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Post by alien_scream on May 24, 2005 21:46:03 GMT 8
this is it. the interview from halfway around the globe. funny, i'm in the same building where i used to work before. i'm here at pbcom btw. buti na lang may internet kiosk dito while waiting for my turn. just killing time by browsing through the case logs este forum posts.  lapit lang sa amin.... here beside LKG, AYALA LIFE FGU CENTER.... i'm still here in this #@%%$%@^ office!!!!!! doing some #E%@#$%^ things!!!!!! |
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Post by stormloader on May 24, 2005 21:52:14 GMT 8
Call center peeps, Random survey lang mga brad. do you think you'll make this a long term career? i mean the prospects for career advancement in the industry is really there daw (pwedeng career-in ika nga) esp with the right company and good ole S & T (sipag at tiyaga). I'm thinking of goin' back to the corporate world kasi after spending several years in the private, non-profit sector (i work in a political-economic research co. btw) and naturally call centers could be an option. curious lang so indulge me pls.  |
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Post by mountguitars on May 24, 2005 22:03:30 GMT 8
this is it. the interview from halfway around the globe. funny, i'm in the same building where i used to work before. i'm here at pbcom btw. buti na lang may internet kiosk dito while waiting for my turn. just killing time by browsing through the case logs este forum posts. lapit lang sa amin.... here beside LKG, AYALA LIFE FGU CENTER.... i'm still here in this #@%%$%@^ office!!!!!! doing some #E%@#$%^ things!!!!!! hehehe, good for you. manigas ka dyan, hehehe. joke lang. tuloy ka ba sa baguio? sali ka ba? good luck! sama tayo sa san pablo trail pag natuloy. |
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Post by alien_scream on May 24, 2005 22:05:38 GMT 8
lapit lang sa amin.... here beside LKG, AYALA LIFE FGU CENTER.... i'm still here in this #@%%$%@^ office!!!!!! doing some #E%@#$%^ things!!!!!! hehehe, good for you. manigas ka dyan, hehehe. joke lang. tuloy ka ba sa baguio? sali ka ba? good luck! sama tayo sa san pablo trail pag natuloy. sasamahan ko sila mike taga palakpak lang!!!!!! kelan yung san pablo?  ? |
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Post by eiwol on May 24, 2005 22:28:23 GMT 8
sir mervs,
the call center is really a very lucrative job these days. having a career in a call center depends on your background and your interests. being an agent/representative is the fastest route for promotion but you'll be taking in calls for the rest of your life... hehehe. there are different paths depending on what you are more inclined doing.
go to a call center company that's been in the business for a long time. the call center business is very volatile and i think the US will be limiting their outsourcing in the near future.
just my two cents...
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Post by mountguitars on May 25, 2005 0:56:35 GMT 8
hehehe, good for you. manigas ka dyan, hehehe. joke lang. tuloy ka ba sa baguio? sali ka ba? good luck! sama tayo sa san pablo trail pag natuloy. sasamahan ko sila mike taga palakpak lang!!!!!! kelan yung san pablo? ? its posted here at june 12. dunno if its good to go so most likely we'll just be on the look out. |
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Post by wackodacko on May 25, 2005 3:21:06 GMT 8
sir mervs, the call center is really a very lucrative job these days. having a career in a call center depends on your background and your interests. being an agent/representative is the fastest route for promotion but you'll be taking in calls for the rest of your life... hehehe. there are different paths depending on what you are more inclined doing. go to a call center company that's been in the business for a long time. the call center business is very volatile and i think the US will be limiting their outsourcing in the near future. just my two cents... On the other hand, if you want a fast track to a management role and already have experience working, you don’t want to be stuck in the rat race with thousands of fresh grads gunning for the same goal. The big call centers treat their human assets as expendable - once you have one absence more than the other guy, you're out. Once your dial rate or AHT goes below .x%, you're out. Got a migraine and no med certificate? You’re in trouble... the big client dumps the call ctr? Bye-bye! A lot of these big centers are modern-day slave ships and here for only one thing - because pinoy labor is cheap and expendable. The only caveat with going to a small call center is that there are a lot of fly-by-night centers that peddle strange products/services (AKA SCAMS like Viagra, boiler room type campaigns, federal grants scams, etc), are mismanaged, under-the-table center, or run by some shady foreigner with his brown mistress. If a center is doing unethical accounts, it’s safe to assume they do unethical employment and salary-payment practices. If they don’t remit to BIR, SSS, etc and they