It would be ideal to outsource Chinese call center services to the Philippines because aside from the country’s multilingual capabilities, it has also built a reputation for giving top quality service to various types of customers.
It may seem that taking your call center operations to China would guarantee a better understanding between your brand and your customers since native Chinese-speakers can bridge the lingual gap. You should know, however, that customer service goes beyond the boundaries of language; it requires a level of understanding that lets customer service representatives acknowledge the issue brought to them from the standpoint of the customer and then deal with it on a professional level. And the mere understanding of a language is not enough to accomplish those.
Before settling with an outsourcing firm that would handle your Chinese call center operations, you should first get to know the kind of customers you have in order to find the right people to address their product concerns.
The Chinese customer
China’s economic climb is proven by the Chinese consumers’ big spending activities. They even dethroned the US in the record for the highest holiday sales revenues. The economic growth also helped Western brands to thrive in China, but the Chinese customers’ preference for imported brands over their local counterparts doesn t mean that the country is becoming westernized; it instead shows that China is attaining economic superpower status.
The modernity of Chinese consumers is further seen in their digital activities. China’s nearly 600 million Internet users give the country the largest online market in the world. Mobile devices are also the main channel that the Chinese use for shopping activities, making digital marketing and e-commerce thrive in one of the most populated countries today.
The Filipino call center representative
Western brands owe their success in China to the strategic marketing of their goods as “global” instead of “foreign.” The “global” customer experience, however, does not stop at choosing a product and using the services; it transcends to how these customers are assisted by customer service representatives when they have a concern.
Being in a global outsourcing capital, Filipinos can give that kind of experience that can exceed those in China. In a comparison with other outsourcing destinations, the Philippines was found to excel in language proficiency, professional competence, and cost efficiency. China, on the other hand, also lets investors save a lot of money, but language barriers, low educational attainment, and too personal business attitude make them a less favorable outsourcing site.
If your business has a culturally diverse market, your Chinese-speaking clients are probably multilingual as well. The Philippine culture has an affinity with the West, so Filipinos understand the Chinese’s favor for Western products. Filipinos are also big Internet users, putting them on the same level with the Chinese when it comes to tech-savvyness.
To conclude, the Philippines can run a Chinese call center because the country already has a reputation for adapting to customer needs no matter the culture they are in, the language they speak, and the consumer culture they practice.
