Answering the call

Founder and former president and chief executive officer of Smart Communications Inc. Orlando Vea has a new passion. He and his friends have initially invested P50 million in Customer Relationship Management Specialists, Inc., the corporate owner of Call Center Academy.

"Call Center Academy answers the call for relevant training in information and communications technology. We want to educate, develop and equip young professionals with the skills necessary to excel in the competitive customer service industry," said managing director Ma. Lourdes Buenaventura, a former director for consumer services of AT & T Phils.

The Academy is open for enrollment. The minimum requirement for admission is at least two years of college education. Among the courses being offered are basic and advanced programs in English language proficiency, stress management and problem solving techniques and American culture and geography.

Classes start on Jan. 21.

High demand

The demand for call center services is expected to boom as the world economy slows down and service providers in the US and Canada cut operating costs by outsourcing their customer service requirements to Asia and other less expensive sites. The Philippines is jockeying with India, among others, for a slice of the pie.

The typical call center recruit is fresh from college, with very little work and travel experience. Call centers seem to prefer these types because they are supposedly easier to train.

"The Academy provides another option," said Buenaventura. "By providing training, employers and new hires are able to focus on contract-specific requirements, thereby saving time and generating revenue faster for everybody." The entry-level salary in the call center industry is P300 per hour or between P12,000 and P15,000 a month.

Aside from call centers, CRM programs also benefit any service-oriented business. "In a very competitive world, every company must strive to keep its customers. The only way to do this is to give their customers exceptional customer service," Buenaventura said.

Modules

Following guidelines set by the Department of Education Culture and Sports, each class at the Call Center Academy has a maximum of 30 students. For English languages classes, an internal cap of 20 students per class has been imposed to give each student as many drills in understanding and talking with an American accent.

Based on early enrollees, the most popular modules are the English language classes and the exceptional customer services. Each module, which run from 20 to 40 hours, cost P5,000.

All the modules are designed by US-educated consultants and are handled by instructors who have had actual CRM experience, either as customer service representatives, call center supervisors or training managers.

"Most in-house training programs are product-specific and forget the soft side of the work," said Buenaventura, who singled out the stress management module as the easiest module to design. The module teaches techniques for relaxation and how to leave stress behind after working hours.

"The hardest module to design was on exceptional customer service, which include topics such as how to deal with difficult/angry customers, telephone etiquette and customer empathy," she said.

The Academy differentiates itself from online computer courses. "In a ‘live’ class like ours, there is a lot of interaction between the instructor and students. When you are in a call center environment, you need to know how to interact with the person on the other end of the line," Buenaventura.