Call Center Hub

 
 
 
The following video features the new Call Center King.

Vocabulary

boom	to employ	outsourcing
agent	dispatch	advantage
accent	desirable	challenging (2)
mimic	promotion	acceptable
deliver	in order to	overnight shift
sunset	logistics	accommodate
expand	container	accounting
sector	paralegal	telemarketing
bill (3)	insurance	according to
poverty	patient (2)	minimum wage
afford	call center	pocket (2)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Welcome to a call center in the Philippines — the new global center for outsourcing.

The E-Business Call Center in Cebu is only two years old and takes calls for several Western Companies.

In fact if you call for a taxi cab in Chicago, this agent could be dispatching that call.

As an industry, outsourcing in the Philippines is only about a decade old, employing 700,000 people.

Major corporations like MP Morgan Chase, Century, and IBM have call centers in Cebu.

Business is booming, challenging India as the outsourcing capital.

According to the managing director of Cebu Investment Promotion Center, labor in the Philippines is cheaper than in India.

And Filipinos hold another advantage: they can mimic almost exactly the way Americans speak — without the accent. That’s the first thing that makes us the more acceptable choice.

The call center gives training classes to employees to speak with an American accent.

Another challenge is working overnight shift in order to accommodate business hours in the U.S.

Call center owner Almira Absen works from 11 pm to 8 am every day, and hasn’t seen a sunset in two years.

She even sets her watch to Filipino time and California time.

“They’re in logistics. They make sure the containers are loaded on time.”

The call center has 120 employees, and is expanding in all sectors like accounting, paralegal, telemarketing, and medical insurance outsourcing.

April Jelan is a nurse, but she took a call center job as a billing agent at a call center because it pays more, even at a starting salary of $400 a month.

These jobs are desirable in a country with a 7.4% unemployment, and deep pockets of poverty.

Call center jobs pay three times the minimum wage or more, and has helped many families like April’s have better lives.

April’s husband works at a different call center. Together they have been able to afford a new house, and to send their daughter to a good school.

It’s all really about the money. But at the same time, it’s delivering customer service to patients. It’s just that you are delivering the service from half the globe away.

And the customer may never know the call is being answered in a corner of the Philippines in the middle of the night.

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Questions

1. Are call center operations a big business, a big industry?

2. Call centers only deal with banks and insurance. Is this correct or incorrect?

3. Who is “winning” in the call center outsourcing, India or the Philippines? Why?

4. When are normal working hours of call centers in the Philippines? Why do they operate at night?

5. People who work in call center are all poor and struggling. Is this right or wrong?

6. What might happen if a customer in New York calls for a taxi pick up in New York?

7. What skills are needed to work in a call center?

 

A. I have called a customer service representative. Yes or no?

B. Are there call centers in your country? What business or industry are they part of?

C. Are there increasing or decreasing call center operations in your country or remaining the same?

D. Do you or do you know anyone who works in a call center? What do they say?

E. Would you like to work in a call center as a representative? Why or why not?

F. Is there much outsourcing in your city? Does your country outsource work to other countries, does it receive outsourcing jobs, or both?

G. What are the benefits and drawbacks (advantages and disadvantages) of outsourcing?

H. What will happen in the future?