BPO’s aren’t satisfied anymore with offering just the usual contact center services. Convergys, one of the biggest BPO’s in the country, just announced that they will be offering social media services to foreign clients. This is an interesting development and I’m wondering how this will impact the local freelancing scene. Obviously freelancers and agencies that handle local clients won’t be affected but those who concentrate on foreign accounts will probably need to step up their game in order to keep getting good business.
Here’s the article caption from Newsbytes.ph:
SOCIAL PHENOMENON. Marife Zamora, Convergys country manager for the Philippines and Asia Pacific/EMEA (right), discloses in a recent press briefing that the BPO firm’s local sites would be offering social media services to foreign clients starting this month. At left is Convergys president Andrea Ayers, who visited the country for the company’s anniversary celebration.
Maybe make it harder for some but “kill”? I doubt it. As one who’s worked both as a freelancer and as a call center agent/BPO employee, I think there will always be a niche for freelancers. Because freelancers have greater freedom and time to explore they tend to be at the forefront of trends, meaning the best ones get advanced training long before the main workforce catches up in terms of skills.
Usually freelancers get small to medium business or individual clients, while BPO companies get the bigger clients for practical reasons. One can’t expect an individual who’s bootstrapping a business to get the services of a BPO corporation; s/he is more likely to hire a freelancer or a smaller agency. BPOs on the other hand have to consider long-term cost and revenue, so they’d only cater to well-funded bigger businesses.
If BPOs are now venturing to social media it means they already see a sustainable pool of local talent. A lot of social-media savvy freelancers can be expected to get absorbed by these companies. Those who remain freelancing may already have a lot of experience and marketing know-how to be able to compete.
Definitely there’s a long tail in terms social media outsourcing. Kill the freelances? I think they can’t.
It also remains to be seen whether the people Convergys hires can get a successful social media campaign rolling. Majority of the population know social media and have social media accounts, but not all of them know how to maximize social media.
I don’t think they’ll kill freelancers. As what others have said, there will always be niches that freelancers can focus on.
What I’m curious about is how much they charge clients for social media services. And, how much salary the call center agents will be getting. Will they be getting the same salary as a call center agent?
If it’s the same salary, many freelancers, who charge their clients low rates, might as well just sign up as an agent.