Call Centers Philippines & WFH
(Photo : Call Centers Philippines & WFH)

Working from home was becoming an increasingly popular option for millions of people across the world, even before the coronavirus made it obligatory for millions more. While many businesses have embraced the practice, and some may never return to having staff in offices again, there are many roles and sectors where working from home is simply not an option. Among these are call centers in the Philippines, where strict national mandates have forced adaptation but for whom home working is rarely a viable option.

The situation is likely to differ for every call center agent, of course. While the common perception of call centers are of factory-like conditions, with workers in regimented rows in a vast place, the truth is different. Vendors provide an array of services, so while customer service agents may be the backbone of call center outsourcing providers in the Philippines, they are often joined by claims specialists, accountants, content moderators, and an array of backoffice workers. Some estimate that around 5-10% of the BPO workforce was already working from home even before the pandemic struck.

However, for the core workers who are dealing with customers on the frontline, working from home is fraught with difficulties. First are the practical and financial difficulties of setting up a home work environment. While it's a rarity for homes to have no internet access, few can boast the quality and redundancy of connections found in Philippine contact centers. Few businesses are prepared to accept a customer experience that might be cutshort by a local network problem or delayed when a call agent's family member hogs the bandwidth.

"Working from home is a minefield of mundane disruptions. Even when equipped with state-of-the-art IT and connectivity, a home is not an office," says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning call center in the Philippines.   Many people are familiar with, and forgiving of, disrupted Zoom meetings-the cat prowling across the keyboard has become 2020's meeting icebreaker. However, they tend to be less tolerant in customer service situations, especially as businesses have had time to adapt. Most call centers in the Philippines are designed for call agents to provide high-quality customer service without distraction. Homes that might have crying babies, barkingdogs, noisy neighbors, or gurgling plumbing are less than optimal when dealing with a customer on the phone.

The most important factor, however, is security. BPO in the Philippines is an incredibly secure industry. It has to be, since agents are handling highly confidential informationevery day, from a customer's financial records to a patient's medical history. Businesses need to be confident that a call center in the Philippines is secure, handling their customers' data as carefully as they would if they were handling it in-house.

The measures taken in call centers in the Philippines to ensure data security cannot be replicated in homes: Computers are secure and transactions logged, staff cannot take personal devices to their desk, and entire centers operate paperless, so agents can't even write down or record information. Access to the buildings is also controlled and usually monitored by CCTV and security guards. It's simply impossible to exercise the same levels of security at workers' homes.

Coronavirus has changed the way much of the world works, challenging existing norms of a working day in the office. Call centers in the Philippines have had to adapt as well, playing their part by protecting their staff and preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, when the security of customer data is paramount, working from home is not an option. It will never match the level of protection offered by a call center.