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The Call Center Expert
 
 
 
The Call Center Expert
CallCenterVet delivers the latest call center news in the Philippines. Expert tips and advice included.
Language: English
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Articles
Startek Sounds Like StarTrek
2008-07-22 06:19:00
Guys and girls, for those of you who have been reading the news, you know that there's a new BPO around this year. Startek BPO is reportedly establishing a foothold on the Philippines particularly Makati and it is their first venture outside the U.S.StarTek Philippines will open its doors for prospective employees and start operations on the fourth quarter of 2008. A company executive is already in the country taking care of business for the launch of a huge call center location in Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue Makati.According to StarTek officials most of their clients are the largest telecommunications companies in the U.S. This U.S.-based BPO estimates around 1,100 employees to hire for their makati call center.Another reason to cheer up for those Octoberians or for those looking for "greener p ...
 
Call Center Bloggers I Like!
2008-07-13 01:12:00
It's a Sunday guys and I felt it's time to take a day off from call center blogging and pay attention to the growing number of call center bloggers. I'm so pleased that our call center peeps are beginning to embrace this cool hobby. I usually find call center blogs through email alerts I have set-up and some I found while analyzing this blog's traffic sources.I am honored to mention a few of these call center blogs I admire for one reason or another. Some I've come to love because of the honesty of the author, some because of the author's effort and creativity in putting together a unique design but most interestingly I love all of them because it gives me a sneak peek of what the call center author's life is. Blogging is not necessarily about making money...
 
Bloggers Get Your Own Domain Names
2008-07-08 11:00:00
For those who have been following my blog since the beginning, you all know this started as a blogspot subdomain blog called callcenterveteran.blogspot.com. Then about January this year, I decided to get my own domain name for several important reasons.First of those reasons was my decision to continue blogging as a profession. Blogging has opened doors for me that I thought wasn't even possible. Currently as a pro blogger, I earn roughly $500 a month in between 2 blogs through advertising. I thought it was necessary for me to get my own domain name because most advertisers prefer blogs that have its own dot com domain. Secondly, it was a matter of branding myself and securing my name as an authority in my chosen niche which is as call center blogger. Henc...
 
Philippines: Too Dependent On BPO?
2008-07-07 05:26:00
I've recently read a news headline quoting President PGMA discussing how she thinks BPO will offset the increasing gas and commodities' prices but I can't help but wonder, is that all the Philippines is right now? Is BPO the only thing keeping the Philippine economy afloat?Maybe we, especially our leaders, are depending too much on the BPO industry to save the economy. Unwisely so. The BPO, with all its great promise and good things that our country has reaped for mildly sustaining it, is not forever going to be a sunshine industry of the country. Remember, the biggest reasons why BPO companies come hear are the relative relatively cheap labor, decent infrastructure, pool of qualified individuals and government incentives. Our money is relatively the ...
 
Funny Call Center T-shirts From A To Tee
2008-07-01 06:54:00
I've always been a fan of t-shirts with witty messages. Trust me, I've got some weird, funny and naughty ones myself. Today, I got an email from one of the blogs I commented awhile back about cool call center t-shirts. Click on the pics below to get a full view!This is an awesome idea! I'm regreting I didn't come up with it myself a long time ago. For those interested, check out From-A-To-Tee's multiply page. ...
 
Save Your Family's Life With Cryo-Cell's Technology
2008-06-21 14:00:00
Stem cell research has been in the forefront of the news for the past few years. Debate on the ethics versus the benefits of harvesting human stem cells for medical research has been a major issue all over the world and especially in the U.S. because they have the technology. The biggest beef most people have against stem cell research on humans is the fact that it used to require collecting the stem cells from actual human embryos. Most conservative people are against this because of the conflict against religious beliefs. This may have slowed down the potential life-saving medical technology.Alternatively,Cryo-Cell Innovative Stem Cell Solutions has been in the fore-front of stem cell collection and preservation that m...
 
