A STUDY by FurstPerson Inc. ranking live-chat job candidates showed applicants from the Philippines demonstrated computer skills statistically equivalent to those found in the United States.
“Given the growth of ch at as a channel for customer interactions, we were interested in understanding which major contact center labor pools are best positioned to locate chat programs,” FurstPerson President and CEO Jeff Furst was quoted in a statement as saying. “While the US and Canada lead in overall performance, the Philippines is a compelling option, given their relatively strong performance but lower wage costs.”
According to Furst, live chat has become the second most important customer-service channel among both large enterprises and small businesses. Until now, no empirical research has examined the relative strength of live-chat job applicants across the major call-center markets: Colombia, India, the Philippines, the United States and Canada, he added.
The company said it studied 20,540 job applicants, which provided “insight on the relative strength and value of key talent pools for contact center chat programs.”
According to FurstPerson, its research brief highlights the top 5 competencies necessary for success in live-chat programs, as well as the global markets and regions that yield the highest number of candidates who possess these core skills. FurstPerson said it measured these skills using its proprietary chat simulation and assessments that are used by major contact center organizations to qualify job candidates for contact center jobs, like chat agents.
The results show substantial variability across applicant pools on data entry accuracy, according to Furstperson.
Applicants in Canada (73 percent), the US (71 percent) and the Philippines (70 percent) achieved comparable data entry accuracy scores. However, Colombian (57 percent) and Indian (41 percent) applicant pools perform at a significantly lower level on this dimension.
“One implication of these findings is that chat programs based in India and Colombia may struggle with quality assurance and efficiency-related metrics compared to similar programs in the US, Canada or [the] Philippines.”
“The results for service orientation and multitasking show a similar pattern across markets,” Furstperson said. Its study revealed the Philippines, Canada and the US achieved the highest and significantly above average scores on service and multitasking scales, “reinforcing their positions as the strongest chat-related applicant pools.”
Applicants from the Philippines demonstrate above-average performance on constructing complete sentences (55 percent), grammar (56 percent), instructional writing (52 percent) and overall writing skills (56 percent), the study revealed.