BPO Philippines 101

What is BPO?

BPO are initial letters that mean "Business Process Outsourcing". Business Process Outsourcing is where some operations or activities of a business is assigned out to a third-party who handles these activities as a service for a contractual fee. The third party is known as a "service provider". This is usually done to minimize cost of operations in acquiring qualified staff, facilities and equipment, since the service provider supplies these to client companies.

Usual business operations/activities that get outsourced are customer care/support, marketing, research and data entry among others. These functions are categorized as back-office (internal company functions such as finance & accounting, human resources, legal etc.) and front-office (which includes customer related functions, such as billing, marketing & promotions, customer service & support).

BPO is an emerged industry in the Philippines as international companies send back-office and front-office work to service providers based in the country. The Philippines is less expensive when it comes to operational and labor costs. The workforce in the country also is attractive for being competent English speakers who are exposed and accustomed to a Western culture, with a progressive growth in technical and innovative skills.

The Philippines remains to be a top destination for the worldwide business process outsourcing industry, serving client companies in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

BPO Philippines is a dynamic environment for socio-economic progress, being a leading source of employment. In 2010, BPO Philippines provided employment to 640,000 Filipinos nationwide. There are over 800 call centers in 20 key locations, including in Mindanao. Most are located in Metro Manila and Cebu, and in regional areas.


What is a Call Center?

Being the most common BPO service, call centers are where call center agents handle sales, customer service, and technical support calls.

A call center is a facility that receives and transmits a large volume of requests, originally by telephone but these days even through faxes, e-mail and live chat. Many businesses use call centers to interact with customers, to administer product support or provide information for customers inquiries, telemarketing and debt collection.

Calls can be categorized as either 'inbound' or 'outbound'. Inbound calls are made by customers calling in/to the call center, usually requesting for information regarding a product or service, report a malfunction or error, or request for help/assistance. Outbound calls, on the other hand, are made by agents to consumers, for research or surveys regarding service satisfaction but usually for sales purposes (tele-marketing). Most call centers offer both inbound and outbound campaigns for clients.

Call center agents are often organised into a multi-level or multi-tier support system for more efficient handling of calls.

The first level or tier consists of operators, who initially answer calls and provide general information.

If the caller requires more assistance, the call is forwarded to the second tier (in the appropriate department depending on the nature of the call). There are usally three or more tiers. Typically the third tier of support are the highly skilled technical support staff for the product or the manager/supervisor.

Call center companies comprise 80 percent of the BPO Philippines industry.

To know more about promising career opportunities, please check out BPO Jobs Philippines. You can find your future here.