Call Center Survey Summary
2008-06-20 09:51:00
Survey question: Which is the worst call center in the Philippines?Voting tally: 33 readers voted on this surveyWest Contact - 7 votesSutherland -9 votesTeletech -11 votesNone of the above - 11 votesYesterday, was the end of theover-a-monthlong call center survey I started and I found some interesting observations with it. First let me thank all of those who participated. The feedback the survey got will definitely inspire more survey in the near future. It was amusing to find people giving their honest opinions about their selected thumb's-down. We also got some flaming from a couple of people who were upset that their call center was included. I'd have to say this was the more amusing part. A couple of readers even found...
 
247Customer Call Center Coming To Alabang
2008-06-16 08:29:00
Watch out all you call center applicants in the south! If you're looking for work close to home, 24/7Customer is reportedly building a site in Alabang Muntinlupa specifically the North Cybergate area.The 24/7 Customer call center has recently been getting rave reviews from its present employees and most are satisfied with the work they have now compared to previous employment experiences. 247Customer is company primarily managed by Indian nationals but also have Filipino managers in the hierarchy.For people in the Alabang, Laguna and Cavite area, this should be a welcome development as we all know proximity to the place of work greatly contributes to employee convenience and retention. For the former Convergys managers (...
 
Cool New Blog Template - Freedom Wall
2008-06-13 05:46:00
This post is for my blogger friends! If you're bored about your old blog design/template and looking for a "facelift", check out this cool new bloggerized template from my friend Gosublogger.This Freedom Wall XML template (originally a free Wordpress template) features an amazing clean look with a brick wall background. It has wide open body and one wide side bar. This one should be perfect for those who have personal blogs filled with rants, raves and what-have-you's. This is actually the first 2-column blogger template I ever liked! See the demo.Read more on the details about this awesome new bloggized template at Gosub ...
 
Cell Phones Galore
2008-06-13 00:20:00
Here's a little something personal today. If there's something that typifies us call center people or something that we all in the industry have a lot in common is our love for the latest cell phones. I personally, have not bought myself a high-end one because for some reason I have this knack for losing cell phones frequently. After I lost my last expensive one a few years ago, I went low tech and sufficed myself with just the monotone cell phones.This time, I'm going to give it another go and buy myself an iPhone! The iPhone is not available in the Philippines yet I believe but I can definitely do some online shopping and get it at a much lower price than what it will be selling for w...
 
Chaos That Is FirstSource Verizon Alabang
2008-06-10 14:10:00
This will be a short simple post for those looking to apply at FirstSource Verizon Alabang. There's still been quite a few inquiries and left comments on the first post I've made last year. My advice today is simple don't even bother to apply!News from inside Firstsource has been disappointing. My long time friends who worked there before and have recently resigned tell me me that FirstSource Alabang has turned from a promising new company to grow with, into a big clusterfuck of chaos (I've always wanted to use that word). Most pioneers employees have left the company due to this situation.Without going into details, I end this relatively short post. Happy job hunting! ...
 
Cool New Tool For Bloggers
2008-06-10 13:50:00
I'm always looking out for the latest tools, designs and widgets for my blogs that I'm sure most of this blog's readers would find interesting at least. I figured if it is good enough for me then it might just work for others. I've also wondered about how else I can blog besides writing my stuff sort of like podcasting. Today, I stumbled across a cool new way of blogging through recording.Earfl provides a unique way of blogging by recording your own voice and saying your piece instead of writing a whole 450-word "novel". In some instances where I feel strongly about something and I feel it would be more convenient just to say things than writing them, this cool new option could do me some good.Currently, there's no registration required so it's very easy to ...
 
Blog Advertising Company In The Works
2008-06-05 04:21:00
I'm just so happy to have turned into this new found online career last year. The possibilities for getting paid to blogging at this point can almost seem to be endless and only limited by one's motivation to earn.Recently, the world of "get paid to blog about the things you love" has just welcomed its newest member. iHype.com Launches very soon and other pro bloggers like me me will soon have another worthy source of blogging income!This blog advertising company has been a little hush-hush about its launch recently and has been a little mysterious in terms of what the site actually is. I'm always on the lookout for blog marketing websites like this and to tell you honestly I wouldn't ...
 
