Guide On How To Be A Call Center Agent In The Philippines

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or call center industry is open to all who wanted to a call center agent. It does not matter whether you are an undergraduate, high school graduate or a fresh graduate. As long as you have the skills and characteristics that a call center agent must have you are definitely in.

In the Philippines, there are a lot of call center companies all around the entire country. Filipino people who wanted to be call center agents have a lot of company choices. In addition, they can choose if they wanted to be in a voice or non-voice account.

Voice-based: This involves phone calling with customers whether it is inbound telemarketing or outbound telemarketing.
Non-Voice: This involves work in a computer & internet such as email handling, chat support and messages.

Here are the top 10 BPO companies in the Philippines:

  1. STAFFVIRTUAL – An outsourcing and human resources management solution that connect companies with affordable staff in the Philippines at a massive scale.
  2. Convergys Philippines Services Corp. – A corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio, sells customer management and information management products, primarily to large corporations.
  3. 24/7 Customer Philippines Inc. – A company that assists several hundred million visitors across all channels, and engages in 1.5 billion conversations annually, most of which are automated.
  4. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A.-Philippine Global Service Center – Financial services firm.
  5. Telephilippines Inc. – Provider of outsourced customer experience management services in the country.
  6. Sutherland Global Services Philippines Inc. – Provider of world-class services, innovative, and analytics-driven business solutions.
  7. Hewlett-Packard AP (Hong Kong) Ltd. -An American multinational information technology company.
  8. Stream International Global Services Philippines Inc. – A company acquired by Convergys through a definitive merger, with more than 37,000 employees in 22 countries in 50 contact centers.
  9. Teletech Offshore Investments B.V. – Global business process outsourcing company.
  10. IBM Daksh Business Process Services Philippines Inc. – An American multinational technology and consulting corporation.

First thing first is you must know how to speak in English fluently since that is the language that you are going to use every time you are going to talk with a customer. Second is you need to pass the job interview and training consisting of language and product-related. Lastly, you need to pass the nesting, in this stage, you will experience to talk to an actual customer for the first time, your skills will be put to test in terms of speaking, applying what you learned and on how helpful you could be to your customer.

Here are the tips and guide on how to be a call center agent in the Philippines:

Resume

Having a great resume helps to make a favorable impression on a prospective employer and it helps in opening a door for a successful career.
To stand out among other applicants, you need a resume that highlights your strengths and matches for the job.
Remember a great resume grabs the attention of employers and recruiters.

Improve the way you speak the English language

To be hired as a call center agent, you must know this basic skill: English proficiency. There are other skills that you must have, but if you are unable to speak English well, you will have a hard time entering one of the most progressive work industries in the country.

Comprehending Interview Questions

It’s important that you understand and comprehend all the words that the interviewer says. Specifically the “why” behind every question in the interview. For instance, the interviewer said, “Tell something about yourself.”, it does not mean that the interviewer wanted to know about your birth date, civil status, or family background. Instead, the interviewer wanted to know the characteristics you have that make you fit into being a call center agent.
In addition, sometimes the interviewer will ask you ” Where do you see yourself within the following years?” it means that they wanted to know if you’re planning for a long-term stay because that is what they are looking for. So for you to be able to pass the interview, you need to make white lies or simply telling them you see yourself still working in their company even if not.

Grammar Related Exams (Versant and Berlitz) and Speed Typing Test

Exams are being used to test your grammar and fluency but it depends on the account you are applying to, it may or may not be applicable. If by any chance you will not be able to pass the exam you will be referred to other accounts.
A versant is a tool used by companies and institutions to test your language skills while Berlitz is a test to determine the English communication skills of the applicant where you, the applicant, will talk to a facilitator, who will listen and talk to you in English.
In terms of typing, it is also a must to have fast typing skills as well because once you are already talking to a customer you need to deal with the customer’s emotions while checking and researching your resources. With all the multitasking going on turtle-like typing is not applicable.

Training in BPO company

All training will start easy and smooth but as the progress happens difficulties may occur.
First, your language and grammar will be trained. The trainer will familiarize you with all the basic flow. Expect this stage to be pretty easy.
Second, the trainer will familiarize you with the product. All the information about the product will be discussed.
Third, the trainer will familiarize you with the workflow.
Fourth, you will be given a chance to barge or listen to a tenured agent while they are having a call or simply called shadowing.

Nesting

Nesting is the hardest part of the training. In this stage, you will spend hours talking to an actual customer over the phone, handling real issues, and applying all the things you learned in the training, but there’s no need to be scared as there are tenured agents around who can help you and soon enough you will get used to the work-flow.

Work Load

There are so many things to consider if you wanted to work in a call center company. It includes a shifting schedule, night shift or graveyard shift where you will stay awake all night, metrics that you need to target, a cold working environment, and irate customers.

Advantage of Working in a Call Center Company:

  • Higher salary compared to other jobs (mostly around 15k to 35K)
    Salary gets higher the longer you stay in the company.
  • Good medical benefits and Insurance
    Aside from PhilHealth, call centers companies provide additional and better private health insurance for their employees.
  • You will develop your skills and experiences
    The job might be repetitive but it is challenging enough to develop the set of skills you have where you can use even outside the industry.

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