Moved my call center from the Philippines to Santiago

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stevefarfsing

Guest
Hi All,
About 3 years ago I moved my outbound call center from Cebu, Philippines to Santiago, DR. Why? I needed smart people who could speak "American" and so far so good. I only travel back and forth but I love my time in the DR, the people, the food and no snow on the ground.

Not all has been perfect, I still have a lot to learn. In Cebu I had friends and I realize that is what I'm missing here. So I'm here hoping to meet people as crazy and I am to jump into a new country and love business. Maybe you all can teach me so I don't have to learn everything the hard way. ;)

Peace
Steve
 
R

Riva_31

Guest
Hi All,
About 3 years ago I moved my outbound call center from Cebu, Philippines to Santiago, DR. Why? I needed smart people who could speak "American" and so far so good. I only travel back and forth but I love my time in the DR, the people, the food and no snow on the ground.

Not all has been perfect, I still have a lot to learn. In Cebu I had friends and I realize that is what I'm missing here. So I'm here hoping to meet people as crazy and I am to jump into a new country and love business. Maybe you all can teach me so I don't have to learn everything the hard way. ;)

Peace
Steve

Welcome Steve, im Dominican and Im glad you are happy coming here, here you can ask anything and will get cery helpfull information.
 
B

badpiece33

Guest
Hi All,
About 3 years ago I moved my outbound call center from Cebu, Philippines to Santiago, DR. Why? I needed smart people who could speak "American" and so far so good. I only travel back and forth but I love my time in the DR, the people, the food and no snow on the ground.

Not all has been perfect, I still have a lot to learn. In Cebu I had friends and I realize that is what I'm missing here. So I'm here hoping to meet people as crazy and I am to jump into a new country and love business. Maybe you all can teach me so I don't have to learn everything the hard way. ;)

Peace
Steve

Best of luck buddy.
 
L

LTSteve

Guest
Hi All,
About 3 years ago I moved my outbound call center from Cebu, Philippines to Santiago, DR. Why? I needed smart people who could speak "American" and so far so good. I only travel back and forth but I love my time in the DR, the people, the food and no snow on the ground.

Not all has been perfect, I still have a lot to learn. In Cebu I had friends and I realize that is what I'm missing here. So I'm here hoping to meet people as crazy and I am to jump into a new country and love business. Maybe you all can teach me so I don't have to learn everything the hard way. ;)

Peace
Steve

What is speak "American"? I'm presuming you mean English that American callers can understand, despite an accent?
 
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Riva_31

Guest
What is speak "American"? I'm presuming you mean English that American callers can understand, despite an accent?

English with neutral accent or USA accent, years ago call centers moved to India and some other places in Asia but customers of the companies always complain that they do not understand their english so few years ago the call centers started to comeback and reopen. Its really hard to understand, i called to travelocity help line 2 years ago and the accent of they guy was from India and i had to tell him please speak very slow because I dont understood nothing, and my english is not that bad to miss all words in a conversation.
 
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Gurabo444

Guest
Hello Steve, I am a Dominican with an American education living in Santiago who also loves business and to have a great time with good friends. Let me know if you ever want to get together sometime.
 
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stevefarfsing

Guest
Thank you all to the kind words. Right now I only spend about 4 months in Santiago so my "friends" are my employees, they don't really count. They will go out to dinner with me if I invite their families. Since I'm there 3 or 4 weeks at a time I mainly work. Do a little sightseeing.

What I mean about English is like Riva said, they can say the english word but can you clearly understand it. We do outbound lead generation and sales work, typically with technology companies, so American slang and references are important. I can't script out a dynamic conversation, like calling us mister or miss all the time is not American. They struggle with sounding natural. A funny one was I was asked what "What the..." meant. It was really hard for them to get it. Even something as simple as "get out of here" was really hard for them. "You're kidding me" there are thousands of them.

Thanks for making me feel welcome, I don't often post on line.
 
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ROLLOUT

Guest
I f-ing HATE call centers. punto! need agents who are able to use their brain, and not read from a a script. Nothing makes my blood boil more that when I'm connected to one of these "Hi, I'm Bill from new jersey"
 
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2dlight

Guest
Although I no longer receive telemarketing calls, when I did, I used to ask the caller to tell me in one short and simple sentence what they were trying to sell me and nothing more. Calls were brief and polite for those who understood my request. The others, not so polite.
 
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Riva_31

Guest
I f-ing HATE call centers. punto! need agents who are able to use their brain, and not read from a a script. Nothing makes my blood boil more that when I'm connected to one of these "Hi, I'm Bill from new jersey"

Latelty so dificult to find it, happend to me a lot time when I have a problem with my phoneline, usually I get nonsence answers and make me feel that if i have the tools i would solve the problem more easy.
And for telemarketing i prefer go straight to the point, when banks call me to offer a credit card or a loan I dont let them go further and stop them telling I dont want credict card or loan.
 
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JDJones

Guest
I virtually never get calls on my home phone, so when I do, I know it's sales.

My favorite is when they call from Claro, offering me services they cannot provide in my area (like Fiber Optic service)

The rest of them, I'll answer then put the phone down and check in 5 minutes or so. Life's little pleasures..
 