BloggersReview Getting Better
2008-06-01 08:01:00
I've joined quite a few blog advertising websites in recent days and among them I'm happy to have joined bloggersreview.com for 2 reasons. Number 1 is because getting started in earning money online is one of the easiest I've experienced. Unlike other similar blog marketing companies, getting accepted and getting right down to business takes only a few days provided your blog meets minimum requirements set. The second and more important reason I feel happy to be part of bloggersreview.com is that I have already proven their legitimacy because I've already been paid on both occasions I wrote for them.On the advertisers' side, if blog or website owners are looking to advertise on a budget, bloggersreview.com is one for them. For as low as $50, bloggers and webmasters can get started with cre...
 
Snapbomb The Latest Blog Earning Program
2008-05-28 03:55:00
For all you probloggers out there, I've got a sweet tip for you! It has already been an undeclared mission for me to find great new ways of earning money by creating buzz for others. I found this cool tip by justing asking other fellow probloggers like myself. It's really cool and simple. The name of the program is snapbomb.com and this is actually my first post about them. Snapbomb is the latest blog advertising company to join the big boys of the blog advertising phenomenon.The difference between Snapbomb.com and the rest is that qualified blogs get rated which corresponds to how much work you've actually put in your blog. Based on known search engine rank, your blog can you more money unlike in some other blog advertisin...
 
Bloggerwave - Europe's Number One Blog Ads Media
2008-05-17 09:39:00
This post is for my blog mates who have been following my blog which I also use to tell people how they can earn money through their blog.I guess I can safely say that I'm seasoned in these type of things as I have made a few bucks through my blogs as well. I'm enrolled at many blog advertising programs as well and I find them fulfilling. One such programs is Bloggerwave. As far as I know this is Europe's only blog advertising company and I have made quite a few bucks from them as well. Opportunities to blog about the things related to your blogs abound in Bloggerwave depending on the categories you indicate.If you want another place or opportunity to make money through you blogs, I hig ...
 
Bad English? They got famous!
2008-05-16 09:21:00
I guess we've seen worst videos and peculiar people get famous because of their unique style on TV. If you haven't seen these people embarrass themselves on TV, you've probably been hiding in the bushes or living under a rock. My recent favorite is the Ken Lee video where this girl sings her heart out doing a Mariah Carey piece "Can't live without you". There's the classic William Hung doing a Ricky Martin rendition of "She bangs". Always fun to watch.Our featured special person today gets a spot in this blog because he is reportedly a former call center agent who used to work for the Sony Xbox company. For those of you who works in call centers here in the Philippines, you might recognize the face. For those of you who by any chance have a Xbox console an...
 
Pretending You're Somewhere Else
2008-05-13 11:41:00
In the outsourced call center world, occasionally and due to client protocols we are not allowed to say were we are actually located. This creates a lot of problems for call center agents especially if you're accent tells the obvious. Here's another interesting story by a Sprint customer who probably spoke with one of us here in the Philippines. To this day, I still don't understand why clients are prohibiting such things as letting their customers know they're being taken care of by a competent person from here in our country. If we're given the right tools, training, motivation and empowerment, this story right down here could have easily ended as a sale on the first call and where we are or who we are won't really matter. ( ***You can click on any of the images to see the full story***)...
 
Call center survey - What's the worst call center
2008-05-12 10:12:00
It's time to conduct a little survey on who's the worst one around! hehe... The purpose of this short data gathering is not to put down anybody but rather bring the feedback online.So many people online have been searching for the "worst call centers in the Philippines" which probably shows people are starting to look at feedback from other people regarding which call centers provide well to their employees and who are or who have been the butt of complains based on former and present employee feedback.I have been reading on a lot of complaints from call center employees in their forum at pinoyexchange.com and taking queue from my reading, it looks like the top are West Contact Services, Sutherland, and Teletech so let's i...
 
$250 for a snapshot of Facebook founder in India!
2008-05-11 05:47:00
For the Indian readers of callcenterblogger.com, here's an opportunity for you to win easy cash to just take a picture!Well, it's just not any picture. Recently, the social network Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly been around and about India to establish a foot hold on the big social networking potential in the Indian subcontinent. The contest is sponsored by the tech news website techgoss.com. The contest has been big news in around the tech community especially techs in India ofcourse. Valleywag.com, also a huge tech news website has also written about the stuff.$250 for a clear snapshot is a huge pot for a single photo considering all they need to do is click a button. ...
 
