Call Center Business Philippines

Contact Centers or Call Center is a part of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). It is a voice-enabled process outsourcing which includes customer service, telemarketing, appointment setting, order taking, etc. BPO started in the Philippines in the late 90’s and most companies only caters non-voice process, such as accounting, legal, data encoding, transcription, etc. As of today, BPO industry showed a tremendous growth in our economy and there are hundreds of call centers across the country who is giving employment to our fellow Filipinos.

Most of us wants to join this industry, either to work, venture or invest on this business but doesn’t have enough knowledge about the trade. That is the reason why there are consultants and alike, who works in this industry to help and to guide those aspiring people who wants to invest and to gamble in this business.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that I encountered from being a consultant for the past 6 years:

1. How much do I need to invest for me to build or to put up a call center?

Capital expenditures will vary on how many seats you want to set-up, how attractive you want your office will be and/or if you will do a build-out or just lease some seats in an existing contact centers who offers seat leasing.

Build-out (30 seats) – estimated CAPEX is PHP 3,000,000.00 which includes facility, infrastructure, technology, hardware, software, building improvements, furniture, etc.

Seat lease (10 seats) – estimated CAPEX is PHP 100,000.00 which includes everything you need.

2. What is the difference between build-out and seat lease?

Build-out (summary)

-       You own almost everything (computers, workstations, furniture, technology, software, etc.), these are your fixed assets.

-       Fully secured in terms of confidentiality (e.g. calling list, client info, etc.)

-       Easy to market and legitimacy of the company is more visible to prospect and existing clients.

In seat lease (summary)

-       You do not own anything, you rent everything.

-       Security is at risk (e.g. calling list, client info, poaching of employees, etc.)

-       Quality is at risk (e.g. voice quality, data speed, etc.)

-       Most clients will not be confident to do business with you, they will think that you are a fly-by-night company since you do not have your own office.

-       Limited working hours.

3. What do you prefer, seat lease or build-out?

I do prefer build-out, since it is easy to market to prospect clients. Security is not at risk, especially if the client is the one who provides the calling list. However, if you are planning to start with 10 seats, I recommend that you do seat lease but I suggest that you provide your own dialer for you not to compromise the security of calling list and your clients.

4. Some says that you can put up a contact center without millions?

Yes you can, by going to seat lease option. But if you are planning to build your own center, DO NOT expect that you can do this with just a hundred thousand.

5. There are a lot of big players in the industry, how can I get a legit client?

Those fortune 500 contact centers caters to fortune 500 companies and small/medium enterprises do business with small/medium contact centers, which means that you will not compete with them. For you to attract client, you need to have a good marketing tool, a person who has a broad experience in business development on BPO, a well-experienced manpower, an attractive facility, redundancy, quality and reliable infrastructure and technology.

6. How fast if the ROI?

Normally and on worst-case scenario, it will take a year or a year and a half to reach the ROI but then again, it will depend on how you and/or your management team manage your contact center.

7. What services do you offer and how much is your service?

Contact center – Build-Out

-       Feasibility studies

-       Design and planning

-       Networking (cable and wireless)

-       Technology set-up (dialer configuration, telephony, OS installation, etc.)

-       Clientele acquisition

-       Bandwidth set-up

-       VoIP set-up

-       Clientele acquisition

Contact center – Seat Lease

-       Feasibility studies

-       Seat lease facility scouting

-       Price negotiation with lessor

-       VoIP set-up

-       Clientele acquisition

-       Technology set-up (dialer configuration and telephony)

Cost of my service will vary on the things that you need, it will be better to talk about it personally.

8. I am interested and/or planning to set-up a call center, how can I get your services?

Feel free to contact me at:

Email    :           jones.desamparado@yahoo.com

Mobile   :           +63 (917) 907-7540

Skype   :           jones.desamparado

YM        :           knight_riduz21

List of centers that I worked with (build-out):

1. Tech One Call Center (Batangas) - 2006
2. TeleQuest BPO Center (Bacolod City) – 2008
3. QDMS Inc. (Makati) – 2009
4. QuadMD Global Contact Center (Ortigas) – 2010
5. RMS Advanced Call Center (Ortigas) – 2010
6. D Edge Global (Ortigas) – 2011
7. EPA Business Process Outsourcing (Ortigas) - 2012