feet. Most of the applicants I interviewed before can’t even look straight at me and can’t even express themselves. Bottom line is, for people out there who are planning to take training courses for call center, look at what they have to offer, what’s their training program and what does it cover. For those who are doing training and are planning to do call center training, consider my words as pieces of advice, all of those came from first hand experiences.
-rgs
