WEEK 5:

Contact Center services

Grade 12
(TVL)

Prepared by: Mary Ann D. Rodenas

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 MODULE 5
DELIVERING QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICES

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. describe the functions and processes involved in a BPO/Call Center industry;
2. transmit/receive calls from customers;
3. handle customers’ complaints accordingly; and
4. provide after-sales support and document events

Lesson 1: The BPO/Call Center Industry

The world adapts to the fast-paced developments brought about by globalization
and technological advancements. As a result, major changes in the industries
introduced various means to minimize or reduce production expenses while
maximizing profit. This is one of the many reasons why companies channel the
processes of their production or service to third-party clients which lead to the birth
of BPOs.
As part of the industry, the terms customers, clients, call center agents and
representatives will be used frequently throughout the module.
Customers refer to the people who are current or potential buyers, subscribers,
account owners or patrons of the industry who enters into transaction with you
through information technology (IT) assisted devices like computers, telephones
and mobile phones.
Clients refer to companies you will represent
Agents or representatives otherwise known as rep/s are job titles of personnel
who assist customers in activities which are described in this module.
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What is BPO?
The term outsourcing is a system whereby an organization can subcontract certain
areas of work to a third party organization that specializes on the task to be done.
Business Process Outsourcing or BPO refers to the management of one or more
specific business processes or functions by a third party.
Frequently, BPO is referred to as Information Technology-Enabled Services
(ITES). This is because most business processes include some form of automation
and information technology devices such as computers that "enable" these services
to be performed. This encompasses careers in software development, data entry,
programming, and web development services. BPO is distinct from Information
Technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or
service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and
application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance.
The Philippines is currently among the most cost competitive destinations for IT-
BPO services. An offshoot of BPO is Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)
Considered by some to be a subset of BPO, KPO includes those activities that
require greater skill, knowledge, education, and expertise to handle. This may
include services in financial analysis and legal services.

Types of BPO Industry

all centers, just like other types of businesses, offer a variety of products and
services. The development in the business world pushes the industry to be more
flexible, thereby making the possibilities endless
BPO is often divided into two main categories:
1. Back Office Outsourcing- This includes internal business functions such as
billing, purchasing, payroll of employees, and other similar tasks.
2. Front Office Outsourcing – This includes customer-related services such as
marketing or technical support.

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Based on the location of hiring and contracting, BPO may be categorized as:
1.Offshore Outsourcing – is outsourcing contracted outside a company's home
country. This is done when high-volume, low-complexity tasks are processed in a
country with a significantly lower cost base than where the service has become
more sophisticated.
For example, the UK: traditionally India, but more recently China, the
Philippines, Malaysia and some South American countries. (e.g., Numerous
UK-based BPO companies such as Vertex and Capita Group are now
providing offshored services to their clients through their operations in the
Philippines.)
2. Nearshore Outsourcing - BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring
country. The cost base of these countries is still lower, but geographical proximity
and cultural similarities can create an easier working relationship. A good
relationship, cultural similarities and absence of communication gap can result in a
more complex work being transferred easily. For Western Europe, this is to Eastern
Europe. For the United States this is to Canada and Mexico.
(e.g., Tony Lee, an information management supplier based in the US near-shored
the development of its computerized purchasing system
3.Onshore - is an entirely different scheme. It is the practice of obtaining business-
critical, high-level services from someone not employed by the company, but within
the same country. Onshore services are unique for each company

TASK 1: BPO Industries DIRECTIONS:

Write BOO if the example describes back office outsourcing and FOO if it
describes front office outsourcing.
__________ 1.A telecommunications BPO firm which deals with repair and
maintenance of one’s internet connection

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 __________ 2. A BPO company which accommodates payroll services
__________ 3. A company which assists customers on US Phone directory services
__________ 4. A company that takes orders of products
__________ 5. A BPO accounting firm that manages sales accounts of other
companies
_________ 6. A bank- associate BPO that updates customers on their debit and
credit accounts
______ 7.
An office that deals with purchasing raw materials for another company
__________ 8. A firm that entertains medical insurance claims
__________ 9. A document management BPOs that keep copies of financial
transactions for filing of taxes
__________ 10. A call center firm that assists customers on computer hardware
repair