with-hold it from you, then you probably won't want to go with them because even if they offer a high cash salary in the short term, it doesn’t say much for stability or them sticking out for the next few years. There is some brouhaha about offshore outsourcing in the US, but the bottom line is that they would HAVE to outsource to be competitive in the global marketplace. The US political scene is dominated by the republican party which in turn is governed by big business interests. Would IBM, AOL, and other bigwigs take it sitting down if they had to shut down their Philippine and Indian operations? I don’t think so... over the body of 20 dead senators would they ban outsourcing offshore. I deal with US clients all the time - only a very small percentage care that we are calling from the Philippines - their main concern is how our agents sound like (accent, conversation flow) rather than legal/tax implications, etc. the US govt wont ever ban offshore outsourcing, heck we even do their medical records here, what more telemarketing or answering calls on how to fix your pda or laptop If you're thinking about inbound vs outbound - an outbound person needs more people skills *staying witty without being angas*. Inbound is easy, you can take the calls drunk, stoned, or half asleep. But for your career's sake, don’t report to work drunk, stoned or half asleep - it’s just easy. From a business standpoint, though, think about what a US company is gonna chop off first - a non-revenue generating pls-fix-my-laptop call agent or an agent who has sold $30,000 worth of laptops last month? as any business student will point out, profit is generated by the last few units of sales. Why do you think it takes FOREVER for the Dell support hotline to be answered by a live human yet it takes 5 nanoseconds for the Dell Sales hotline to be answered? The insider trick to shave 30 minutes off your elevator-music hold time is to call the dell sales line, tell em you want to buy a laptop, but first you want to get your old one fixed, they'll priority queue you to a live human bwahahaha! anyways, back to the topic - if you're not a fresh grad and have work experience, good work ethic, STRONG non-BAROK English, and want a quick way to a managerial position, don't spend years working at the huge centers (a few of whom are even running illegal things like phone bypass, or are going bankrupt soon, or if they lose one or two clients they'll be in the red) - invest your talent in a small to midsized center that you can grow with. Sykes, Ambergris, Peoplesupport, for their first 2-3 years of operations only had 15 agents - those 15 agents worked their ass off to show that the Filipinos CAN deliver - as a result they landed large accounts which make them what they are now. Where are those 15 agents? I think I saw them playing golf at highlands last week my humble opinion from what I’ve been seeing throughout the years ;D |
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Post by wackodacko on May 25, 2005 3:22:16 GMT 8
mountguitars::: what happened to your interview did you get the job! |
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Post by eiwol on May 25, 2005 3:44:08 GMT 8
great point there ma'am wacko!
those big companies that we have as clients will definitely continue to outsource. what i'm referring to as volatile were, as you mentioned, those fly by night contact centers.
going to small to midsize contact center should be taken as a calculated risk. try to research how many clients they have, and make sure that your job will not be co-terminated with their contract to that specific client, and it doesn't only point to agents but also for managers for that campaign/program.
sir mervs is asking for some input and i contributed in an agent's point of view.
good thing that we have a ma'am wacko that owns a call center bringing more light to the topic.
IMHO, call centers are here to stay. I'ts not for the cheap labor but how competitive we Filipinos are. Even fellow asian countries outsource to the Philippines. Just be careful on where you apply.
nuff said, back to calls muna. ÜÜÜ
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Post by wackodacko on May 25, 2005 3:45:43 GMT 8
yeah, back to calls!! **whipwhip**
j/k ha!
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Post by eiwol on May 25, 2005 3:52:32 GMT 8
honestly, i landed with this job just for the moolah!!$$$!!
got a great job before in a telco but the family was growing and got a very irresistable offer!
right now, i have my channels open for other opportunities... call center or not. this time for career satisfaction! moolah will follow that... heheheh
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Post by - Gregg - on May 25, 2005 5:04:44 GMT 8
iceman thank you for calling DELL. can i have your name and your service tag please? L2 / Mentor - DELL CTS (2yrs and 6months) ClientLogic - Pasig 12th floor, Wynsum Corporate Tower, Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center Pasig City Philippines 1600 |
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marvs
Free Rider
My angel....
