4 Myths You Should Disregard About Philippine Call Centers

What 4 common myths do people have about Philippine call centers?

1. Call Centers are not good for your overall well-being
2. Working in a call center is a dead-end job
3. Call Center work is mindless
4. Quality of service is not a priority

Surrounding the many call centers here in the Philippines are many contrived notions that look down on the working conditions of these establishments. Call center life is often set aside and deliberately labeled with superficial notions. There’s a lot of stereotyping going on, especially here in the Philippines. When mentioned, the profession is almost always automatically dismissed as something that it is not.

There are indeed extreme cases of misconstrued outlooks on call center work that feed the inflammatory sentiments of ignorant naysayers. However, it should also be taken note that there are subtle iffy inklings when talking about call center life.

Around the Philippines, the industry encompassing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in places like Cebu, Manila, and other regions is drawn out with many poisonous stigmas that give a bad name to workers and teams that actually perform diligent and technical work to ensure that a corporate operation runs smoothly.

Here are some of the main myths about call centers that you should definitely disregard:

Toxic Environment

First and foremost, there are untrue speculations that you need to have an “American Accent” when working at a call center. And that you must have an extensive knowledge of other cultures. Work is often dismissed as boring and pointless to the degree that it’s almost soul-sucking and energy draining. The hours are said to eat away at you.

The truth is that you just need to be able to practice a neutral accent; one that is clear, understandable and intelligible. The thing is that a lot of people actually quit their jobs because of the pressures and stress. People wind up talking too much about their bad experiences. This, in turn, feeds the stigmatized cloud of myths.

There are no careers in BPO

People often times tend to think that working at a call center is a career death trap; that there is no growth whatsoever in the BPO sectors of the Philippines. There’s also a sterilized passing that call centers are only for young people.

When in reality, call centers are highly mechanistic and well-oiled corporate machines that offer many managerial positions and expose corporate ladders to climb on. There is also a rich plantation of fruitful IT jobs and that of Healthcare in these companies. The BPO is actually one of the fastest-growing industries in the global exchange trade today. And there’s an extreme variety of age groups with no real discriminatory allegations in terms of age grouping.

Call Center work can be done by just anybody

The notion that working at a call center is mindless work is ingrained from ugly pictures that people who work in them are uneducated, that the daily tasks are child’s play. Undignified impressions give way to demoralized employee systems. And that call center work is so blasé that in the future, robots will replace customer service people. Finally, there’s also a notion that applying to work in a call center is an absolute breeze.

Actually, the real case is that call center work requires a real honing of skill and execution of patience. The BPO trade calls for only the highest standards of getting things done. The multitasking skills that need to be exercised day to day by the hard-working employees are daunting and require utmost resilience.  The everyday tasks are difficult jobs to pull off because it requires a certain human touch—no robot can compare.

Agents are inconsiderate in terms of customer service

The unrequited saying that quantity is much more a priority over quality when it comes to taking calls. Over in the higher-ups, they say that the executives don’t care about their employees, and agents don’t care about customers.

These myths are simply outrageous. Any fully functioning company PAYS to improve customer service. And executives need happy employees with boosted spirits in order to fully maximize overall business efforts. There are indeed instances wherein the quality vs. quantity debate depends on customer profile and agenda, but that isn’t enough to generalize that customer care is completely thrown out the window.

Key Takeaway

If you’re in search of a decent job, and you have no idea where you want to wind up, you should try applying for a call center here in the Philippines. The benefits of working at a call center are incremental, and it’s always a good idea to take that jump on your first stepping stone.

The great people working for BPOs in Cebu and all over the Philippine islands are astounding individuals providing a great service, especially in the realm of boosting economic disperses. Don’t feed into the fabricated stigmas that haunt and demonize the BPO industry. Let’s bring a more positive light to all the fine folks of the call centers across the Philippines doing their best with everything they’ve got!