Call centers in the Philippines are always on the go in ensuring that they deliver excellent performance. This has led to the tremendous growth of the call center industry in the Philippines. In fact, the Philippines is now considered as the destination of choice of offshore call centers all over the world. This is not only because of the cheaper labor costs but also because of the excellent English and ICT skills of the labor force of the Philippines.



Filipino call center agents possess strong potentials in delivering excellent customer service. Such potentials, however, need to be augmented by training and by effective monitoring of the performance of individual call center agents, as well as that of the whole call center. To enable call center managements in the Philippines to do this, several factors have been identified for monitoring.

One of such factors is the time spent by a caller on the queue. If the number of callers at any given time is greater than the number of call center agents, then there will be a queue. If a caller spends a long time in the queue, there is a big chance that he will drop the call and be irate the next time he calls. The number of calls dropped while on the queue also contributes negatively to the level of service of the call center. The service level percentage (SL%) refers to the percentage of calls at any given time such as a day, week, or month.

Call center agents are also monitored for the time they spend in addressing the customers concern. This is usually called the average handling time (AHT), which includes the length of time spent in talking with the client (average talk time or ATT), the time spent for wrap-up such as sending requests for back-office support and the time that the customer was put on hold.

To effectively monitor the workload that an agent can handle, the number of calls per hour is also monitored. There are also times that the call center agent is not answering calls. This is when he is doing some After Call Work (ACW) encoding comments and sending requests or when he is on a restroom break. First Call Resolution is the aim of call centers for most calls that they receive. If this were done, then it means that customers become more satisfied with the service that they receive.

The metrics mentioned above are regularly monitored by call center management since they provide an indication of the level of service being given by the call center. In addition, the quality of the calls is also ensured through the Quality Assurance (QA) Team. Call center agents are supposed to display good attitude at work according to prescribed company code of conduct. In some instances, there are also spiels that agents have to follow. If they deviate from the prescribed conduct or if they intentionally say anything that insults or abuses a customer on the phone, then the quality of their call will be assessed negatively. The aim of Philippine call centers is excellent performance and happy customers.