⌛ Hello! Business advice needed

Forgot to mention the golden rule for recruiting call centre staff - make sure part of the interview is conducted by phone as that is how your customers will be interacting with them. We use writen application then phone screening, then a workshop to test teamwork which includes an email and typing test and the best candidates get a final interview from the 3 person panel. If you get the right people, you can do anything.

As garbonzo says, they are promoting bacolod as an IT and e-business hub but Dumaguete is a nicer place in my opinion.

 

It just seems like a lot of work just to eventually set up a 50seat center. Is there an economy of scale with just 50 seats to make reasonable profits?
I know that the minimum is 10seat for a call center, but that's for a filipino owner with filipino profit expectations.
Perhaps better to outsource.
You got my negative vote.

 

If they are paying Americans, I assume, at 4 or 5 times the Filipino rate currently, or more...hard to imagine losing money moving it to Negros. Rental costs, last mile connection, licensing, premise modifications... etc.....too easy. I could knock up a business like this with our family/friend contacts in Bacolod in two months without breaking into a sweat.....Loftyone could do it even quicker with his expertise on the operational end. I reckon Bjorn could pull this off...needs to do a recon to get a good grasp of what he needs, where he needs it. Anyway, good luck and hope he brings another successful business to Negros.

 

Folks,

Thank you so much for all the great info. What an excellent forum!

I've booked my ticket to come and check out Dumaguete for a week. I will send some of you private messages.

• Any suggestions for a nice hotel/resort with internet access?
• Anybody have any good contacts when it comes to commercial rental space?

Thanks again,
Bjorn

 

Hotel and internet in Dumaguete

Hi Bjorn

The top of the pop in Dumaguete city is Bethel Guesthouse. I guess you can afford that one, but if you like something cheaper but still nice, I can recommend Coco Grande. A room here is 1100 peso / night.

One thing you might want to check out before you go any further, is the quality of internet connections in Dumaguete. I am afraid they are not the best in the world, and that of course is essential for starting up a callcenter.

I would suggest at least to rent a space inside the area, where you can get a wired broadband connection. The only provider of this at the moment is Globe Telecom, so take a chat with them and see, what they can offer, and if this suits your needs.

Best regards, Lars

 

Hi Bjorn,

forget Bethel. go to Hotel Palwa, (use the search tool of the board and you know why) It is quite new and for that great service a real great place to stay. If you wanna stay at a ok room with aircom and cable TV find a sleep at Harolds Mantion,,,

cheers Rhoody

 

I have zero experience with call centers but have some qualifications in education, from my perspective, English language competancy in southern Negros is marginal, even among some college graduates. that 100 hours of instruction Lofty one mentioned might grow as compared to manila.

Generally reading comprehension is high here, but spoken English is fair to poor. Much of that is due to the aforementioned confidence factor, as well as provincial educational issues. I know Teletech had some initial difficulties getting qualified English speakers in Dumaguete. On the other hand finding only 10 competant people might not be so difficult.

 

There's one here!!

 

lofty - thank you for all the great suggestions. Very much appreciated!

Some comments:

Thank you for your comments. We pay people in the U.S. 5 times more than high end for the Philippines. Also, we are running out of space in a building with a high lease in the middle of the city - we have to move that somewhere anyways. Our agents are mostly people who are on their way to something else, so we already have high costs of re-training due to high turnover. Lastly, we're looking to grow the business, and this is the least scalable part of it right now.

If TeleTech has 500 employees in Dumaguete, it should be possible to steal 10 qualified people from their crowd if we treat them better than they do? Besides, more than half of the work our agents do is just processing paperwork that is being submitted to us. By cutting out the outsourcing middle-man, we'll be cutting costs, and rather be able to pay a higher salary to our staff.

If anybody on this board feels like they could be a good team lead for an operation like this, please send me a private message. I would like to meet with you when I'm there later this month. I'm looking for an outgoing and trustworthy person with intimate knowledge of the local culture. The business side of the work is pretty straight forward and could easily be picked up by the right person - experience with call centers preferred but not necessary.

Best regards,
Bjorn

 

Bjon,

Please be VERY careful about "stealing" or recruiting or whatever nice term you plan to use or action you plan to take, if you are serious about hiring people from an existing business.

This is one of those grey areas where Filipino business owner can take you to court and have you deported. I say grey, as it is not clearly spelled out in the constitution, but cases have been "forced" through and the expats either gave up the business or got out of the country. Something to do with intentional undermining of local business by foreigner, or some BS like that.

Of course, the Filipino has to be big and powerful to do this to an expat, but Teletech seems to be big. And I am sure it is a lot of local Filipino interests to protect itself, particularly if you are taking their best with higher pay/benefits.

I am sure there are methods to hire people without creating problems, but what is normally accepted recruiting practice in America is not so accepted here.

Just thought I would mention it.