I'll try and keep this pithy.Call Centers have been a great help here in the Philippines. It has provided jobs and opportunities to filipinos everywhere. The number one qualification is that one has to communicate very well in English. And we are very well qualified in that field. Big PC giant Dell has announced plans to set up a major call center here.
This boom has even affected other industries like fast food joints. Recently, Philippine burger giant, Jollibee, has started 24 hour operations to accomodate those early morning Philippine Call Center employees.
But when will the bubble burst? India, one of the top call center providers have moved on to other outsourced services like animation, financial and accounting analysis and even computer programming. It's a no brainer that one day, technology will be introduced that will make call centers obsolete. I remember in the early 1990s when computer encoding was a big thing (I used to work as an encoder) but with the advancement in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, that industry went by the wayside.
We should focus now at the long term and use the attention we're getting with our call centers to move on to other services like what India is doing. But in what field? I don't know, I'm just an average joe, but those smart guys in those swanky offices should at least be burning some gray matter to think of something. We have a tendency to just stick to the tried and true. We are just milking the call center phenomenon for what it's worth without thinking of the future. For us to be at the forefront, we should be at least one step ahead or alongside the others.
And honestly, I don't think our government can truly be of assistance. It's up to the private sector to have the common sense, the vision, and the drive to move forward.
ADDITIONAL:
Tim Stay of Call Center Script.Com expands on the topic. He says it more clearly than I could. Thanks Tim.
