Philippine Call Centers

APAC Customer Services Inc. is a leading provider of customer interaction solutions for market leaders in financial services, insurance, telecommunication, healthcare and logistics. APAC partners with its clients to deliver customer solutions that enhance bottom line performance. Founded in 1973, the company has more than 10,000 employees. APAC Customer Services Inc. pioneered the field of outsourced customer relationship marketing. And today, we’re one of the largest firms of our kind - and the most driven to excel in providing solutions that produce success. We maintain our market leadership by keeping our standards the highest in the industry and by continually searching for new and better ways to acquire and service customers.

History
APAC has experienced nearly 35 years of positive growth by expanding into new service markets and providing innovative customer solutions. With the addition of Robert J. Keller as Chief Executive Officer, APAC is poised to continue its commitment to excellence and client success by offering integrated customer lifecycle management solutions that helps our clients serve their customers better. Begun in 1973, and fostered under the entrepreneurial spirit of then college student Theodore G. Schwartz, APAC has grown from a one-telephone media advertising and sales operation into an industry leader in customer interaction solutions. Through the years, APAC has increased its capabilities through physical growth and new customer service innovations. The acquisition of customer capture and care firm ITI Marketing Services of Omaha, quickly grew APAC into one of the largest teleservices firms. During this time, APAC integrated customer service outsourcing with traditional inbound/outbound telesales, and has since been credited with literally creating the use of service-oriented phone calls that has now become an industry standard.

Product and Services
Throughout its long history, APAC has been providing fully integrated, Customer Lifecycle Management Solutions to a wide range of industries. Our extensive knowledge and expertise enable our clients to offer real-time, industry-relevant and personalized customer care at every single customer touchpoint. APAC’s philosophy of applying best-of-breed technology combined with flexible solutions to each key market allows our clients to implement highly effective, world-class care and acquisition programs – anytime, anywhere – and to stay involved with their customers as long as they desire. That’s just one of the reasons we are recognized as a Customer Lifecycle Management expert in every vertical sector in which we practice. Healthcare Solutions Financial Services Business Services & Logistics Publishing/Media Travel & Hospitality Telecommunications.

Advanced Contact Solutions,Inc. is a provider of outsourced Customer Relationship Management services and solutions. Its multi-channel contact centers provide 24×7 telephone and Internet-based technical help desk, customer service and product support. In every phase of the sales cycle, from customer acquisition through retention, ACS helps companies manage effective communications with their customers enhancing loyalty and customer lifetime value. With structures and systems that nurture information exchange, joint learning, and a mode of knowing and understanding, ACS employees are able to cross the traditional organizational boundaries to work on live business issues and concerns. This ensures employees’ skills and knowledge are kept current and attuned with the evolving needs of the business and industry. Beyond compensation and traditional system of rewards, our employees can look forward to an environment where continuous learning has become a way of life.

Company Facts

Convergys Corp, a member of the S&P 500 and the Forbes’ Platinum 400, is the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care services provided through outsourcing/licensing. We bring together world-class resources, software, and expertise to help create valuable relationships between our clients, their customers, and their employees. This commitment is validated by the more than 1.5 M individual bills our software produces each day to support more than 120 M subscribers, and by the more than 1.7 M separate customer and employee contacts we manage each day, both live and via electronic interaction. Convergys employs more than 50,000 people in 50 customer contact centers and in our data centers and other offices in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Convergys has world headquarters in Cincinnati.

Company Facts

The recruitment process for new call center agents may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• phone screening - this stage determines the voice quality over the phone and how the applicant responds to the call;
• initial interview - conducted by the company human resource department or another outsource staffing firm to test the speaking skills, attitude and how confident the applicant responds to questions;
• examination - this includes aptitude tests, computer-based call simulations and emotional quality (EQ)/ attitude tests; and
• final interview - to assess customer service, technical, or sales skills.

While call centers actually began in the Philippines as simple providers of e-mail response and handling services, these have developed capabilities for almost all types of customer interactions, ranging from travel services, financial services, technical support, education, customer care, online business to customer support, online business to business support.

The calls handled by various Philippine call centers can be classified into inbound and outbound calls. For outbound calls, the services cover telemarketing, advisories, sales verification. credit and collection, reactivation/reinstatement of accounts, loyalty program benefits, customer services and order entry. Inbound calls cover a broad range of services, from all types of inquiries, technical help, transcription, complaints, customer service, support, sales, marketing, and billing.

Call center agents are typically assigned in graveyard shifts, interacting with customers from all over the world, mostly from the United States and must adhere to strict performance metrics.

In 2004, the Philippines already captured 20 percent of the total world market share in contact center services. The Philippine government estimates the Philippines could capture 50 percent of the total world English-speaking market in 2008. This industry, aside from contributing 12 percent in to the Philippines gross national product, is also the fastest growing provider for Filipino college graduates. The Information and Communications Technology division of the BOI reported that the call center industry experienced a growth rate of 70 percent in 2005 making it the most dynamic of all sectors in the Philippine information technology industry. According to industry forecasts, more than a million Filipinos would be employed in the call center industry, with more than US$12 billion in revenues in the year 2010.

The Philippines is also considered as location of choice due to its less expensive operational and labor costs.

The country offers 24/7 multilingual and multimedia supported premium services for marketing, sales, customer care, crisis management, investor relations and other key business applications. The reasons cited for the bullish outlook towards the Philippines have been, among others, due to lower operating costs, English language proficiency and high ICT skills yet low-cost workforce.

The Philippines is considered a major player in the global BPO market. In 2005, the country ranked in the top 10 world wide for top BPO destinations, according to neoIT’s 2005 Mapping Offshore Markets Update.