WNS Philippines Call Center

WNS Philippines Inc., in partnership with Advanced Contact Solutions, has established its first delivery center here in the country which is tabbed to solve business challenges for WNS clients particularly in the voice-related sector of the outsourcing business. WNS banks on the Philippines business-friendly climate and its large pool of english-speaking talent pool which replenishes itself with an average of 350,000 college graduates a year.

WNS Philippines is locally headquartered in the Citibank Center building of Makati City while its recruitment and delivery centers are located in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City. Its initial services offers for its clients from this location are proving customer services, billing, credit and credit and collection. Early reports indicate they are now providing customer services from this end of the world for U.K.’s T-Mobile the largest mobile services provider in the U.K.

WNS Global Services Philippines Inc is a subsidiary of WNS from India and is funded 3 of their major stakeholders: WNS Philippines CEO Prabhakar Bisen, WNS Group COO Anup Gupta and WNS CEO for travel and leisure business unit Ambresh Mahajan. They have also cited their intention of acquiring existing local call centers in the near future.

Additional WNS Philippines information

-If you’re looking for employee discussions about WNS check out their Pinoyexchange call center forum.

-To apply at WNS, you can email them your resumes directly at careersph@wnsgs.com

-Recuitment center address is: G/F Superstore Bldg., Times Square St., Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City

-Or call for inquiries:  884 52 01 local 2611

Let’s hear it from the employees of WNS Philippines! 🙂

House Bill No. 6921 For Call Center Agents: A Redundancy

This new proposed bill in Congress for call center agents revitalized my fervor in blogging today as I can’t help but be amused as how its details are so similar to existing labor laws already. I was planning to blog about a different story today but I felt discussing this bill’s flaws presents more urgency.

For those unfamiliar with House Bill No. 6921 or the act ensuring the welfare and protection of business process outsourcing workers and the recognition of their rights as provided for in the labor code of the Philippines. You may click on the link above to read the lengthy speech made by Mr. Raymond Palatino describing “deplorable” conditions in our workplace. Contrastingly enough, the subsequent bill presents no unique substance that can impact our welfare and can be considered academic.

Our BPO labor force is the industry’s most precious asset no doubt. However, we need no special bill to reiterate our basic rights as citizens. We do realize that we are special in some ways but we need no special treatment apart from our counterparts in other industries. We just need to supplement existing laws with creative ideas that will cater to our needs as workers and as citizens. The root of this problem lies within laws’ enforcement and not caused by lack of legislation.

*credit goes to targana.com for the image.

To stress my point about this House bill’s redundancy, let me point out several sections that are already in the Philippine Labor Code.

House Bill no. 6921 Sections 13, 14, 15 and 16 – Regarding regular hours of work, overtime and night differential. This is already stipulated in the labor code of the Philippines Articles 83 to 87.

House Bill no. 6921 Section 18 – About working on holidays. This is already found on LC Book 3 chapter 2 articles 92 to 94.

House Bill no. 6921 Section 8 – Concerning right to self-organization, to engage in collective bargaining agreement and to participate in democratic exercises. This is lengthily discussed in the original Philippines Labor code book 5 chapter 2 articles 248 to 259.

I can go on and on but fact of the matter is any good lawyer can clearly say that provisions in this house proposal are just duplicates of existing laws. As I have said above, the problem lies with awareness of personal rights by workers themselves and enforcement. Based on experience in the past years I’ve worked as a call center agent, supervisor and call center manager, people are rarely aware of our laws concerning labor especially with the details. Additionally, BPO companies that are most likely to break existing laws are small operators.

Because I want this composition to be constructive as well, I will cite some creative suggestions that will have an impact for our fellow BPO workers.I’ll also name areas of the law where we need stricter enforcement in the business process outsourcing industry.

Suggestions:
1. Set aside a day when employees can enjoy a rest day if in case they need to be working on legal holidays. The rest day must be as near as possible to the holiday date so they can enjoy being with their families. Some companies already implement this by using the “skeletal system”.
2. Transparent system of wage computation, disputes and resolution.

Additional suggestions post-writing:
1. Create an audit system for labor compliance of BPO’s – by regular visits of special auditing reps to unsure compliance.
2. Ensure managers and supervisors are updated with the labor code through testing and continuous education.
3. Abolish call center associations’ blacklist of call center applicants.

