American company Qualfon Inc. said Thursday it expanded its operations in the Philippines with the opening of a 580-seat contact center in Manila.
“We have started in provincial locations to stay away from hyper competition in Manila, but Manila is the center of the universe for the BPO [business process outsourcing] industry. It’s part of the market credibility and there’s a lot of tremendous talent in this area,” Qualfon chief executive Mike Marrow told reporters in a news briefing.
Marrow said the contact center in Paco, Manila would employ up to 1,200 people at full capacity. It now has 50 employees who provide customer services.
The 580-seat center sits nears the historic core of Manila, at the doorstep of the University of the Philippines Manila and just a mile or two from 20 other colleges and universities.
“Qualfons’s Manila locations denotes our new neighborhood contact center strategy, which is all about putting job opportunities in the university communities and neighborhoods where the young people of Manila study and live,” Marrow said.
“This strategy is rooted in our mission to make people’s lives better and the reality that connecting with families and local communities build stronger relationship that result a deeper engagement and superior service,” he said.
Manuel Alcobendas, site director of Qualfon Manila, said the company expected the Paco center to create a significant impact on its ability to engage employees through increased agent retention rates and lower absenteeism.
“At the same time, the neighborhood strategy provides a new level of convenience for employees, who shave hours off their commute times. Qualfon always aims to build cents where they deliver benefits for everyone involved. This is just another illustration of how we’re designing intelligent outsourcing locations,” he said.
Outside Manila, Qualfon has contact centers in Dumaguete and Cebu with a total combined employees of more than 6,000.
Qualfon has about 12,000 employees serving international brands across many industries and intelligent outsourcing locations that span the US, the Philippines, Guyana and Mexico.