Customer experience is arguably the most important area of your business, particularly in this modern era of social media. Poor service can quickly go viral and can ruin your reputation before your business has even begun. To avoid this from happening, an ever-increasing number of Australian businesses are outsourcing their call centre services to the Philippines.

“Over the last decade, consumer demands have increased massively thanks to the incredible rise of technology. With smartphones, we are now able to communicate with anyone in the world as we wish or find out anything we want with just a few taps of the screen. This has created a culture of instant gratification and now customers demand a 24/7 service from businesses; as a company you are expected to bend to your customers’ requirements and be available to communicate with them across a multitude of channels,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning call centre in the Philippines.

This means needing to monitor emails, social media, web chats, telephones and much more – placing a significant amount of pressure on your company to continue to meet the growing demands of your customers. This also means a large financial investment is required in order to meet the 24-hour-a-day requirements and growing multi-channel communication needs.

That is why call centre services outsourcing to the Philippines has become the go-to solution for many businesses, particularly in Australia. Nowadays, companies of all shapes and sizes are able to benefit from outsourcing their call centre requirements; allowing them to meet the demands of their customers and reduce their costs.

The primary benefit of outsourcing to the Philippines is that it immediately saves the vast sum of money required to establish your own in-house call centre. Businesses do not need to find the capital to purchase or rent premises, invest in call centre technologies or hire and train staff. An outsourced call centre will already have all of this established and typically manage multiple clients from the same facility, helping to reduce costs even further.

Of course, the outsourcing of call centres to the Philippines does not just provide you with a financial benefit. By using an experienced call centre provider, you will be able to tap into their vast knowledge to enhance the customer experience. You will also be able to take advantage of their highly experienced call centre managers and agents, who are often trained to specialise in certain sectors and industries and can provide your customers with the expert service they deserve.

One of the biggest benefits, however, is that it ensures the customer care side of your business is running as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. Third-party call centres in the Philippines are able to capture and analyse huge amounts of data so you can work out not only which days, months or seasons of the year are the busiest but also understand the most common problems or most active promotions that you might be running. This allows you to predict and prepare for how your customers will be reacting, but not only that; by using an outsourced call centre rather than managing your own, you will always have the exact number of agents needed to answer the incoming calls.

That scalability and flexibility mean you will never have agents sitting idle during quieter periods or increase customer waiting time during the busier periods. You can scale up, or scale down, the number of agents as required, ensuring your service levels remain the same and helping to keep your customer satisfaction levels high.

Call centre services in the Philippines

The Philippines is the world’s call centre outsourcing leader, with over 800 contact centres currently in action, employing an incredible 1.2 million Filipinos. Steadily building over the past two decades, the call centre outsourcing industry in the Philippines is now generating almost 70% of the Philippine call centre outsourcing industry’s A$35 billion annual revenue.

Why are the Philippines becoming so popular for Australian businesses looking for call centre services? “Well, firstly the country has a close cultural affinity with the West, meaning that Filipino agents do not only speak fluent English, but they also understand the needs of Australian customers,” says Ellspermann.

Alongside that, incredibly low-labour costs coupled with a large pool of highly qualified and experienced contact centre employees makes finding the perfect talent very easy. The Philippines also features world-class infrastructure, meaning businesses are able to take advantage of the most up-to-date call centre outsourcing technology. This ensures that end-users are always receiving fast responses and great customer service in their own language.

Call centre outsourcing can have a negative association when it comes to certain business leaders, but just like anything in the world, you have to choose the right provider as quality and performance levels can vary massively. Just like a T-shirt that costs A$5 would not be as good quality or last as long as one that costs A$25, a low-cost call centre outsourcing provider will not give your customers the same customer experience as an industry-leading provider.

In order to maximise the service levels you provide to your customers, you need to utilise the talents of an experienced and premium provider. While premium offshore providers in Manila might charge slightly higher rates than low-level outsourcers, your customers will receive a significantly better service that is not only on par with onshore providers but actually surpasses it. By investing a little more, you will be able to enjoy the very best talent, processes and technologies.

While you might be paying a little extra for a premium provider compared to a budget one, this still works out significantly cheaper than maintaining an onshore call centre. By using the right outsourcing provider, you will be able to enjoy savings of up to 60% compared to keeping it based in Australia. These savings can then be used to increase support staff and hours in a more cost-efficient manner.

When all of this is combined, it ensures your customers are able to receive even greater customer service; enhancing their experience with your business. As the saying goes, a happy customer is a repeat customer; so as we enter a new decade, outsourcing your call centre could revolutionise your business and help you flourish.

Choosing the right provider is crucial to that success though. PITON-Global is the mid-market leader, providing world-class call centre services from the Philippines to businesses around the world. For over two decades, the award-winning call centre outsourcing provider has helped dozens of Australia-based businesses in the e-commerce, fintech, utilities, social media, and on-demand industries to acquire, manage and retain their most valuable asset: customers.