The document provides an overview of call center operations in the Philippines. It discusses the business process outsourcing model and types of BPO services. It describes the hiring process, training program, production floor environment, qualifications for employee regularization, key performance metrics used in the industry like average handling time and customer satisfaction, and the importance of meeting service level agreements. The presentation aims to present a general understanding of how call centers function based on quality and metrics.

1. CALL CENTER LIFE 101
Presented By: Sharlene Gomez
The 13th Human Rights Forum
"Protection of the Rights of Call Center Workers"
29 August 2012
Crown Plaza Hotel, Ortigas Center, Pasig City

2. CALL CENTER LIFE 101
The Business Process

3. Objective
To present an
overview of Call
Center operations
in the Philippines
scenario.

4. Presentation Agenda
• Introduction to the Business
• Hiring, Training & the Production Floor
• Qualifications for Regularization
• Metrics Used in the Industry
• Summary
• Key Principles to Remember

5. Introduction to the Business
What is Business Process
Outsourcing?
Outsourcing is a system where an organization
can sub-contract certain areas of work or
processes to a specialist third party organization.
‘off-shoring’
outside the country or market unit

6. Introduction to the Business
Vertical and Horizontal Outsourcing
XYZ CORPORATION
SALES DEPT.
HR DEPT.
Market
Research
Candidate
Search
Encoding
Sales Call
Interview
Warehousing
Delivery
Testing
Technical
Invoicing
Initial
Selection
Entitlement
WARRANTY DEPT.

7. Introduction to the Business
BPO Types
Administrative
• Document Management
• Data Entry
• Data Transcription
Sales
• Outbound Sales (telemarketing)
• Inbound Sales (up selling)
Customer Support
• Customer Service (after sales)
• IT Helpdesk
• Directory Assistance
Technical Services
• Data Conversion
• Database Maintenance
• “Cloud” Technology

8. Introduction to the Business
Call Center
A company that has a capacity for handling large
amounts of inbound and outbound telephone calls.
‘call centric’
‘voice’
‘call volume’
Note:
In the Philippine scenario a “call center” is becoming a generic term for
any outsourced function.
For example, customer service is not limited to “voice”. Customer
contact can also come in the form of voice mail, email and chat.

9. The Hiring Process
Who determines the
qualifications of the candidate?
• Client (based on function competency)
• Call Center HR
• Call Center Implementations (for start-up accounts,
projects, or campaigns)
• Operations (live account, project or campaign)
• Training Personnel (centralized or account based)

10. The Hiring Process
Requirement:
Good
communication
skills – spoken
and written
Search
1,000
Qualified
800
Long list
500
Multi-tasking
skills
Initial Interview
300
Written Test
150
Active listening
Skill Test
100
Office skills –
typing, email,
spreadsheet
Second Interview
75
Phone Simulation
50
Job Offer
30
Note:
Most companies have 4 to 6 rounds of interviews and/or testing.
Only 3%-6% of the applicants gets the job.
A ramp-up is sometimes called a “batch” or “wave”.

11. The Training Process
Who determines the training
program?
• Client (based on process)
• Call Center HR (optional)
• Call Center Implementations (timeline)
• Operations (process, timeline and cost)
• Training Personnel (method and qualifier)

12. The Training Process
Basic Skills Training:
•Culture Immersion
•Soft Skills
•Behavior Modification
Who?
Evaluatio
n
Product Training:
•Process & Procedure
•Tools
•Product Knowledge
Why?
Training
Needs
Analysis
Basic
Skills and
Product
Training
Program
Delivery
Program
Design
How?
What?

13. The Production Floor
What is the production floor?
The area where the actual work is done.
IT
Security
y
Qualit
ms
Syste
The
Floor
Equ
ip
men
t
Syste
ms
Opera
Mana tions
geme
nt
ony
eph
Tel
Man
pow
er
Wo
Ma rkfo
nag rce
em
ent

14. The Production Floor
Telephony, Systems IT & Equipment
TFN
Web Application
(Remote Desktop)
DID
Servers
ACD
Desktop
The Floor
The Floor

15. The Production Floor
Security
The call center industry is a business of trust and
integrity. It protects the interest of the client.
Security measures on the floor:
• No mobile phones.
• No cameras or picture taking.
• No handwritten notes are taken out of the floor.
• No ID No Entry policy.
• CCTV or security camera.
• Bag search going in or out of the premises.
• Random drug testing.

16. The Production Floor
Workforce and Manpower
Workforce deals with the real-time monitoring,
statistical reporting, statistical analysis and
manpower scheduling. They are responsible for
maintaining contractual obligations of the call
center.
Manpower is the headcount needed for a
particular time during operations. This varies
according to forecast volume and time of day.