Enforcement are needed in the following areas.

1. Issues with wages and back pay.
2. Issues with bonds and non-compete clauses.
3. Granting of leaves
4. Rest periods or breaks.
5. Due process in corrective action proceedings.
6. Timely payment, reporting and reflection of SSS, Pag-Ibig and Philhealth contributions.
7. Issues on absences due to medical conditions.
8. Timeliness of regular salaries.
9. Abusive officer conducts.
10. Right to be employed without prejudice among call center association members.

As you may see, there are more enforcement issues than loopholes in our laws concerning BPO workers’ rights. As our numbers grow in the future, people that are able to raise issues for our benefit need to be in tune with our needs instead of acting only upon unsubstantiated reports. We need creative ideas and stricter enforcement, not restatement of the obvious.

We Need A Call Center Agent Party List in the Philippines

An anti-call center congressional privilege speech made me realize our call center agents in the Philippines need representation in Congress more than ever. There’s no better time to elect representatives to our government’s law-making body than now as our ranks continue to grow exponentially.

When I first heard about a call center agent party list group trying to get COMELEC approval for the 2010 elections, I scoffed at the idea because I saw no point in it. I considered call center work as privileged because it is exclusive to those who can pass stringent tests and keep up with the grind to be able to survive in it. Compensation is rewarding for those who have the personality and diligence. Certainly with such lofty status in our society, we won’t need any legislative help from our government. However, today I changed my mind after reading this anti-call center speech by Rep. Raymond Palatino from the Kabataan Partylist group website. It opened my eyes how other sectors of our society treat our vocation with such indignity and relegating our work as second-class. As call center employees, we are the ones who power this multi-billion dollar industry. Even call center companies and our government would certainly agree to that statement. And by God, we should never let others marginalize us by treating our work as undignified.

The good party list rep’s speech was full of stories about our work and how ghastly our situation inside our companies have been. However, truth of the matter is I didn’t find anything inhuman about the type of work we do as he has pointed out. In my comment (pending approval) at the blog post, I indicated that while our situation is not perfect, the work we do is not meant for everyone and the demands of our type of work is no different from our counterparts elsewhere around the world.

It can also be noted that the speech delivered way back August 17 was lengthy and curiously detailed, it did not present a sentence of solution or at least an idea how Congress can act for the improvement of our call center employees. I think everyone would agree that such privilege to speak in front of our law-makers should at least contain something they can work on and NOT just implore our lower house to act. Sadly, its just how things are around Congress. Even demi-congressmen are imbeciles who are left to deliver non-sense without clear and concise solutions.

This is why I felt we as Philippine call center employees need true representation in Congress. Our numbers are in the hundreds of thousands and surely we can meet the 2% of total votes required to secure a seat in Congress next year. COMELEC requires party lists to represent a sector of society that is under-represented and marginalized. I really believe ours is both. If the professional “sabungeros” and gays feel they need to be represented, I’m doubly convicted we need it more. Surely everyone in the call center industry would agree that as our numbers continue to grow, we will definitely need credible persons to raise our concerns through our legislative branch of government.

The Best and Worst Call Centers In the Philippines

Find out which call centers rank best and worst based on employee feedback from the most active call center forum in the Philippines.This observation is purely based on opinions expressed by active members who have first hand experience with call centers mentioned and do not reflect how these companies operate.

Pinoyexchange.com, through the years has enjoyed massive following and participation from call center agents and even prospective call center applicants. Many people visit the forum to get feedback about job openings, call center experiences, call center salaries and such. Simply put, it is one of the most popular meeting places for everyone in the industry. Even call center managers have come to monitor threads concerning their call centers to gain feedback both popular or alarming. It is probably a place that can make or break PR for call centers in the Philippines.

For the past few years, I have also monitored the exchanges in this forum in order to gauge how much appeal do certain call centers have from within their ranks and also from call center applicants. In this light, I have come to observe which are the best and worst in the country.

The worst call center in the Philippines

1. Firstsource – this company is very notorious among forum participants. Their first thread created in the forum was eventually deleted by the admins because it was riddled with atrocious feedback from Firstsource employees themselves ranging from call center mismanagement, serious work ethics problems down to illicit officer relationships. Many have stayed clear away from Firstsource because of these. However, many are also hoping that things have changed in the past year and are now looking for positive feedback.

