Posted on 06/10/2022 4:32:51 AM PDT by FarCenter
MANILA -- The Philippines' largest call center has opted to forego tax incentives to continue its work-from-home scheme, the country's finance department said on Friday.
The move by California-based Concentrix, which has 100,000 employees in the Philippines, underlines the ongoing shift in the workplace amid the coronavirus pandemic and the hard choices some companies face in the transition from at-home to on-site work.
In the Philippines, business process outsourcing companies are lobbying for a permanent policy on hybrid work. Many BPO companies, whose tax perks are tied with operating on-site, are allowed to have 30% of staff work remotely until Sept. 12. The policy is a reprieve from an earlier order that they must return to full on-site operations by April to help reinvigorate the economy and continue enjoying incentives.
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The industry, which includes non-voice services such as software support and animation, is regarded as a pillar of the economy. It recorded $29.5 billion in revenue in 2021, up 10.6%, the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines said on Wednesday.
The industry ended the year with 1.44 million workers, up by 9.1%, or 120,000 new jobs, the IBPAP said, beating revenue and hiring forecasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at asia.nikkei.com ...
I called the Mars candy company several months ago. Got a call center in the Philippines
I’ve made several calls for Verizon or computer support, and you can hear chickens in the room. One call had a rooster crowing in the background. Children, pots and pans getting washed, what a trip.
On one call a woman obviously had chickens in the room, and she laboriously worked me through all the steps I’d already tried. Finally, she transferred me to someone on the next level, probably in India. You could hear other call center workers around him. I started describing the problem and he stopped me and said, “The old phone is still turned on. Turn it off and problem solved.” So, over an hour with the woman in the Philippines who knew less than me before it went to the next level, and he solved it instantly. Literally, less than a minute total.
Lots of call centers here.
A lot of people who are still working remotely will find that their jobs can be done far more remotely.
We can only assume just where...
“I’ve made several calls for Verizon or computer support, and you can hear chickens in the room”
***
ME TOO! I clearly heard the damn rooster at the back when I called a year ago. This was with Chase, and I was trying to get them to reverse a charge. I mentioned to the rep and he just laughed it off. Because it was a business card, i felt more comfortable going into the bank than asking some clown in a third world country, with damn chickens flying all over, when i had sensitive information to give..
They are all over. I knew one who worked in a center, in Lipa. There was a center at NCCC mall, 4th floor, in Davao. On Dec 23rd, 2017, the mall burned down, and 37 call center people were killed. There are other call centers in Davao, and a whole bunch in Manila. I have heard, that the centers in India are more knowledgeable. I don’t know if that is true. It’s just what I hear.
The offshoring of customer service nightmare is not only for retail customers.
I own a promotional products distributorship and one of the companies whose products I sell is BIC. Their first level customer service is all in the Philippines now and it is a complete and utter joke. They used to have top notch customer service when I had any wrinkles in an order. Now if I have any issues with an order and I call customer service I get a boilerplate response and nothing else.
I worked at Earthlink before leaving in 2003. They moved all their call centers to India and the Philippines and Jamaica man. My last company tried India but did not work out. Now half the Help Desk is in Poland. The IT dept is now run by 4 people from India.
#3 I had a woman with a pet rooster in the background who called in last year!
OK...
“Here” meant The Philippines.
Yes, the Philippines. 😀
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