17. The Production Floor
Operations Management
Operations management takes care of the daily
productions and communicate the overall
performance of the call center to the client based on
agreed upon metrics or KPI’s.
Operations evaluates overall results and implements
measure to improve or maintain them.

18. The Production Floor
Operations Management
Typical Hierarchy
Operations Manager
LOB
LOB
Team Leaders
10-20 agents
Note:
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
Team Leaders
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
10-20 agents
The structure may vary depending on the call center or the client.

19. The Production Floor
Quality Systems
Quality Assurance (QA) monitor individual
agent performance by auditing the calls and
scoring according to attributes or qualifiers.
2 Phases
• accuracy for adherence to procedure
• handling for communication skills.

20. The Production Floor
Quality Systems
Types of QA Monitoring:
• Random Call Retrieval
• Real Time Barging (listening in) on a Call
• Calibration (with Ops and/or with Client, may
or may not be real time)
• Side by Side (real time)

21. Qualifications for Regularization
What is the process for
regularization?
Performance evaluation based on call statistics, QA
scores and behavioral metrics.
Note:
Terms of employment vary.
• Per project
• On-the-job training (certification or quota)
• Performance issues and re-training
• Project reassignment

22. Metrics Used in the Industry
“Customer-companies tend to demand better
results from outsourcing partners than what
they could actually expect from their own
departments.
When the job is being done 10,000 miles away,
demands on parameters such as quality, turn
around timeliness, information security,
business continuity and disaster recovery, etc,
are far higher than at home. So, how to be
more efficient than the original?”
Source: http://www.technicalathma.com/2009/09/different-types-of-services-being-offered-by-bpos/

23. Metrics Used in the Industry
“Out sourced call centers, utilities and some
government mandated call centers have SLA’s that
they must achieve and maintain throughout the day.
If the SLA’s are not met fines, charge backs and lost
revenue will occur. Keeping these SLA’s top of mind
with the agents is paramount.”
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/onstage/kpi-and-metrics-for-the-call-center-agent

24. Metrics Used in the Industry
Well managed call centers monitor
and analyze their SLA’s real-time.
Operations meetings, team huddles
and individual coaching for agents
are important to attain the desired
results.

25. Metrics Used in the Industry
Measurements and tools are used.
Call center management are masters of statistical
problem solving techniques.
Knowledge Base:
• techniques for both quantitative and nonquantitative analysis
• team leadership skills

26. Metrics Used in the Industry
Who determines the KPI’s?
KPI’s are contractual obligations. It is the
basis of the client in assessing the
performance of the call center.
“You can't manage what you
don't measure.”

27. Metrics Used in the Industry
What are KPI’s?
It is the measurement of performance
based on agreed goals.
• Account KPI (operations management)
• Team KPI (team leader)
• Individual KPI (agent)

28. Metrics Used in the Industry
What is used to measure the KPI’s?
The most popular tool is the scorecard.
On individual level it is called an agent
scorecard.
Team leads, supervisors and managers
refer to their scorecards as “dashboards”.

29. Metrics Used in the Industry
What is the scorecard?
The scorecard contains metrics with
specified targets.
Everyone has a certain target set as
expected performance.
Any level of performance below the targets
are unacceptable, and results beyond the
goals is something that exceeds
expectations.

30. Metrics Used in the Industry
The Scorecard
Example of a Management Dashboard

31. Metrics Used in the Industry
The Scorecard

32. 86.00%
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
Metrics Used in the Industry
The Scorecard
Data analysis and trending.
What is the reason for April’s dip in CSAT?
Would you consider this an outlier?
May
J

33. Metrics Used in the Industry
What are the agents KPI’s?
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
• Quality
• Call Statistics
– AHT (Average Handling Time)
– Utilization (aka Occupancy)
• Behavioral Metrics
– Tardiness
– Absenteeism
– Adherence to Company Policy
Note:
The KPI’s may vary depending on the account and the organization.

34. Metrics Used in the Industry
What is Stack Ranking?
It is a ranking of performance scores of
agents per team.
This is used to push the individuals to
perform.
Note:
Not everyone believes in stack ranking because it also has its negative
impact on performance.

35. Metrics Used in the Industry
•Competition within the
team
•Cause stress to out
rank a team mate
•Can lower morale
•The results are
arbitrary
Note:
The usual perk for making the top
tier in a stack rank is called a
“shift bid.”

36. Summary
General idea of
how call centers
operate.

37. Key Principles to Remember:
• The industry is a business of trust and
integrity because it protects the interest
of the client
• It is quality and metric based.
• Our people is the best resource and we
want to keep the industry in the
Philippines.
• As a vision we want to be a benchmark
for the industry standard in Asia.

38. CALL CENTER LIFE 101
Thank you for listening.