Opening Call Centre Bangkok?

[stevenoakside]

Hi, i am interested to find out information regarding the possibility of opening a call centre in thailand,of a london/sydney based company. I would need 80-100 staff. Has anyone any experience of this? Opening/working in sales call centres in Thailand. This is only in very tentative information gathering stage at present so any information/help would be helpful. Particularly regarding legalaties of opening a business etc and ideally staffed by thai, english speaking people. I currently run a successful call centre of 50 staff in London, but have little to no idea about doing the same in Thailand.

Thanks

[somchaiq]

That will be difficult if you need English speaking staff. Thai using Thai Grammar and pronounce many English words wrong.

The ones who speak good English will be more expensive.

[givenall]

That will be difficult if you need English speaking staff. Thai using Thai Grammar and pronounce many English words wrong.

The ones who speak good English will be more expensive.

You have a better success in India or China. Thai have no loyalty to the employers

[TheKingfisher]

you need high speed VOIP services which Thailand is lacking in.

you need a large populace that speaks english fluently which Thailand is lacking in.

you need companies that are experenced in working with call center technologies which Thailand is lacking in.

and

you need to go to India where it is cheap and reliable, which Thailand is not.

[muji]

Come to KL. I can point you to few places. There is reliable internet and English speaking staff abundant

[chadintheusa]

Thai people, even educated ones are rarely fluent in English. Finding enough staff that can converse at a good level will be difficult.

[jcbangkok]

Before shooting the idea down totally ... what kind of call center? Would it be support sales? And what type of product?

[NADTATIDA1]

If your current set-up in the UK can support the innitial start up period then yes go ahead there are plenty of ex-pats that you could employ to do the work at half the cost of your present ones,it is all about the start up and stabilising of the company in Bangkok first...after this you should be ok,there are more and more companys doing this now.

[Soutpeel]

If your current set-up in the UK can support the innitial start up period then yes go ahead there are plenty of ex-pats that you could employ to do the work at half the cost of your present ones,it is all about the start up and stabilising of the company in Bangkok first...after this you should be ok,there are more and more companys doing this now.

Surely for this sort of business in Thailand, Work Permits for expats will be a big problem I suspect...and even an expat in Thailand will want more money than you would have to pay for people in say India.

Would suggest to the OP that there are easier places than Thailand to make a business like this work..

[mynextgig]

If your current set-up in the UK can support the innitial start up period then yes go ahead there are plenty of ex-pats that you could employ to do the work at half the cost of your present ones,it is all about the start up and stabilising of the company in Bangkok first...after this you should be ok,there are more and more companys doing this now.

Surely for this sort of business in Thailand, Work Permits for expats will be a big problem I suspect...and even an expat in Thailand will want more money than you would have to pay for people in say India.

Would suggest to the OP that there are easier places than Thailand to make a business like this work..

Totally agree, i have alot of experience in setting up service centre's (internal support) in the corporate world across Asia and the biggest flaw has been accent when using Indian employees. There are call centre's training India employees to sound like they are scottish, london, midlands etc but these staff are going to be expensive.

There has been a big shift in recent years from India to the Phillipines for call centre's because the Filipino accent is much more understandable than Indian to Europeans and Americans. Additionally, the market in India is saturated, driving salaries up due to lack of staff and so the Phillipines is a lower cost option with well educated individuals. If you have an American Express card in Asia, you will be talking to a helpdesk person in the Philipines, same with many of the banks like DBS, HSBC etc etc.

Thai's just simply dont have necessary level of english compentency to make this work and with the Thailand rules around hiring x number of Thai's per foreigner, the idea of hiring expats will be a major obstacle.

[Motoon]

I actually agree to statements made above especially regarding the English issue. For business purposes you might want to add Labuan to the list of options. Google it, very attractive tax-wise...

[NADTATIDA1]

I agree the Phillipines is very/more attractive a country to set up call centres in right now but in Thailand there are ways to getting work permits and ex-pats on good pay schemes that reward the best who can stick at the job.

I think the Op is aiming the question at having ex-pats doing the bulk of the work load as they obviously can converse better to clients in English,yes Thais can speak English but understanding a complaint or putting a sales pitch across and nailing it is not there best attribute.

Comparing India and Thailand to the Phillipines well we could go on all day at or to what is best location?

One thing i will say is it does not do a company any good at all employing staff that the customer immiediatly recognises to be of a different country/nationality when trying to answer complaints or selling services and products,this is well trodden ground and not conducive to a posperous business future.

Nothing worse than complaining to a person that does not understand what you are complaining about!

And the sales tecniques do not come across the same from a foreigner to that country as good as a native speaker.

[NADTATIDA1]

Interestng place Motoon

just a little snippet...

In 1984, Labuan was ceded by Sabah to the federal government and made a federal territory. In 1990, it was declared an international offshore financial centre and free trade zone. The Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) was created as Malaysia’s only offshore financial hub on October 1990 and was operating under the name of Labuan International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC). At the time it was established to strengthen the contribution of financial services to the Gross National Products (GNP) of Malaysia as well as to develop the island and its surrounding vicinity. The jurisdiction, supervised by the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority or LOFSA, offers benefits such as 3% tax on net audited results or a flat rate of Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) 20,000 to trading companies; low operational costs; liberal exchange controls; and a host of other advantages including readily available, experienced and professional service providers.

