The Philippines has become the call-center capital of the world

[RiverLover]

The Philippines has become the call-center capital of the world
2/1/15

More than 1 million Filipinos now work at call centers and in related outsourcing businesses, mostly serving American companies.

The combination of cheap labor and specialized skills has made the Filipino workforce invaluable to a growing list of U.S. companies, which use them to field customer complaints, generate sales leads, code data, format documents and read medical scans and legal briefs.

...The English spoken by Filipinos is closer to Americans' than in India. "Our culture is very similar," said Fred Chua, a lifelong Manila resident who runs a call center. A cousin in San Francisco drums up business for the company, Magellan Solutions. "We don't yell on the phone often. We're very customer-centric," Chua said.

That helps explain why the country has become America's top overseas site for voice-related work in business outsourcing.

Corporations such as Citibank, Safeway, Chevron and Aetna all have BPO operations here, as do smaller companies ranging from a Georgia medical collection agency to a New York spa operator that outsources its customer appointments.

The outsourcing boom has helped propel the country's economy, once a laggard of Asia, into one of the region's fastest-growing. The industry has spawned bustling business districts in Manila, with skyscrapers, 24-hour buffets and condos that sell for $500,000....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-philippines-economy-20150202-story.html#page=1

Maybe if our party & the other guys really care about American workers, they'll make some laws that bring these jobs back home. Pay CEOs a little less, and customer service reps a little more.

I think we could find some Americans who won't get angry & yell at people on the phone. Especially if they can afford to live.

[hollysmom]

1. Now mind you I have several friends with family there

But, they are concerned about the flooding of the islands and the increasing strengths of storms. The Phillipines have been through some rough times in the last few years.

I do know they have a lot of programmers traveling the world as consultants, I worked with quite a few and found them far better than the usual H1B visa programmers.

edited to add disclaimer - I have worked with people from England, Sweden, USSR (back then) Ireland, Holland, India and Kenya, in that order, It was not meant to insult any one group and that opinion is just in my limited professional scope of working with consultants. I have just found the people from the Phillipines to be over qualified for their jobs. This does not mean this is true for anyone else. The friends I have with relatives in the Phillipines are from social friendships, not professional.