Posts: 351
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Post by marvs on May 25, 2005 5:53:29 GMT 8
BikerX, the Call Center industry can be a real career to a lot of us. When I came into our company 2 years ago, I came with former managers from sales companies who are entering the industry as Team Leaders managing a team of agents. They are still here today. Some of them have moved on to bigger management roles. Like in any company, there are a lot of possible positions in call centers for normal career people besides taking in calls and managing agents. HR, Accounting, IT, marketing etc. What field are you in? Im sure there's a job for you in this industry. It just really depends on which company you go to. I have a friend who came from the biggest wireless telco company who moved to our call center for a marketing position. She was offered a lot more of what she was already getting from her previous job. Now, she's back at telco because it bored her here. ;D Wacko gave a scenario on tech support above, unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  The call can't be expedited from sales to tech support, the customer will just be brought back to the regular tech support queue. What the Dell customer needs to do is to buy a Premier Warranty so Eiwol and I can answer the call with no wait time whatsoever! ;D |
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Post by clutchshooter on May 25, 2005 6:51:09 GMT 8
Hi! Nice thoughts from different viewpoints... Keep going I might pick up something here.  Hakuna matata! |
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Post by wackodacko on May 25, 2005 7:03:28 GMT 8
yo marvs, i swear, i called dell sales and they sent me straight to an indian version of eiwol, who arranged for a replacement for a couple of my burnt out chargers..then i went back to the delfsales person and bought another laptop
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Post by clutchshooter on May 25, 2005 7:30:35 GMT 8
T a k e a b r e a k. . . From the IT TrenchesWhat OS? They all look alike to me... Tech: OK, first of all I need to know what verison of Windows you're using. Customer: Uhhhmmm.....I'm not sure Tech: Right, (taking a guess) would it be Windows XP? Customer: Yes, that's the one Tech: OK We begin a new software install and get a blue screen of death.Tech: Are you sure it's Windows XP? It's not very common to get blue screen errors with Windows XP Customer: Ah, no I think it's Windows 98 Tech: *sigh* Ok, that's fine. We'll need to reboot the computer now After a long pause...Customer: It's not doing anything, there's just a picture of clouds Tech: That's ok, that'll be your wallpaper, just let me know when it gets anywhere Customer: I'm getting a bit worried now though, usually it would have come up with a Windows ME picture by now Tech: *sigh* ` Adapted` Wakekekekeke! Have fun at work! |
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marvs
Free Rider
My angel....
Posts: 351
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Post by marvs on May 26, 2005 0:08:15 GMT 8
Ma'am Wacko, must've been a time in the day where call volume was low... yes that happens!
Dell's phone routing doesn't have a way to get a customer up the consumer queue. Sales just uses the same transfer procedures we do (a riding buddy came from Dell inbound sales). The only way to expedite that call would be an internal transfer to their own center. Unfortunately that wouldn't count on the tech center's call count so it's a loss of business on their end.
That's why they came up with our queue! No wait time, industry certified techs with two PMTBers and counting. ;D The customer wuld have to pay more though. Another way of earning for the big company and the smart underpaid night owls like us. (Actually we're overpaid with the amount of calls we get.)
As far as the Dell perspective on Sales vs Tech on who is more important, it would be the Tech Support Agent. Dell doesn't sell just a laptop, it's a complete package including the service. That's why they give large premiums on selling the warranties as compared to a decked out system. Consumer sales on systems from catalogs, phone sales, tv shopping is just 15% of the business. The 85% is through public and corporate accounts who purchases computers by the hundreds if not thousands. Typical phone-in customer will buy 1 PC in 3-5 years. So tech support is very important to take care of that relationship so they will purchase the next 1 or 100 systems from Dell. If tech support fails, then the inbound phone sales agent won't reach that 30 laptop sales due to a poor reputation of the product as a whole, the system and the service.
Too much client conference calls for me.
Just my two cents.
BTW, cool bike you have there! I hope the poor tech can be paid some more so we can get our own Giant FS bike. ;D
Now back to my reports....
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Post by stormloader on May 27, 2005 12:49:21 GMT 8
Thanks for the feedback peeps - eiwol, marvs, wacko In particular wacko's post is very insightful and enlightening (albeit it's more like a reality check but still highly informative, the lowdown on call centers ika nga) In the research firm where I work a coupla office mates of mine (a sociologist and a political economist) are conducting a formative study on the call center phenomenon in relations to the country's labor sector issues. And reading your thoughts and anecdotes is like getting some first hand qualitative accounts. keep 'em coming guys i wanna learn more! |
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Post by Ben Dover on Jun 3, 2005 7:48:41 GMT 8
== GOING TO HEAVEN ==
Last night as I lay sleeping I died, or so it seems. Then I went To Heaven,
but it was only in my dreams.
And when St Peter met me at the Pearly Gate He said 'I must get Your
record... Stand here and wait.'
He returned and said "Your record is clouded with flaws.
Wasn't there anything you did on earth for a worthy cause?
I see you drank alcohol, and used tobacco too.
The fact is, you have done everything, a good man (woman) would never do. We
can't have men like you up here, your life was full of sin." Then he read
the last of my record, grasped my hand and said, "Come in."
He took me up to the Big Boss. "Take him in and treat him well, He's worked
in THE CALL CENTRE INDUSTRY , He's had his share in Hell !!!!