2. West Contact Services – is probably an all-time “favorite’ amongst forum participants because its lack of hiring process organization, laughable company perks and some bad management feedback. According to participants, West Contact Services experiences one of the highest attrition rates for call centers in the country.

3. One Global Contact Center – another notorious employer according to avid forum members for their unfair business practices concerning wages, clusterf*cked processes and unprofessional officer conducts. The original thread for this call center company was deleted for overwhelmingly bad feedback. The present thread for this call center now is riddled with one warning after another from forum members not to even consider this company.

The best call center in the Philippines

1. Convergys – seems has decent good following and loyalty from present workers and even from former employees. Most feedback rings of good management and pride of their culture. Some ex-employees have even regretted leaving Convergys.

2. Etelecare – The former Etelecare (now Stream Global Services) is also well-loved by people who had first hand experience working for them. Good structured organization, rewarding performance incentives and excellent culture puts Etelecare in the same mold of Convergys. It is, however, saddening for some employees that Etelecare has been recently bought out and they are worried that the culture they’ve tried to preserve may soon die along with the buyout.

3. IBM-Daksh – is well-admired by its employees for its strong processes that support career growth for employees. Run by Indian executives who are big in processes IBM-Daksh provides above average compensation and bonuses to performing employees. You won’t find much forum participants blasting IBM-Daksh for negligent, unfair or worrisome business practices.

The silent-type call center companies

WiPro, WNS and VCustomer – these are relatively new call center companies in the Philippines which haven’t caught much attention among call center agents. It’s either they’ve prevented employees from providing honest feedback through 3rd party channels or most employees have really come to love these three that they don’t bother telling the world about it. Incidentally, these are major Indian BPO’s and 2 among the three have topped recent employee satisfaction surveys in India.

Call Center Agent Salary Survey

Based on personal observations, call center salaries have been skyrocketing in the Philippines. Fueled by competition amongst call center companies themselves as they try to attract as much applicants as possible, entry-level salaries can go as high as 30,000K including bonuses for high skilled-agent requirements and as meager as 12,000 for those typical run-of-the-mill customer service work. We won’t be including sales agents salaries because theirs can fluctuate on a regular basis depending on their performance.

Call centers aren’t shy about broadcasting their high salary offers either. This past month’s call center agent job postings were quiet unbelievable. High remuneration packages plus sign-up bonuses has almost been a common sight in Jobstreet.com as well as other similar job portals.

According to jobstreet.com’s salary reporting tool, a candidate without call center experience normally gets an average of 12,000K. Those with experience between 1-4 years gets 16,000 average. A call center agent with over 5 years experience averages 19,000 pesos. However, these figures were obtained from employers based on their job offers.

With this somewhat call center competition on going to get the best talent possible, the survey question for today is: As a call center agent, how much money would you consider to be a fair call center agent starting salary? Some of you may already have call center experience so in order to get a baseline and for the benefit of people who don’t have a clue how much would be a good starting pay, please answer the survey located on the sidebar here as if you are a fresher or in other words a newbie in the call center industry. Please be as realistic as possible as well.

We are also encouraging you to tell us how much you think you should be getting at your current level. Feel free to write your comments below. The objective of this call center agent salary poll is to gather an employee consensus on salaries instead of employers dictating the prevailing figures.

Refer to the sidebar to answer this simple survey. Thanks! ——————>

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How to apply at Singapore call centers

This is the step-by-step procedure including some tips on what you need, what to expect, the pros and cons of applying/working at Singapore call centers. Does it make sense for you? Decide after reading this post.

Singapore seems to be a very ideal workplace to work as a call center agent. However, it is somehow both easy and hard to accomplish. I know at least two former co-employees already working as call center agents in Singapore and both seem to be enjoying their stay. One got there by applying at an agency here in Manila and the other got recommended by a friend already working in a call center in Singapore. A third one tried recently and she gave me some tips if I ever wanted to do the same. Along with some inquiries I’ve made on my own, here are the steps you need to take if you want to explore this avenue.

1. Get your credentials in order from schools records, employment certificates, background references and passport – make sure you are all set for a possible interview even if you have none at this point. Readiness is always number 1.