Bloggersreview - Another Money Maker!
2008-05-09 07:15:00
Blogs and blogging have revolutionized the internet and world of advertising in the past few years. At the same time, bloggers have found ways to monetizing or earning from their blogs. Some of the top bloggers of the world have made this a full-time job and has provided the convenience of earning tons of money by blogging in the comforts of their own home. Blog advertising has provided product owners and webmasters a revolutionary and quick way to get the word out their for their products or whatever their promoting. On the other hand, bloggers blog for pay and it provides them a reliable income stream which may already equal their income if they were to work a regular 9-5 job.Bloggersreview.com is the latest company to offer this money making potential. F...
 
Sears Philippines Call Center Complaint
2008-05-08 13:40:00
I found this article written by a frustrated customer via my Google mail which I had alert for the keywords "Philippines Call Center." This I did so that I can keep up with what's going on with the call center industry in the Philippines. Click on the image, if you have trouble reading the text.The customer, a lady who had a problem with her Kenmore refrigerator happened to reach a call center in the Philippines servicing Kenmore appliances and was extremely disappointed on how she was dealt with.Notable in this woman's complain was how the agents argued with her about her warranty. The agents claim she only had 1 year when in fact she had 5. On her third try to speak with an agent, the customer service rep verified w...
 
5 Certs To Up Your Call Center Marketability
2008-05-08 04:57:00
In the world of call centers or BPO's, more and more companies are looking for leaders with not just your typical English proficiency and appropriate motivation. These days, in order for you to increase your "rep" or your chances of promotion/getting hired you need to have at least acquired a few skills or certifications which can greatly highlight your marketability.Companies often look for some degree of advanced training and practice among employees and applicants. Often when recruiters scour resume databases, they look for certain "plus" in the trainings and skills section one a potential candidates resume. If the find a qualified candidate that does have some special skills and knowledge, they definitely won't be shy in offering a substantial job offe...
 
Top 10 Signs Your Call Center Suck!
2008-05-05 14:53:00
Here's a few tips you need to watch out for just in case you just got hired to work for a call center or just starting your long journey at the ops floor! Enjoy... Better yet watch out!10. Your work station chair looks like it has been used by your operations manager when he started out as a call center agent there. Maybe something that looks like this.9. You speak better American English than your Comms trainer. Need I say more?8. They serve you packed-lunch type of food as a Welcome Meal... Welcome to our call center! Enjoy!7. Your ops floor feels like a wet market and your TL sounds like a palengkera. And you... are the jeepney barker!6. Free coffee in the pantry is in 3-in-1 sachet instant coffee rather than in the usual coffee vending machine. ( *** M...
 
Google Adsense Placement Tip
2008-05-04 11:16:00
Here's a tip I'm proud to share with you fellow bloggers so you can have more people click on your Google Adsense ads than usual. This is something I've come to conclude as an effective way of placing Adsense ads after months of experimenting with different Google Adsense placement strategies in all my blogs. Several different placements strategies produced different results which usually were disappointing in the past. But in the past month, my ads got more clicks and produced faster and bigger earning for me so I'm going to be comfortable sharing with other people this Adsense tip.When I started blogging, I really didn't pay attention to where I place adsense ads because I reall...
 
My Blogs Are My Saviors!
2008-05-03 09:45:00
It's time to get a little personal and pay a little tribute to my humble blogs that have done great things for me and my family.Unknown to many, I have left the call center world for several months now and I have been a full time professional blogger ever since. For several months, my family has been living of the income I earn through my blogs. I still recall and account over $2000 I've earned through blogging since I started and all of it was literally spent for my family's daily needs. Count the rent, utilities, food and everything. I was even able to spend a little for my son's baptismal. And I was the only one working during those times because my better half couldn't. To some it all up, my blogs really got us through rough times in our lives.That's why I really think blogging can be ...
 
Get Paid To Post!
2008-05-01 02:46:00
Hello fellow bloggers! I've came across another cool new way of earning money through our blogs! Check out Getpaidtopost.com. It's the newest PTR site where your blogs can participate. Signing up is relatively easy and getting started with earning money is much easier. This is actually my first post about it and I'm trying this out right now.This is a brand new site so there's tons of possibilities ahead. Get paid to post is the first program to launch and soon there will be a "get paid to bookmark" program too so come and join me in this cool new way of earning money online. Be one of the first to join now! ...
 
