Why I have Stayed in The Call Center Industry for 10 Years

WHY I HAVE STAYED IN THE CALL CENTER INDUSTRY FOR 10 YEARS

By Jethsel M. Allego

While many of you think that working in the Call Center /BPO Industry is your last option – yeah, when other “known” industry has rejected you because of lack of experience, training, knowledge,  skills or what have you’s – then you have “our” industry as a resort.

Never that you have realized that being in this industry would require you a lot of skills,  not just good oral communications, to pass all the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or Metrics set by the management.

Your work here is just simple – follow your schedule shift and break hours on time, ensure you provide the most accurate information or resolution to your callers/customers, and if needed, provide additional products and services that they can take advantage of.

And for you who have been in the industry, yeah, it is simple and you know that meeting all these requirements would entail a lot of dedication, passion and hard work. Balancing your AHT, CSAT, FCR and Schedule Compliance¹, similar to how you were managing your subjects in school, would need to study and learn, focus, discipline and practice.

MY PARENTS DON’T LIKE ME WORKING HERE

I also have my share of experience when my family didn’t agree with me when I was starting my career 10 years ago. Every day, my father’s voice was echoing in my ear, “Taga-UP ka pa naman! Sayang ang pinag-aralan mo!” (You’re from UP! You’re just wasting your degree!); and would make me feel bad. But that didn’t stop me from pursuing this industry.  I am forever grateful with my College friend – Vida Curray – Panopio for referring me to work in this industry.

10 years ago, I asked my mom to accompany me in Eastwood. I didn’t know where it is and she works in the area so I thought it would behoove me if I ask her to send me there, and so she did. After a long day process of interview and all the series of exams on listening, reading and IQ, they have announced that only 30 passed out of 1000 applicants. It was truly a “wow” moment for me when I found out I belong to the Top 3%. So I started training for a US financial account in one of the oldest company of this industry, and the rest was history.

My parents didn’t stop from asking when will use my profession as a Broadcast – Journalist. I didn’t answer, I wasn’t sure too but all I knew was that I had that vision that it was going to be great, and it is.

An article was written in Philippine Star in August 2013 by Roberto R. Romulo about The economic footprint of BPO industry. He mentioned about the changes in the industry and how it have grown. And surely, there's no reason you can not be proud of what this industry have accomplished so far.

"In 10 years, there has been an exponential growth of this sector, making it one of the chief economic drivers in this country, currently employing 770,000 people with total revenue expected to reach $16 billion. Today, the Philippines is the world’s leading call center destination, beating out India, while Manila was just named the world’s 3rd top BPO destination, according to a Tholons 2013 Survey1. 

The BPO industry’s contribution to this country’s economy cannot be compromised, as the figures below are quite staggering:

- Php 232.7 billion in VAT contribution for food purchases

- Php 73.7 billion in housing rental

- Php 45.4 billion in public transportation and mobile communications costs

- Php 22.5 billion in clothing costs

- Php 80 billion in savings/investments

- Php110 billion in taxes that could go to cover public services equivalent to 300,000 classrooms and 3.2 million families receiving maximum Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) for a year.”²

'Nuff said.

WHAT I LEARNED IN THE LAST 10 YEARS

These are just 3 of the many things I have learned.

1.       Confidence and believing in yourself that you can do it and you can help. More than the communication skills that you can acquire, your confidence on what you can do, how you can improve and how you can help your customers and other people is priceless.

2.       The sheer tenacity to deliver. You have to have be inspired and motivated not just to take all those calls but to achieve all your goals. Self-discipline, determination, single-mindedness, personal resilience and time management are the characteristics which will make you stand out in this industry.

3.       Vision and broader horizons. If you think of a call centre job as being ‘stuck in a building on a business park’ you are looking at it all wrong. Those telephone lines bring in people from all walks of life and (since most of the accounts are inbound) the customer is calling YOU to ask for help.

When you walk out of that business park at the end of a shift knowing you helped people, learned life skills, got paid and had fun? Well, it sounds like a good deal to me.

And it doesn’t stop there, you can see a lot of positions available in the industry that you can move up to – you can either be like your Team Leader managing you, your Quality Analyst listening to you calls, your Process, Culture, Communications Trainer prepping you up, your Workforce Management Team letting you know how many calls you are expecting for the day, or become like your bosses’ bosses’ boss in the future.

¹AHT is Average Handle Time, CSAT is Customer Satisfaction, FCR is First Call Resolution and Schedule Compliance is when you follow the schedule when you are supposed to log out for your break or pull out.

² http://www.philstar.com/business/2013/08/21/1113281/economic-footprint-bpo-industry

   http://www.philstar.com/business/2013/08/22/1116691/it-bpo-industry-part-ii