Since its inception, the jurisdiction has expanded to become a base for more than 6,500 offshore companies and more than 300 licensed financial institutions including world leading banks. Labuan IBFC is embarking on an aggressive growth strategy to become the premier international business and financial centre in the Asia Pacific region.

Labuan's business focus is on five core areas: offshore holding companies, captive insurance, Shariah-compliant Islamic Finance structures, public and private funds and wealth management. Labuan IBFC’s position is further enhanced by the launch of the Malaysian International Islamic Finance Centre initiative in August 2006.

Edited May 5, 2010 by NADTATIDA1

[Livinginexile]

you need high speed VOIP services which Thailand is lacking in.

you need a large populace that speaks english fluently which Thailand is lacking in.

you need companies that are experenced in working with call center technologies which Thailand is lacking in.

and

you need to go to India where it is cheap and reliable, which Thailand is not.

Very good advice!

The problem is India/Malasia/Singapore/Hong Kong does not have the same cheap love/sex for the OP as Thailand!

Discusion over

Edited May 5, 2010 by Livinginexile

[Livinginexile]

The OP's second post is.

"Hello, i am coming to Samui again in March and would like to know if anyone can suggest anywhere i can buy a moped there?? Idealy second hand. Cheers everyone!"

He want's to open an international call centre and can't even affort to buy a new moped!

[pompoiman]

why not try cambodia, the wages are less there than thailand and the english is much better, you would have to sort out your internet connections but they are available in phnom penh now, and work permits are easy, you would have a glut of english teachers to work on the side of there teaching jobs as well, i think if the internet is available it would be the ideal place to set it up, i am just surprised no one has thought of it before????

[clinique]

we are running a successful sales and marketing business in Thailand, 95% of our customers are English speaking and i am proud to say we have NO PROBLEM is getting Thai staff...

OP can PM me if you want to discuss further..

[Livinginexile]

we are running a successful sales and marketing business in Thailand, 95% of our customers are English speaking and i am proud to say we have NO PROBLEM is getting Thai staff...

OP can PM me if you want to discuss further..

Can they speak UNDERSTANDABLE English?

I don't think so

[clinique]

we are running a successful sales and marketing business in Thailand, 95% of our customers are English speaking and i am proud to say we have NO PROBLEM is getting Thai staff...

OP can PM me if you want to discuss further..

Can they speak UNDERSTANDABLE English?

I don't think so

yes they can,,, just need to know where to look.............

the attitude of most posters on this site,,,,,,,,,,,, is why they cant succeed her ein thailand.. nuff said!

[Motoon]

we are running a successful sales and marketing business in Thailand, 95% of our customers are English speaking and i am proud to say we have NO PROBLEM is getting Thai staff...

OP can PM me if you want to discuss further..

Can they speak UNDERSTANDABLE English?

I don't think so

yes they can,,, just need to know where to look.............

the attitude of most posters on this site,,,,,,,,,,,, is why they cant succeed her ein thailand.. nuff said!

Congrats to your successful business. It is a proven fact that English skills on average are poorer in Thailand than in the mentioned countries. It is not racial abuse but simple stats. After 6 Years employ for a Government agency, I'm certainly qualified to say that the level of English amongst officials (with UNI degrees) is scary to say the least. This is not only their personal failure but more a failure of the school system. The following 8 Years I have built up a nice business here that is now run by a superbly qualified friend (Thai) with solid English skills. About 50% of the staff are proficient and are rated as "experts". Most of them were found in the tourism industry practically none from prestigious Thai Universities.

Back to the issue. In order to know where to look you need insider knowledge (and luck). The OP asked for an assessment and English skills are rated low in the business risk assessment for Thailand. Again simple stats. I don't think you should generalise, assume or judge... by the way I'm Thai/(Swiss)...

[Motoon]

Interestng place Motoon

just a little snippet...

In 1984, Labuan was ceded by Sabah to the federal government and made a federal territory. In 1990, it was declared an international offshore financial centre and free trade zone. The Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) was created as Malaysia’s only offshore financial hub on October 1990 and was operating under the name of Labuan International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC). At the time it was established to strengthen the contribution of financial services to the Gross National Products (GNP) of Malaysia as well as to develop the island and its surrounding vicinity. The jurisdiction, supervised by the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority or LOFSA, offers benefits such as 3% tax on net audited results or a flat rate of Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) 20,000 to trading companies; low operational costs; liberal exchange controls; and a host of other advantages including readily available, experienced and professional service providers.

Since its inception, the jurisdiction has expanded to become a base for more than 6,500 offshore companies and more than 300 licensed financial institutions including world leading banks. Labuan IBFC is embarking on an aggressive growth strategy to become the premier international business and financial centre in the Asia Pacific region.

Labuan's business focus is on five core areas: offshore holding companies, captive insurance, Shariah-compliant Islamic Finance structures, public and private funds and wealth management. Labuan IBFC’s position is further enhanced by the launch of the Malaysian International Islamic Finance Centre initiative in August 2006.

Do I get a little stick there ? There are a lot of SP's established in Labuan in Logistics, Finance (invoicing), Customer Support a.o. I know we have an invoice process center running there

Edited May 6, 2010 by Motoon