MANILA, Philippines -- Australia-based company Call Design sees opportunities in the local contact center industry amid the US financial crisis, an executive said.

Organizations such as banks in the United States and Europe are still outsourcing business processes in countries that provide lower cost yet high quality services, said Call Design managing director Miles Stanton during a briefing here.

?In the US, the average trust of a call center agent is around 150,000 dollars. In the Philippines, I understand that it?s around 25,000 dollars. These banks will have no choice but to outsource non-call center functions to another lower cost, high quality countries. There are only three that they can choose from, India China and the Philippines,? said Stanton.

Among the three countries, Stanton said that the Philippines has the most potential because Filipinos can speak English well.

Call Design director Brett Redman said the Philippines is one of the countries that have been identified globally for outsourcing call center services, which is also the reason why the company chose to invest in the country starting with an office in Makati City.

Redman pointed out that clients get upset when they learn through agents? accent in some countries that calls are being made offshore. But they barely notice it in the case of Filipino agents.

Stanton said organizations need to focus more on developing agents rather than just investing in technology.

?By focusing on the human being, we can make that human being so much more effective, so much more able to provide quality solutions and a quality account of the call that it makes the technology work for them,? Stanton added.

Through their agent optimization service, Stanton noted that the problem on retaining employees can be solved.

?By focusing on people and by giving them the tools to be able to fulfill their jobs better faster with more value, they feel pride. They feel happier. So if agent satisfaction goes up, retention problem levels decrease,? Stanton said.