TASK 2: BPO Terminologies

DIRECTIONS: Match the items in column I with its correct description in column
II. Write the letter of the correct answers on a sheet of paper.
I II
1. This obtains business-critical, high- A. ITES
level services from someone not
employed by the company, but within B. KPO
the same country.
2. It is an outsourcing contracted C. Back Office Outsourcing
outside a company's own country.
3. It includes activities that require D. Front Office Outsourcing
greater skill, knowledge, education, and
expertise to handle. E. Offshore Outsourcing
4. This is done when high-volume, low-
complexity tasks are processed in a F. Nearshore Outsourcing
country with a significantly lower cost
base than the home country of the G. Onshore Outsourcing
company.
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5. This is needed when business
processes include some form of
automation and information technology.
6. It includes customer-related services
such as marketing or technical support.
7. BPO that is contracted to a
company's neighboring country
8. It includes internal business functions
such as billing, purchasing, payroll of
employees, and other similar tasks.
9. It may include services in financial
analysis and legal services.
10.Examples of these services are
software development, data entry,
programming, and web development.

Basic Services within BPO Industry

There are basic services related to customer service, sales and technical support that
fall within the BPO industry. This depends on the specialization of the firm and its
facilities, and the competencies of the manpower.
BPOs generally fall under several categories:
1. Finance and Accounting Processes related to finances have to be accurate. In
most instances, this cannot be replaced by mere accounting software. It requires
resources and procedures like raising invoices, matching them with purchase orders
and reconciling bank accounts.
2. Document Management Access to data is a must in the business world. Even
small companies generate large amounts of data and recording and storing these can
be time consuming and expensive.
3.Procurement This involves looking for appropriate suppliers, monitoring
supplier performance, implementing appropriate processes and procedures,
managing requests for information or proposals and recommending the best
potential suppliers, selecting suppliers and issuing or managing legal contracts.
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4.Software development This is increasingly being outsourced or ‘off-shored’,
with software development teams based in areas such as Central and Eastern
Europe and Asia where there is access to highly-educated, low-cost personnel. This
is because the social costs in these growing economies are currently way lower than
in Western economies.
5.Call Centers A call center, a subset of BPO, is a centralized office that facilitates
large amounts of inbound and outbound telephone calls. As defined by Keith
Dawson (Dawson, 1988), a call center is a “physical location where calls are placed
or received in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service,
telemarketing, technical support, and other specialized business activity

Call centers have a number of uses:

A. Customer Services (in-bound calls) Customers that call for transactions like
order processing, administrative assistance like complaints or billing
questions can be handled by customer service call centers.
B. Telemarketing and telesales (outbound calls) Call center agents place calls
to customers in order to obtain information or sell products and services (e.g.,
customer satisfaction surveys, marketing, sales, and customer follow-up).
Selling some products and services are much easier to sell via the phone, and
do not require ‘faceto-face’ interaction. As a result, the costs for marketing
and selling such products will be drastically reduced.
C. Data cleansing Data cleansing is a system of phoning the contacts within a
database in order to ensure that all the details such as names, phone numbers
and the like are correct. This allows sales people to phone and send emails
safely with the knowledge that the information is up to date. Again, it is far
more cost-effective to offshore this process in places with huge labor cost

6. Legal Services Legal offshoring is also gaining popularity nowadays. This is a

good example of KPO. Lawyers commonly handle this type of a job. This may
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involve monitoring old contracts and licensing agreements to managing
documentary evidence for product-liability cases. Personnel of such industry read,
analyze, and annotate digital images of memos, payroll and medical records, old
engineering specs, and other documents that might be used as evidence in legal
cases.
Sample fields where one could work under the BPO industry are the following:

Customer Service
 Technical Support
 Administrative Support
 Accounting
 Bookkeeping
 Virtual Assistant
 Telemarketing
 Programming
 Call Center Service
 Sales
 Data Entry
 Internet Research
 Web Development
 Content Management
 Graphics Design
 Direct Mail
 Email Marketing

