Call Centre Outsourcers in the Philippines (BPOs)

Outsourcing customer service work to call centre outsourcers in the Philippines is a popular choice for many Australian businesses due to the significant cost savings and other benefits, such as comparable time zones (just 3 hours difference) and English as a native language (over 90% of Filipinos speak English).

The Philippines call centres also have a large number of college graduates, many of whom are trained in the IT and business sectors, providing a highly skilled workforce. 

The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and call centre industry in the Philippines is well supported by the government, and now generates over $30b in revenue, and over 1.5 million Filipinos work in call centres. There are over 780 estimated call centres in the Philippines that provide services such as customer relations, customer service, technical support, and sales, as well as back-office functions like HR, accounting, and more. 

The Philippines BPO industry is so big that the two top private employers in the country are both BPOs, collectively employing over 120,000 people! Australia is second only to the USA in terms of the BPO market in the Philippines, and Australian work is a popular choice for locals given the time zones (as USA support requires working night shifts). 

Hundreds of Australian businesses already outsource their call centre and customer support functions to the Philippines, with many now having 100% of their operations offshore. But it's not always an all-or-nothing approach.

Some businesses opt to have their lower-value calls handled in the Philippines, while their higher-value calls are still handled in Australia. 

Ultimately, what's right for your business will depend on your corporate and customer experience strategy. 

The fluctuating $AUD should be factored into your modelling as most call centre outsourcers in the Philippines are paid using $USD.

COVID did provide some challenges for the call centre industry in the Philippines. Many centres were unable to transition to a work-from-home model, which left many Australian businesses suddenly without phone support. Therefore, ensuring you have a robust business continuity plan should be an important consideration. 

Benefits of Using a Philippines Business Processing Outsourcer (BPO) from Australia:

• Lower costs - the primary reason Australian businesses send their call centre work offshore to the Philippines is to save costs with savings typically between 40% and 70%
• Extended hours - By using a lower-cost workforce you can afford to open your centre 24/7 or at least longer hours than what would be affordable in Australia.
• Better service - With the lower costs businesses can afford to employ more call centre staff resulting in shorter wait times for their customers. 
• Business Continuity - Having another site for your contact centre operations whether onshore or offshore provides better business continuity in case of emergencies or power outages, staff sicknesses etc. 
• Reduced HR effort - BPOs are typically responsible for hiring, managing and paying staff making it much easier for you to manage (you can be involved as little or as much as you like)  
• Scalability - BPOs in the Philippines are used to hiring candidates, so when you need staff, they can be available quickly. And like all BPOs, you can scale up and down as you need with a lot fewer headaches, enabling you to manage peaks and troughs in your business. 

How to Choose a Philippines Call Centre Outsourcer

There are a number of call centre outsourcers in the Philippines that provide customer management solutions for Australian businesses. Some specialise in B2B or B2C, some are customer service specialists, sales specialists or focus on particular sectors like finance, banking, retail etc.

With call centre outsourcers in the Philippines, in particular, experience dealing with Australian customers can provide some advantages (e.g., reduced training costs, improved customer experience, etc.). Then you have to factor in business sustainability, retention rates, reputation, etc., as all of these factors can contribute to the success of an offshoring venture. 

Other factors you might want to consider include:

• Scalability - Some providers are happy to provide solutions from just one call centre agent and others aren't interested in the smaller volumes (e.g. under 20 agents) - it's important to get the right fit. 
• Reputation - Do you select someone with an established reputation and pay a little more or opt for a new starter hungry for your business?
• Turnover - What is the focus on employee engagement, how much are agents being paid compared to others, how easy is it for agents to get to work? Many call centres in the Philippines have a high turnover which leads to increased costs in training and recruitment and potentially lower quality. 
• Operations - How is their centre being run, what is training and induction like, how is performance measured, what are the facilities like?
• Technology - Do they have the latest technology that can help drive efficiencies and improve the customer experience?
• Reporting - What type of reporting can you expect? How often?
• Documentation - You'll have to provide process documentation/flows to get the Philippines call centre outsourcer up and running. If you've already got it - great. If not, you'll need to allow some time to develop it (the outsourcer can also help with this process)
• Currency - Some BPOs will quote and invoice in USD and others in AUD - make sure you know which one as it can make a big difference! 
• Accessibility - Either you or members of your team will most likely be regular visitors so the proximity to the airport etc can have a big influence on costs and time - traffic in Manila is usually horrendous and travelling 10km can literally take hours. 
• Commercials - What type of commercial model do they use - per hour rate, per outcome or transaction etc.

There are also local nuances to consider in the Philippines with different regions like Metro Manila, Makati, Ortigas, BGC, Eastwood and more in Manila to different cities and islands including Cebu, Antipolo, Bacolod, Davao and Baguio all offering different pros and cons. Manila-based centres tend to be a fraction more expensive. 

Read our free Guide to Contact Centre Outsourcing in the Philippines, which contains helpful tips, pricing and FAQs.

If you have some experience in call centres, you may want to simply contact the outsourcers below that have the specific skills you are searching for (use the search tags to narrow the results) or you can try our free CX Connect service that will recommend outsourcers based on your requirements saving you time, frustration and money.

List of BPOs & Call Centre Outsourcers in the Philippines

Reach out to the BPOs in the Philippines below or click on a search tag to narrow the results to specialist skills.

If you need support with back-office functions like accounting, data entry, finance, and accounts, look for back-office outsourcers in the Philippines.