Call Center Industry of the Philippines: Before, During, and After Global Recession

The call center industry is one of the most successful industries in the Philippines today. It was even considered as the Sunshine Industry of the Philippine government because of its massive growth in only a decade, which was rare in the past. However, though successful, the call center industry of the Philippines had also faced its downturns, specifically when global recession had hit the world.

Before Global Recession
The call center industry started when third-party agencies in the Philippines had introduced a number of live answering services in the market. The demand for call center services then had dramatically escalated resulting to the growth of call center companies and agencies in the Philippines. This marked the start of the call center industry.

Since the start of the call center industry, the demand had continuously grown in the Philippines, particularly when a number of new Outsource Call Center services had been introduced from simple customer relation services such as Order taking services, reservation services, technical support, customer care, travel services, educational services, financial services, to business-oriented call center services such as online business to customer support, online business to business support.

Because of the success of their services, the call center industry had eventually entered the global market when a number of foreign investors had decided to open their own call center businesses in the Philippines. Due to their influence to offshore businesses, many of these entities had entered the Philippines and started to outsource their live answering services to call center companies in the Philippines.

However, it was also because of this that the call center industry was heavily affected when global recession had hit the world.

During Global Recession
During global recession, many call center companies and agencies in the Philippines had closed down due to bankruptcy. This led to a mass unemployment in the Philippines which also affected the Philippine economy.

Part of the reason why the call center industry had been affected by global recession is because most of call center companies depended on their foreign clients, particularly from those coming from the US, which is why the majority of revenue that the call center industry generates usually comes from the US. And because the US was devastated by global recession, many of their foreign clients had pulled out due to either bankruptcy or to save their business from it.

After Global Recession
Today, the call center industry had already picked up its pace, now that many foreign investors have returned to the Philippines to start their own call center businesses in the Philippines or to outsource their call center services in the Philippines. And it was because of this that the industry had yet again risen in the Philippine market, which had also improved their services from the simple Order taking service to more complicated ones.