Although India has been found by Duke University to be the preferred provider of call center services, most companies from the United States and other developed countries have discovered the Philippines as a very good alternative. This is because of its low cost and its army of excellent call center professionals.



Business operations in developed countries require skilled workers who have the capability in working with computers while at the same time talking with customers on the phone, diagnosing their problems and helping provide customer service. The good educational system of the Philippines, including its culture is making it as an attractive alternative to India for call center operations.

The advantage of the Philippine call center industry boils down to two things: one is the cultural affinity of the Philippines with the United States and the loyalty of Filipino employees to their employer.

The United States has colonized the Philippines at the beginning of the twentieth century and established the educational system of the country. In the process, they were able to transmit the use of the English language as well as different facets of culture and technology. Filipinos can also easily adapt to other cultures, making them suitable call center agents servicing people of different nationalities. Call centers in the Philippines are servicing people from the United States, from Australia, from England, Scotland, and even other nationalities from Europe. Amazingly, they easily adapt to the accents of these different nationalities, given ample training before officially starting the work.

In India, there is an increase in the attrition rate because of the competition for good call center agents. In fact, training costs and the stealing of employees is becoming an issue, straining the budgets of call centers. The turnover of employees in India has reached a high point of 200 percent!

The call center agents in the Philippines tend to transfer less to other call centers. A lot of Filipino call center agents tend to build communities inside their call centers, helping them become more attached and loyal to the company. Moreover, the prospect of promotion for them is more real if they stayed in one company and develop their capabilities there. In fact, the turnover rate of Filipino call center agents has been seen at less than 40 percent. This helps Philippine call centers develop competent employees that can handle calls of different kinds and complexities.

There are still a lot of English speakers in the Philippines. Moreover, the wage rate is relatively lower. As such, the Philippines is able to capture a greater segment of the world market of call centers. Even Indian analysts are recognizing the potential of the Philippines not only in competing but in taking the lead in the call center industry.

With a huge number of university graduates every year, the Philippines is encouraging the further development of the call center industry in order for the country to push its competitive advantage in the world market and start its drive for expanding operations.