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stevefarfsing

Guest
I f-ing HATE call centers. punto! need agents who are able to use their brain, and not read from a a script. Nothing makes my blood boil more that when I'm connected to one of these "Hi, I'm Bill from new jersey"

I agree, I get those robocalls on my mobile phone about time shares. It's not a real person most of the time.

Just for the record we are not that type of call center, we don't call peoples home we call businesses. For example one project has us calling Tier 1 automotive factories to talk to the controls engineers about some of their tracking technology. It is very technical and requires a high level of training. I am also happy to report that we pay very high wages to our people (we will always pay the highest). One of our longest employed people was robbed the other day right after she was paid and had $250 in cash to buy something. Yesterday we sent the $250 no strings attached. That's what we are trying to build here.

4 basic kinds of call centers - inbound or outbound and consumer or business. We are business outbound.

Thanks, I enjoyed your comment.
 
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Riva_31

Guest
I agree, I get those robocalls on my mobile phone about time shares. It's not a real person most of the time.

Just for the record we are not that type of call center, we don't call peoples home we call businesses. For example one project has us calling Tier 1 automotive factories to talk to the controls engineers about some of their tracking technology. It is very technical and requires a high level of training. I am also happy to report that we pay very high wages to our people (we will always pay the highest). One of our longest employed people was robbed the other day right after she was paid and had $250 in cash to buy something. Yesterday we sent the $250 no strings attached. That's what we are trying to build here.

4 basic kinds of call centers - inbound or outbound and consumer or business. We are business outbound.

Thanks, I enjoyed your comment.

As Dominican I have to thank you to come to create new jobs, is what we most need. In case I lose my job i have a call center as first option to apply.
 
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Seegee24

Guest
This Post has me a little confused??? "Smart People"??? Do you mean; you couldn't find smart people in Cebu??? I mean Thank You for the compliment, but dude youre sounding a little bit comparon!!! Can't tell if it's the same word in Philippines??? Due to the fact it was ruled by Spaniards for so many years. If Not; look it up!!! :/
 
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stevefarfsing

Guest
This Post has me a little confused??? "Smart People"??? Do you mean; you couldn't find smart people in Cebu??? I mean Thank You for the compliment, but dude youre sounding a little bit comparon!!! Can't tell if it's the same word in Philippines??? Due to the fact it was ruled by Spaniards for so many years. If Not; look it up!!! :/

Hi, thanks for reading my post and replying. I'm happy to explain, there were two qualifiers - smart and spoke "American". As you might guess there are many smart Filipinos and I call several friend. It is also a beautiful island nation with many friendly people just like the DR. There are many advantages to setting up a call center there and that is why I went there first, long before I knew the DR was an option. If I fail here it will be due to my own failings.

As far as being conceited, I'm sad that's what you read, I need to improve my writing. Maybe that's why I tend to gravitate to the spoken word. However, it is safe to assume an American is conceited, we do tend to be egocentric and can have a air of superiority vs an air of confidence. I'm here in the DR to make money, the difference I believe is I'm willing to share it with my employees for the betterment of us all. Maybe all call centers think the same way, I hope they do. Either way, come and join us.
 
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JDJones

Guest
The "smart and good English speakers" has me wondering a little Steve.

Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with customer service folks, I like to ask where they are.

They are invariably from the Philippines.

I have yet to run across one who didn't speak absolutely clear and precise English, and could answer questions as quick as I could ask them. I'd never guess if I didn't ask.

If you ask me, I'd want those "clear and precise" over folks who 'speak American" any day of the week.

But DR would be a close second due to the proximity to the U.S.
 
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bienamor

Guest
The "smart and good English speakers" has me wondering a little Steve.

Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with customer service folks, I like to ask where they are.

They are invariably from the Philippines.

I have yet to run across one who didn't speak absolutely clear and precise English, and could answer questions as quick as I could ask them. I'd never guess if I didn't ask.

If you ask me, I'd want those "clear and precise" over folks who 'speak American" any day of the week.

But DR would be a close second due to the proximity to the U.S.

either way what you wrote the centers here and the Philippines both be the heck out of the centers in India, I have been in teleconferences with them and at the end was left wondering what they heck they said, they will all say my problem is I don't understand correct English. I was always happy to find out that everyone on our end of the conversation was wondering the same thing I was.
 
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rfp

Guest
I think one of the challenges with Philipines and India is the lack of cultural affinity.

In the Caribbean and LATAM you can find folks who are better connected culturally and can have deeper more nuanced conversations beyond just Tech support.

That being said if you are looking for smart people, you are in the wrong place. Lots of smart folks here but they are too busy to make new friends
 
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stevefarfsing

Guest
Since we do outbound calling for tech companies we must engage the prospect, they have no other reason to be on the phone with us. We need to be able to get a joke or change directions, ultimately we need to lead the discussion. We need to persuade and ask questions until we see an opportunity and close them. We are more like sales people but our sale is an appointment with a salesperson or to register for an event like a webinar. It's not easy. But that is also why we can pay better, we can charge more for our service. You can hire an inbound call center in the Philippines for as low as $4 and hour US, doesn't leave much to pay the employee.