Customer Service King

I’ve read several forums on call centers and here are the latest and Top 10 call centers that are being talked about.  Most would discuss compensation, day shift jobs, gossip, recruitment failures and successes, management decisions, cool amenities, incentives and different programs being serviced.  I listed them in alphabetical order to be fair and objective.

• Ambergris Solutions, Inc.
• Convergys Philippines Services Corp.
• Dell Manila
• ClientLogic Philippines, Inc.
• e-Telecare International, Inc.
• ICT Marketing Services Inc.
• People Support Philippines, Inc.
• Sitel Philippines, Inc.
• Sykes Asia, Inc.
• Teletech Customer Care Management Philippines, Inc.

If you’ve noticed, most are the big players in the industry and have global footprints.  It boils down to availability of jobs and compensation.  These centers have both been praised and criticized by their own workforce.   I hope that management would read more of these forums because it gives them some perspective of what people think of the company.

The night before Typhoon "Milenyo" hit Metro Manila, call center management was preparing what was needed.  Shuttles were being scheduled and ready to be deployed to pick up personnel, some who had a disaster recovery center were on stand-by, and most were expecting a high rate of absenteeism.  But, not a lot was prepared for what was the worst typhoon, since it was about 11 years when we had the same magnitude.

It was about 11am, most were traveling back home from their shift, some had just arrived for the next shift and everybody thought it was the usual rain.  My phone started ringing, a lot of text messages had been received and I just had about a few hours sleep.  The “eye” of the storm is close by and will hit the city soon.  Decisions had to be made.

Training classes had to be cut short and all were cancelled.  A lot of personnel couldn’t travel because it was flooded in their area, roads were blocked by fallen trees or the wind was too strong, making it unsafe.  We started calling clients informing them to route calls elsewhere.

Then, the unthinkable happened --- the whole city’s power was cut off.

How ever you decide to create a staffing model make sure you know the law.  There are certain limitations to the amount of time that a person can work.  Not to mention the fact that overworked employees are far less effective/efficient than a fresh new employee (Even if the new employee appears to cost more in the short run)

Since the news broke out a month ago that Dell was to open another call center in Metro Manila, small to medium sized centers have started to lose their workforce.  Even the big players are losing their best people to their centers.

When they strategically placed their first center south of Manila, there was no reason to panic.  Based on the pool of competent candidates, south wasn’t much but it took a lot of really good people nevertheless.  They competed with the current compensation of agents and supervisors.  Being in a third world country, this was like gold to a lot of people.

With the second one to open up, they are very aggressive in getting the best in the industry.  I’m not aware of their success rate, but it has been the “talk of the town”.  People who have been loyal to other centers for years are now moving, despite of their past bad experience with Dell, when they were still outsourcing.

The reason?  Plain and simple.  Money.

Situation: “Agents that have gone through quality audits and data has shown they should not be retained in an account.  This will hurt not only CSAT but possible law regulations.   But, as an outsourced center, staffing is critical to answer the calls needed to generate revenue.”

This is usually the case for outsourced centers.  The more calls that are answered based on the contract, the better.  Quality metrics is always the last that operations prioritize because there are only few contracts that weigh heavily on quality.  The drive is more on CSAT, but yet the penalties and bonuses are tied to the pricing model.

So, what does one do?  Will you risk quality as long as the company makes money? I say, there is always a balance.  Though it may not exactly be 50-50, there is a bit of a compromise.