Boom, Boom, Boom: The Call Center Industry

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Boom, Boom, Boom By Aries Rufo, Carmela Fonbuena Newsbreak Senior WriterNewsbreak Staff Writer THE GROWTH of the call center industry is creating a ripple effect among convenience stores, fast-food chains, real estate, coffee shops, and restaurants. Where the call centers have sprung up, fast-food chains, coffee shops, and convenience stores have followed. Stores hours expand to accommodate call center employees (also called agents) handling the graveyard shift. The real estate business has stirred, and occupancy rates in hotels have gone up. All these mean more jobs, too. Several branches of rival fast-food chains Jollibee and McDonald’s now stay open round-the-clock in call center hubs Ortigas, Makati, and Libis. Two branch managers of McDonald’s, one in Ortigas and in another in Libis, disclose that their daily sales have risen by 10 to 15 percent. To illustrate, McDonald’s in Ortigas posted an additional P500,000 income in December last year. This additional income came from its operations from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. and was attributed mainly to walk-in call center agents and deliveries to call center offices. Convenience stores are happy, too. Profits of Ministop and 7-11, particularly their branches near call center offices, have increased by as much as 50 percent. In random interviews, store managers say that call center employees are indeed their biggest customers. One Ministop manager attributes 60 percent of her total sales every day to these employees. It’s a caffeine lift for coffee shops. Usually closed at midnight, many branches of Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Mocha Blends, and Gloria Jean’s coffee shops have lengthened store hours to accommodate the nighttime call center employees. Gloria Jean’s in Eastwood, Libis, is packed from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. It’s the break time of the call center agents there. Being the lone coffee shop open in the area at that time, it has the monopoly of the market. Caffee A-go-go in Ortigas, recognizing the market’s changing complex, has included beer in its morning menu to cater to call center agents coming out of the night shift. “We realize they are not after coffee in the morning. Because they’ve just come from work, they wanted beer to relax,” says manager Marjorie Tarriela. Rita Trillo, Sitel’s business development manager, observes that one of the beneficiaries of the call centers is the real estate industry. She says that call centers are scrambling for space in the call center hubs. Sitel alone occupies four floors in Cyberone Building in Libis. eTelecare occupies three floors in the same building. The call centers also help the hotel industry, Trillo says. “Investors of call center companies need a place to stay in when they come here, and so they are raising the hotels’ occupancy rates.” Send feedback to letters@newsbreak.com.ph

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