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Identification of BPO Services DIRECTIONS: Identify the service being described
in the following statements.
___________1. It deals with customer satisfaction surveys, marketing, sales, and
customer follow- up are the tasks involved in this service.
___________2. It involves looking for appropriate suppliers, monitoring supplier
performance, implementing appropriate processes and procedures, managing
requests for information or proposals and recommending the best potential
suppliers.
________3. It involves monitoring old contracts and licensing agreements to
managing documentary evidence for product-liability cases.
___________4. Order processing, administrative assistance such as telephone
directories, complaints and billing are under this category.
___________5. Companies generate large amounts of data, recording and storing
these online with the data being held at a third party’s premises and accessed via the
web

Call Center Agents’ Performance Metrics

Quality customer service is a high level of service attained when an industry

satisfies the unique set of customer needs. This is achieved through the words and
tone you use in dealing with customers. Your choice of words and the manner of
delivery (tone and volume) suggests feelings that customers interpret positively or
negatively. A sincere and positive approach as reflected in your conversation would
generate a positive emotion thereby contributing to quality customer service.

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Generally speaking, we practice quality customer service for the following
reasons:

 When customers want to know basic questions about their account

 When customers cannot understand the product or service they
subscribed to
 When customers are having difficulties with a product or service
 When customers are frustrated and irate with the product or service

Typical Customer Service Representatives’ Competencies Here are what employers

look for in applicants desiring to work in a call center:
1. Business acumen - understanding the relationship between their jobs and its
impact to business and customers
2. Call management- controlling a call through effective communication techniques
3. Change management- adapting to and handling changing situations and
environments
4. Conflict resolution - using effective interpersonal skills to resolve conflict
situations
5. Cross selling - selling upgraded or additional products to existing customers
6. Decision making - gathering relative information, and analyzing situations then
applying appropriate interventions to resolve an issue or come to a decision
7. Interpersonal communication - ability to listen actively, question appropriately,
provide feedback, and use the skills outlined to build customer relationships.
8. Managing diversity - knowledge and ability to interact with a variety of people
in the workplace.
9. Managing stress – ability to maintain a calm demeanor and mental state when
situations and emotions escalate to higher levels
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10.Multitasking - managing multiple priorities or assignments simultaneously (e.g.,
receiving customer information over the phone while inputting/ searching for data
on a computer)
11.Negotiating effectively –ability to direct situations toward a winwin outcome
12. Organizing information and data- ability to assemble and maintain information
in a logical file system that can be accessed by themselves and others
13.Problem solving – identifying root causes of problems through questioning and
applying appropriate interventions to address them
14.Good team player – ability to work effectively with others and contribute to
team task accomplishment
15.Time management- ability to use available time and resources to address
assigned tasks and customer issues
16.Peer coaching – offering support and guidance to co-workers
17.Technical literacy- ability to apply basic knowledge of computer usage,
applications, e-mail and Internet, and the ability to learn organization-specific
software (requirement varies based on level of technical competence needed by the
organization.)
18.Using call center technology- e.g., computer, facsimile, printer/ copier,
database software

Customer Service Representatives’ Competencies

DIRECTIONS: Identify the customer contact representatives’ competencies being
referred to by the following statements. Choose from the competencies in the word
bank.
peer coaching decision making teaming with others
decision making technical literacy multitasking
change management time management stress management
interpersonal communication Business acumen Cross selling

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1. Basic knowledge of computer usage, Windows applications, e-mail and internet
and the ability to learn organization- specific software – requirement
2. Maintaining a calm demeanor and mental state when situations and emotions
escalate to higher levels
3. Gathering and analyzing then applying appropriate interventions to resolve an
issue
4. Offering support and guidance to co – workers
5. Managing multiple priorities or assignments simultaneously
6. Ability to actively listen, question appropriately, provide feedback, and use the
skills outlined to build customer relationships
7. Ability to work effectively with others and contribute to team task
accomplishment
8. Adapting to and handling changing situations and environments
9. Selling upgraded or additional products to existing customers
10.Built to use available time and resources to address assigned tasks and customer
issues

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