2. Prepare to invest some time and a considerable amount of money – Although when flying out to Singapore, you won’t need a visa as a visitor, you would still need to stay a few days to a couple of weeks to accomplish the application process. This means you need a place to stay, money to roam around and food to eat. The cheapest plane ticket via Tiger Airways will cost you roughly 8,000 pesos round trip alone. If you can stay with a kind friend in Singapore then it should cut your expenses down considerably because paying for a temporary place to stay is the most costly of this trip you’re going to make. Singapore is “famous” for its high standard of living. You should keep this in mind. If luck is on your side, a minimum of 2-3 weeks stay should do it and an investment in the range of 30-50K pesos should suffice for it if we are to consider unexpected expenses to factor in.

3. Find a Singaporean recruiter before even going there – This is probably the most important thing to do among these steps and it can reduce your cost to accomplish things around Singapore. However, this may also be the hardest thing to do. A friend told me applicants should find a recruiter first through the internet, ask them if they have openings and pass your resume. Singaporean recruiters usually come back with an interview schedule for you as it is also important for their business to refer qualified applicants. I have one BIG tip for you to find a recruiter from Singapore: Follow me on Twitter here and use it to find Singaporean recruiter members. The 3 weeks ago I found one twitter user who was actively looking for applicants for call center agents positions from anywhere around the world especially Philippines. When you do find one and he/she has been able to successfully schedule you a face-to-face interview, its now your turn to make the trip to Singapore possible. If you’re currently working, find a way to get a really long vacation. If not, this is probably the point in time that you need to decide whether you really want to make this happen and jump on the opportunity or let it pass you.Should you decide to drop everything and hop on a plane to Singapore, proceed to the next step. If not, you’re journey ends here.

4. Get a plane ticket fast and cheap. If you want to save money, go with Tiger Airways. Although you would need to take off in Clark, Pampanga, the plane ticket is considerably cheaper and they have almost daily flights with seats almost always available even on short notice. You would need to book online using a debit or credit card. Sample an itinerary with their website to see how much it would cost you. A good thing to remember here is that you need to pick dates mid-week and dates not surrounding holidays ofcourse. If your recruiter comes back to you with a interview schedule, they usually ask you when are you going to be able to fly to Singapore since they know you’re out of the country, so pick your schedules carefully and plan to arrive in Singapore 1-2 days in advance of your schedule interview so you can get acquainted around the city. Important hings to take along with you: documentary credentials I mentioned above, a few decent combination of semi-formal clothes for the call center interview, passport/extra ID’s, money I mentioned above, and some food if you can to save on money. It is also important you arrange a place to stay before going there so it will be helpful if you have some friends over there who will accommodate you for a few days or at least help you find a cheap place to stay for a couple of weeks at least.

5. Do a little research about the call center you are going to apply to. Studying a little about Singapore culture will also help as they may have different business practices there especially concerning hiring. Brush up on what you know, come to the interview decent and prepared. Readiness physically and emotionally cannot be stressed enough here because you’ve already heavily invested on this trip at this point so try not to bomb it. Don’t stress yourself on the interview either.

6. Actively look for other opportunities to work while you’re in Singapore – Since you’re probably going to stay in Singapore for a considerable amount of time to find out the results of your application, take the initiative and go find work elsewhere. One part of their business district according to a friend, is teeming with call centers so find out where you can roam and find openings.

7. When you do land a call center job in Singapore, it is now time to get a work permit. The company hiring you can advise you on that. You must also consider your stay limitations in Singapore. Don’t overstay and exit properly out the border… temporarily if you need to stay longer. Skipping to Malaysia or Indonesia then re-entering seems to be cheaper than go back to the Philippines.

At this point, if you’ve been successful then congratulations! You’re bound to make big money from now on. Singapore call center agents get paid in the range of SG$1,600 to SG$1,800 plus 300 allowance translating to around 53,000 to 70,000 pesos gross. This is as far as I can go in terms of describing what needs to get done. Cost of living in Singapore is high but it is just up to you to make it work. Singapore is the easiest 1st world country to enter for Filipinos and it only takes about 2 years to be eligible for permanent residence status as far as I know.