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Post by mountguitars on Jun 15, 2005 22:18:41 GMT 8
mountguitars::: what happened to your interview did you get the job! sorry for the late reply. yes, tanggap na po ako. and now, i'm permanently based here on the 50th floor of PBCOM. grabe, sakit sa tenga ng elevator. i had to swallow my saliva twice just to release the pressure. training is over and this is it after a month and a half. its time to take in calls. its time to make fun of the americans, hehehe (joke). mervs, if you worked as a callcenter agent sa tingin ko dehins lang giant na warp ang mabubuo mo. trust me dude. my NRS3 came from this job and along w/ my KHS. |
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Post by vertigo on Jun 15, 2005 22:41:51 GMT 8
i agree with the rest of the guys here (and gal, hi mam wacko ;D) mervs, your family (bikes that is) will become bigger if you chose this route, who knows you'll have another "snake eyes" or probably "techno viper" ;D ;D being a CSR is a totally gratifying job, it's totally different being a team lead (like me) in terms of pay mas malaki ang sinusweldo technically ng mga agents kesa sa mga supervisors in our company kasi nga naman the CSRs do the most workload, we are more of CSR coverage and our job description itself ;D so mas malaki bonus nila, hence the big bucks ;D ;D ;D anyways i have no worries bout this job, still got the perks ;D and having fun ;D |
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Post by stormloader on Jun 16, 2005 11:57:04 GMT 8
jon and don, really?! hm pinag-isip nyo lalo ako ah! hope i could meet you guys again in the trails or wherever sometime soon so i can get more pointers and my queries anwered. don adding another member to the 'family' is all good but man, what i aim to do right now is to save up dough coz i ain't savin' anything... kelan ka sa king's? |
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Post by kicker15 on Jun 16, 2005 23:46:46 GMT 8
Thank you for calling very much! My name is Neil, How may I help you? PeopleSupport Philippines Inc. Philam Life Tower Paseo de Roxas Corporate Trainer may kasama pala akong biker dito sa people support. Thank you for calling Expedia Corporate Travel |
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Post by nine-inch-neils on Jun 20, 2005 12:48:26 GMT 8
Thank you for calling very much! My name is Neil, How may I help you? PeopleSupport Philippines Inc. Philam Life Tower Paseo de Roxas Corporate Trainer may kasama pala akong biker dito sa people support. Thank you for Dude, Dont post your account here.... |
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Post by nine-inch-neils on Jun 21, 2005 12:43:19 GMT 8
Mervs,
Some misconceptions about the contact center industry here in the Phil.
1. It's easy to get in... ( from my experience only 3 in 100 gets in) and this is for the agent position.
2. It's easy to get promoted.... (unless your resume is really impressive... theres the possibililty) and then of course there should be the need for the position.
3. The job is easy.... (ask the folks here responding).. whatever department you join would demand the same amount of knowledge and skill among many other things.
4. The bigger the company gets, the less the company cares... (its tough to balance priorities--profitability and human development but strong leaders can make it work.
Personally, i think you'd enjoy working in a contact center. Just think of it as the rush that you get after pedalling uphill 2 hours and riding the 15 minute downhill single track.
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Post by wackodacko on Jun 22, 2005 10:49:23 GMT 8
nine inch neils, ditto to that! Your 4 misconceptions are very very true::: 1> It's easy to get in... (lets see.. yes, the radiator mechanic and jollibee cashier are on my list of applicants today...yes im sure they have excellent english skills...  our acceptance rate is about 2%) 2> It's easy to get promoted (yeah, i get lots of applicants clamoring to become a TeamLeader or Ops Manager when they have like 0 to 6 months experience... are you kidding me?) 3>The job is easy (80% of the people during our evaluation period don't make the cut... simply because they cant perform) 4> The bigger the company gets, the less the company cares... (there are some big companies out there with EXCELLENT benefits packages and ethical leaders) |
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Post by stormloader on Jun 22, 2005 22:26:23 GMT 8
hey Neil, Jade!
thanks for debunking certain myths about the call center biz. i have to admit that i used to believe some of 'em. nothin' like a couple of insiders to give you the lowdown hehe
more power sa career mga nyo !
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Post by eiwol on Nov 15, 2005 12:56:49 GMT 8
CALL BOYS... pls post here...
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biotrix
Free Rider
dEiMoNiUm
Posts: 353
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Post by biotrix on Nov 15, 2005 16:43:41 GMT 8
basta ko i'm happy na rin working as a web and graphic designer here in our humble kol centre (VOX OPERA)dito sa valero corporate center bldg...besides philam life tower....musta na mga takuza riders este mga bampira ;D
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Post by goldenboy on Nov 16, 2005 5:17:19 GMT 8
Hi, this is Jesse From Dell Hardware Support. Calling in to follow up your issue if it has been resolved... Jesse Client Logic Dell Tech NTBT (peticks all day) |
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?
The call can't be expedited from sales to tech support, the customer will just be brought back to the regular tech support queue. What the Dell customer needs to do is to buy a Premier Warranty so Eiwol and I can answer the call with no wait time whatsoever! ;D 
our acceptance rate is about 2%)