Call Center Labor Unions Pros & Cons
2008-04-30 23:31:00
I think slowly the Philippines Outsourcing industry is waking up to the realities of labor unions in our country. The Philippines' sunshine industry has been here since early 2000 and yet it is only now that call center and BPO employees have begun to seriously contemplate on unionizing. Although years late, it does make sense to unionize. After all, the outsourcing industry is a service-oriented sector where roughly 90% of the income generation comes from "people who work the mills." There are existing labor unions in some call centers in the Philippines. For example, Globe Telecom employees have unionized years ago and it has fairly done its job for the employees it supposedly protects. In an outsourcing setting, it is di...
 
The 80/20 Principle
2008-04-16 11:43:00
Has anybody heard of the Pareto Principle? According to wikipedia, known also as the 80-20 rule, it states that in many events, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. It's a common rule of thumb in many aspects of business.For example, 80 percent of a call center team's performance comes from only 20 percent of the team members. Make a stack ranking of your agents and notice that the top 20 percent are the ones pulling your team stats up. It also works in reverse, 80 percent of your team's performance is being dragged down by only 20 percent of the team. Make a stack rank of your team again and see that the bottom 20 percent is pulling your quality, AHT, Sales and what have you's.How is this any relevant? In many cases when you do a stack rank, you are shown data whi...
 
Buloy - The Amazing Video
2008-04-13 07:48:00
I picked up this amazing video while I was browsing some multiply blogs. This is a rendition of "Buloy" by an American dude that goes by the name of xxthundrrbltxx in youtube.This is a tribute to Americans who have grown to love the Philippines and the Filipinos. Some of them may have had a great customer experience with one of us Filipino customer service professionals. A select few of them may have came here to share to us their knowledge about their work and grown to love our way of life and made friends along the way.This guy singing in the video is amazing! We really don't know if he's one of those I mentioned above but by the way he sang Buloy, I felt he really had put a lot of effort in learning the words and proper pronunciation (even if he didn't g ...
 
BPO Philippines Information Directory Service
2008-04-10 20:51:00
From months now, I have been thinking of ways on how I could help readers of this blog more than by just blogging. Yesterday while I found myself unable to sleep for unknown reasons, I went online and logged on to godaddy.com. I found a very good deal of 99 cents for a dot info domain. Suddenly, I find myself buying two generic names for no apparent reason. Then as I concluded the purchase, it suddenly occurred to me that this might be the idea I'm looking for.My next project is to build my own BPO and Call Center Directory in the Philippines. One that is more comprehensive than already established company directories. It will contain the latest company info, contact details, recruitment channels, company standing ...
 
Earn Money - Subvert & Profit!
2008-04-10 20:23:00
If you haven't been subverting and profiting like me and the rest of my friends who signed up, then you're missing out on a great opportunity to earn some money while you're online.Since my first and only post about subvert and profit here about 3 months ago, 29 of my friends have signed up and a few have been accumulating a dollar each time they stumble or digg a list of stories from a website or blog. Over the same period, I accumulated a total of $25.15 from my 2 accounts in Subvert and Profit. Yes... sneaky me I have 2 accounts. The second one is a refferal from my first. LOLThe biggest reason that I've accumulated a decent earning is because a lot of those who I convinced to sign up are also subverting and profiting. E...
 
Made Over $2000 In 1st 6 months Blogging
2008-04-08 10:17:00
I've kept track of my earnings through blogging and my most recent accounting shows that I've already past the 2000 dollars barrier in just a little less than six months of blogging. Check out the breakdown I've made for my earning through several different money making sites I have participated in.It clearly shows my biggest money making exploit is at SR, followed by PPP and third is Smorty. Lurking behind the scenes of these sites, I've also discovered that there seems to be a lot of Filipinos working on these sites too, particularly Smorty but I have no doubt they are also in the others sites just like me.Two thousand dollars seems like big money just for typing some few meaningful sentences. But don't ask me where I spent all that. I blew it all up! ...
 