Other key things to remember:
1. Singapore business practice imposes companies to only hire foreigners up to 25% of their employee population. So even if you get hired by a Singapore call center, you would still need to go through the process of applying for a work permit where they will assess your company’s eligibility to hire foreign workers.

2. If you get lucky and find a job in a short period of time, kudos to you. However, there’s a big chance you may need to stay longer than 2 weeks as I projected. This is an important consideration when deciding to apply for call center in Singapore.

3. My friend suggests using job portals like monster.com, jobscentral.com, jobsdb at jobstreet.com to look for work in Singapore. However, getting in touch with an actual recruiter cuts your chase short and should get you a scheduled interview faster.

4. Patience is definitely a virtue here and so is determination. Don’t make the jump if you have any inkling of qualms about it. You may possibly lose your current job due to absence. I wasn’t really a big fan in my previous post here about Singapore call centers.but the opportunity to work for more money seems really enticing especially in these times of global financial crisis. You may get demotivated and doubt yourself along the way but really… It’s no guts no glory.

Truth be told, there are many Filipino call center agents who have been successful in getting a job at Singapore call centers. The ways to get there may be different but with all the factors I’ve mentioned above, deciding whether to do it or not is probably going to be your biggest debacle.

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Recommended Call Center Books To Read

Just because no one is teaching you call center basics in your work place doesn’t mean you don’t need to take the initiative and learn by yourself. A sad fact in our call center environment is that almost every conceivable amenity had been thought of like sleeping quarters, lounge room, game rooms and more but I have rarely seen a call center invest on literature for their employees. Making good call center reference books available for people to read while working is a sound investment that can’t potentially return better than the ones I mentioned above. If you’re a person yearning for more knowledge, this list is for you.

Call Center for Dummies is a fun and simple guide to improving call center management and response. This reference book serves as the ideal resource for call center employees. Concentrating on understanding revenue generation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, it helps everyone improve their results and affect their company`s bottom line. Highly recommended for people aspiring management posts, this book also includes new tools and tactics specifically designed for call center managers. It helps put a value on customer relations efforts undertaken in call centers and helps managers implement new strategies for continual improvement of customer service.

The Call Center Handbook is useful tool in teaching and making call center employees understand how a call center works focusing on the technicalities of scheduling, call routing, monitoring systems, customer relationship management systems and more. This call center guide is handy for everyone from agents to managers. Understanding how a call center works from top to bottom is the goal for readers of this ultimate call center reference.

 

The Call Center Training Handbook is a complete guide to learning and development in contact centers. If you’re aspiring to be a call center trainer one day but don’t know where to begin, this is the book for you. This book can also help readers learn the basics of call center training so that they can get through their trainer interview and help them step by step with their lesson plans, modules and classrooms.

Call Center Supervision is the complete, practical guide to managing frontline staff. It is a book designed for anyone that manages or who will manage people in a call center. It is a compilation of over 100 tips and strategies for maximizing the performance of call center. Becoming an effective team leader requires both experience and learning. Reading this book can get supervisors and would-be supervisors a good start on the right path to effective call center leadership.

 

The One Minute Manager – Just because I’ve read this already and it is my all-time favorite book, I’m recommending this to everyone! It is a simple and easy book to read and more like a fictionally based story-telling. You won’t learn anything pertaining calls centers on this book but the teachings and values of how to manage people effectively is going to be the most important take for the readers of this book. It’s been almost 4 years ago since I’ve first read this book but it’s a timeless classic.

More call center books to be featured in the next few posts.

Customer Case Resolution in 5 mouse clicks!

SalesForce’s Service Cloud Technology is shaping up to be the future of customer service. The video below demonstrates how a customer can just hop on to Twitter and get his answers conveniently and how companies can theoretically benefit from this technology.

Salesforce recognizes that this popular micro-blogging network is fast becoming an important new channel for customer service. In their service cloud feature, companies using Salesforce as CRM can watch and monitor like “Big Brother” all Twitter conversations about their products and services. They can either set-up filters within Salesforce to do this and also create a dedicated Twitter account to receive inquiries for the customer.

The key factor in this feature is real-time. Customer cases can theoretically get resolved in a matter of seconds from an inquiry is posted on Twitter. With real-time twitter monitoring, customer service agents can simply look up a tweet, open the case the was automatically generated by the Salesforce system, look up solutions in knowledge base and tweet back the information. All can be done in 5 mouse clicks in a few seconds.

