Dispelling The Misconceptions In The Call Center Business
Zigfred Diaz
After India, the next best destination for business process outsourcing is no doubt the Philippines. All over the country, there are now several call centers and other business process outsourcing ventures that are operating. A quick scan of Philippine newspaper will reveal that more than half of the available jobs are business process outsourcing jobs. Our export sector has exhibited growth due to business brought about by business process outsourcing despite the dwindling dollar. With all these facts in mind, it would seem that putting up a call center seems very lucrative.
Due to this development, we thought of putting up a call center. However as we studied the call center business more extensively, we learned a lot of things that dispelled our misconceptions about call centers. These are as follows:
1.) A Call Center business still follows the traditional business processes - A misconception about putting up a call center business is that it spells instant big bucks in a short period of time. This is definitely not true. While it is true that the demand in the market for call center is so huge, however it does not necessarily translate to instant profits.
A feasibility showed to us that it is only in the second year that the call center will start to profit. During the first year the business has to incur losses or only reach a break even similar to any kind of business where it is not expected that you profit immediately. Sacrifices have to be made within a certain period. You also need to have a good management team just as in any other traditional business. A lot of small time call center operations had declared bancruptcy due to mismanagement. What is most important also is that you have a good Human resource department as this is often referred to as the heart of call center operations.
2.) Intensive Capitalization is required in call center operations - Some people think that putting up a call center requires only a little amount of capitalization. After all you just rent a small space and hook up a bunch of computers together and to the internet. This is grave misconception. Contrary to what most people think, starting call center operations require you to burn money. For example, the dialing software alone cost more than a million pesos. Aside from buying the computers, you have to buy licensed copies of Windows XP. You also need to setup other stuff like your server, ensure a good and stable internet connection and buy the i.p telephones.
3.) Starting a call center requires you to intensively market it - There are those who think that since there is so much demand for call centers if they build it, clients will come. This kind of mentality is what causes other small call center operators to close down. The demand is not just for any "call centers" per se, the big demand is for reputable call centers. This means that you have to project yourself as somebody who can deliver services that their clients wants them to deliver. Since you are new in the call center industry, you will have to work hard to establish yourself as "reputable."
Big names in the industry have no problem establishing themselves as reputable. They easily get clients because they have a name. Small players players still have to prove themselves, so they usually go for the outbound. (By Outbound we are referring to call center agents calling persons abroad trying to sell something or offering a service whereas inbound refers to catering to the needs of already existing clients of big companies who outsource their customer support to call centers.) There is no question that money can be made in outbound calls. However take note that most outbound agreements are performance basis. So if your agents sell a lot of products you make a lot of money, but if they don't then you loose. It may take a while for small players to show the client that they can be trusted with the outbound before clients give them the inbound.
With all these in mind, before you jump into the bandwagon of the business process outsourcing industry especially call center operations, think before you leap !
Zigfred Diaz may not blog about
http://www.zdiaz.com/ business process outsourcing all the time, but he blogs on business and entrepreneurship from time to time. He also blogs about financial management and
http://www.zdiaz.com/ How to invest in the Philippine stock market.
