Econintersect: Americans have long considered India to be the “home” for call centers for customer inquiries from the U.S. According to an article today (November 28) in The Times of India, that has changed. While India has about 350,000 people employed in call centers for American companies, the latest industry figures show 400,000 the approximate number for Filipino call answering agents. Some of the jobs now in the Philippines may actually have come from India, according to the Times. Click on picture for larger view of a Philipines call center.
From The Times Of India:
Americans calling the customer service lines of their airlines, phone companies and banks are now more likely to speak to Mark in Manila than Bharat in Bangalore. Over the last several years, a quiet revolution has been reshaping the call centre business: The rise of the Philippines, a former United States colony that has a large population of young people who speak lightly accented English and, unlike many Indians, are steeped in American culture.
According to the Times article, Filipino wages are actually higher than in India ($300 a month entry level vs. $250 in India. It is the culture and language, as Filipinos are very Americanized in such things as TV shows, idioms of speech, sports interests, while still retaining what Aparup Sengupta, CEO of Aegis Global, a global outsourcing services company located in Mumbai, called “Eastern attentive hospitality and attitude of care and compassion.”
Source: The Times of India, article found on the Global Economic Intersection Asia/Pacific newspaper page.