Paypal Pays To Your Philippine Bank Account
2008-04-01 11:27:00
You might have known about this a long time ago. I did as well. I had my Union bank account added in my Paypal account since last January but for the longest time I didn't use it because I feared it may not work and I get a $5 penalty for botched transaction.The advantage of withdrawing your money to your Philippines bank account is that it's totally free for withdrawals over 7,000 pesos and only pay 50 pesos for anything lower than that. Compared to withdrawing your money using a Visa debit or credit card which you pay a $5 fee, it definitely saves you a lot.Last week, I got a chance to finally test the system so...
 
EXL Service BPO Now In The Philippines
2008-03-27 13:42:00
I read about a new Indian-owned BPO establishing in the Philippines today at techgoss.com. It seems they've already finished their open house last week and are currently hiring for associate positions first. They haven't been publishing yet in Jobstreet. I've checked out EXL Service Philippines company profile and they have posted a single darn job opening online.Based on a popular Pinoy call center forum thread, they are actually encouraging interested applicants to apply at their recruitment office at Makati. Their address is listed below. You can also check out their Jobstreet profile and the EXL Service website to find out more. From what I've read it looks like they have a cool and snazzy building there near Mal ...
 
A New Blog Design Again!
2008-03-25 08:00:00
Hello readers! How do you like my Blog">new blog design? I've been aching for a fresh new look for some time now but I guess I was a little too lazy to get a new one. Partly also because I haven't really found a cool new one. By chance, I found a cool WordPress theme template from a cool designer who was kind enough to provide his well-thought creations for free.I've always wanted a WordPress-look blog since I started. I even played around with the actual free WordPress template but I got turned-off by the intricacies of the whole deal. The back-end was a little too complicated to figure out. I like simple and easy blogging. I also like the fact that my previous modified blogger template was ver...
 
Clickbooth - Amazing!
2008-03-25 03:38:00
I been fairly successful at referring readers to sign-up with great make money online deals and even buying stuff online. From signing up for get paid blogging, to crowdsourcing, buying t-shirts and even predicting the future to earn money. I've encouraged people to do such things because I've proven them to work for myself. A blog needs is not only to put your ideas out there but also to to make your blog work for you. Although some purists may not agree with me on this but majority of bloggers in the world have opted to use their blog as a means of promoting other things that they know are beneficial.Today I signed up with a very popular CPA Network Clickbooth and let me share with you my experience signing up. The whole sign-up deal was easy since I have my personal information auto-pop...
 
Work At Singapore Call Centers?
2008-03-18 11:41:00
For sometime now, I've dismissed this idea of working for call centers in the first world country of Singapore. I've already heard stories. I've seen ads in the newspapers. I've heard news about friends of friends already working in Singapore as call center employees.For one thing, I just thought it was a scam. One needed a work permit to even apply for a call center job in Singapore. This I found true at most job posting in Jobstreet Singapore.Secondly, Singapore's high standard of living will suck most of your earning in that place no matter how high your salary offer was. Essentially negating the lure of earning big money because the cost of living is much too high.Today, I chatted with an old call center batch mate. We never really were close but we...
 
Southern Cali Fashion Schools
2008-03-18 11:30:00
For all our friends in Southern California looking for the next best thing in the fashion industry, you have to see www.fashion-school-finder.com for the best list of fashion schools in California. If you're both dying to move to L.A. and can't wait to be the next in-thing in fashion design, this is your ultimate resource for fashion schools in Los Angeles.Right now Brooks College, American Intercontinental University and Westwood College are the best at providing students with the appropriate program to suit their needs. Check out more about these fashions school in California at fashion-school-finder.com. ...
 
Ouch! My Ears Hurt!
2008-03-11 09:28:00
You've probably heard this girl on TV or online. She's really something. I thought Melanie Marquez was the bomb when it comes to English but I guess this new 17-year old college student from UE takes wrong grammar, wrong pronunciation and wrong subject verb agreement to a whole new level.Let's just say it would be a call center recruiter's nightmare to hear this poor lass talk if ever she gets enough guts to explore a career in BPO. LOLSorry to be mean but I really hate seeing this on national TV. Good thing the ever eloquent Ms. Janina San Miguel only won Binibining Pilipinas - World and not the Universe title. If she did, then patayan na! LOL ...
 
 
 
 
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