Article: The Philippines: The world's hotline
 |
| Filipinos working at call centers in the Philippines |
One of the main reasons why the Philippines has had an increase in call centers is because the Filipinos are able to have the American accent in which most Indians may not. "In fact, to American ears, Filipinos often sound clearer than agents in India."The accent is so convincing that US caller might not even know that the agent is a Filipino. I found this point really interesting because it seems so obvious yet I overlooked this factor.
Another interesting point that the article made is that the Philippines is very much attuned to the culture of the United States, simply because the Philippines was a US colony. Therefore it wouldn't be a surprising fact that Philippines would be the leading country to answer phone calls from the United States.
Lastly, I think the companies that have offshored to India have seen the advantages of having a call center in the Philippines. In fact according to the article, many of the call centers that have presence in the Philippines are also in India. "In other words, the Indians have started outsourcing some of their outsourcing."
However, since the industry is still growing in the Philippines, India's overall BPO (Business Processing Outsourcing) revenue was $70bn while the Philippines was only $9bn.
Question: What are some disadvantage of offshoring call centers in the Philippines, both for the country and/or the individual?
Oh come on Chanel, this question is too easy! Just off the top of my head: 1. Long, late hours. Remember, the timezones are completely different for "Westerners;" 2. Benefits abuses/union stipulations. Essentially, are workers being treated fairly by their employer? I don't know, you'd have to do the research; 3. Immobility. Sitting for long hours at a desk is probably not good for you; 4. "Westernization" or overall change in culture. Could be through language, or maybe even something more like a change in values; 5. Heavy reliance on an industry that driven by the global success of TNCs. What happens if $*!# hits the fan on a macroeconomic scale? Call centers might suffer. Just a guess.
ReplyDeleteI was also quite surprised when I read this article. In my opinion, there is few disadvantages except for abusion of workers with long hours of working. In fact, from what I heard, employees in call center get quite good pay compared to other workers since call centers also employs "educated women" who have good English pronunciation.
ReplyDelete