PH Contact Centers Remain at the Helm of Customer Experience Delivery of the Future

PH Contact Centers Remain at the Helm of Customer Experience Delivery of the Future

The local contact center sector is rapidly evolving to match changing requirements from customers.

The rapid evolution of the local contact center sector is arming it with the necessary requirements to deliver customer experience in the future. Contact center companies in the country are exhibiting high level of readiness to take on more challenging tasks that require higher level of skills for both voice and non-voice jobs.

Currently, the Philippines is the biggest source of contact center services, expected to take 16% to 18% of the total outsourced services globally in 2018, based on data from The Everest Group, a Texas-based global consulting and research firm. The country remains ahead of its nearest competitor in this market—India. The data also indicates that the Philippine contact center sector generated US$13 billion in 2017, which will continue to grow by 7% to 9% by the end of 2018.

In Cebu City, one of the most supportive local government units (LGUs) to the sector, the city government is aiming to add at least 50,000 agents to its current roster of call center professionals, a move that is estimated to increase revenue infusion into the city to P10 billion monthly from the current P7 billion monthly from its over 100,000 agents.

Mr. Jojo Uligan - CCAP President
Mr. Butch Valenzuela - CCAP Board of Director
Mr. Bong Borja - CCAP Board of Director ​

To achieve its goal, the city is asking call center firms to let their agents continue pursuing further career development by allowing them to resume schooling for a college or master’s degree while working. This move, the city government says, can also be at the advantage of the sector, which could promote further upgrade in skills and education of their employees.

Meanwhile, in its 2017 assessment of the industry, The Everest Group cited good language skills and high empathy of the local agents coupled with competitive costs for the country’s maintained strength in contact center value proposition. The research company added that cultural affinity to Western countries and government incentives like tax discounts and talent development programs also contribute to the local industry’s continuous growth.

The same study also emphasized that while contact center jobs are still supporting voice-related services, a rising number of tasks involve non-voice channels as well. This shift to non-voice is playing a significant role in the evolution of jobs within the industry.

Voice is still a strong service

A research by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines’ (CCAP), the Job Complexity Survey, indicates that voice service is still a key service offering with about half employees doing voice accounts and the other half non-voice services.


The survey also gives a quick glimpse on the ongoing shift in contact centers’ business models and evolution of agents’ jobs, as reflected in the nature of current job tasks. Of those agents who are doing voice jobs, only 14% are engaged in low-skill tasks. Such traditional voice-job responsibilities include telemarketing, order taking, and provision of simple customer service assistance.

New skill requirements

Those engaged in jobs requiring middle-level skills comprises of 51% of the respondents. Their job tasks range from providing solutions to customers’ problems, processing health claims, domain process assisting, providing technical support, bills collections, and outbound selling.

High-level skill jobs are being done by 35% of the respondents. Some of the tasks they do are decision making for troubled projects and accounts, providing technical support, complex claims processing, technology service desk works, and financial analysis, among others.

These and more insights will be put on further focus in the upcoming Contact Islands 2018, with the theme ‘Leading with CX in a Digital World.’ The two-day annual conference is set on July 25 and 26, 2018 at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu. To register, visit www.ccap.ph. -

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