It’s just simply total convenience on both sides. When completely implemented, customers can just opt to use this new channel to get answers to simple inquiries and be rest assured that the company on the other end will be able to provide solutions in real-time and faster than the traditional phone call can do. Companies using Salesforce will benefit from this technology as less phone calls will clogging the lines and they would require less people to man the phones. The biggest benefit for companies with Salesforce Service Cloud is that in the long run they are able to gain customer loyalty as they are able to respond to them quickly and hassle-free.

Celebrating small successes

It’s a Sunday today and I hope everybody’s having a great weekend.Over 2 weeks have past since the big storm came and I hope our call center friends who were affected have gathered themselves up and got their lives back together. There’s so many things to be thankful for in life. Sometimes in our quest to be better or earn more to give our families a better future, we forget to pause, share our time and be thankful for the small successes in life we have achieved and for them being there to share these successes.

Today I wanted to write another interesting post here and spend much of my time improving on this blog. When I started blogging again I realized there’s so much to improve on to make this weblog more useful to you. I also wanted to watch basketball games on TV since my favorite team is playing. I thought it was going to be a “ME” day. My spouse had a different idea. She wanted me and my son to spend the whole day outside; go the cementery, have a bit outside and do groceries. I was going to miss all the things I planned for today. Grudgingly, I went along since we didn’t have much time to spend with other the past few days anyway. We did all the things I mentioned and spent some time in a mini-park having fun with my son too. It turned out much better than I expected! It was a win-win situation for all of us. Even though I wasn’t able to do the stuff I had scheduled, I felt happier now than I would’ve if I just stayed here and stare at my monitor all day. It brings me back to a previous post I just did with a call center operations manager interview. Ms. Viray mentioned time management is a very important part of our lives no matter what we have accomplished in life already. That and celebrating small successes with the ones you love are essential to keep us grounded and sane.

In another topic, while I found time writing this here right now, I’d also like to share with all of you and mention the small achievements our favorite blog has gotten since the start of this month. I have envisioned many great things to come to make it more interesting to visit and engaging for you.

I’d like to thank all of those who have joined our Facebook Fan Page. I presume the reason you joined is because you liked what you have read here and I promise you that things can only get better from here on. So far we have 44 Facebook members and I hope our members share our facebook page with their call center friends to grow our community better. Twitter followers have also been on the rise. Join our call center blogger Twitter page, which has about 156 Twitter followers already, and get the latest on this blog faster. It is currently the most popular way for our readers to get the latest call center news, job openings and more that I occasionally post through this blog. Our blog visitors are also increasing since the start of this month. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of those who have subscribed to this web page and continually visited the site on a regular basis. I promise there will be better stuff to read for you here from here on. I few notable stuff I’ve added are the call center forum for those who have questions for me, a call center map for those looking for directions to reach call center locations and a call center job-posting board for those who are currently in the job market today.

In light of my desire for this blog to become more engaging, I’m also open to suggestions from you on how we can do it. I invite all of you to comment below with your ideas on what you would like to see in this blog and hopefully we can work things out for a win-win situation. Godspeed to all and I hope to hear from you soon! 🙂

To end this week on a happy note, I’d like you to watch this hilarious video I picked up in youtube. No spoilers just have a great big laugh! 🙂

Customer Service 2.0 With SalesForce Service Cloud

Customer Service 2.0 is the most appropriate term I could describe this new call center platform Service cloud delivered by the geeks at Salesforce. After watching the video embedded below, I felt like a dinosaur already. I can’t believe the video has only got over a thousand hits! It’s eight minutes long but well worth your time to watch how our call centers will be driven in the near future.

The service cloud platform provides the ultimate convenience in customer management for all parties involved: the company, the call center, call center agent users and ofcourse the customer. For the agents, it is a one window call center tool that automates everything from answering the incoming call, pulling up customer information, searching solutions database and identifying opportunities within the call. For the call center management, it streamlines call processes and enhances customer experience. For the client company, it facilitates collaborative connection with their customers across all possible mediums; customer self-service and the social web.

The video below simplifies and enlightens us all on how this call center cloud computing technology will imminently be the wave of the future for call centers in the Philippines.