Outsourcing to the Philippines
The Philippines.Volume and value.
A country with one of the world's deepest pools of customer service talent, and English spoken across business and education.
Why the Philippines
Customer service isn't a side industry here. It's one of the country's biggest, built over three decades of looking after customers for companies all over the world.
A deep, experienced pool
People who have worked customer service, back office and specialist support for international companies, often for years, and the team leads, trainers and quality specialists who grew up with them.
English at the centre
English is an official language, taught in schools and used across business, law and the media. What it doesn't automatically bring is an understanding of your customers' culture, which is where our training comes in.
At a glance
The Philippines, in brief.
- Capital
- Manila
- Metro Manila is the main business centre
- Population
- About 113 million
- 2024 census
- Languages
- Filipino and English
- Both official. Filipino is based on Tagalog, and English is used across business and education
- Data law
- Data Privacy Act, 2012
- With its own regulator, the National Privacy Commission
- Currency
- Philippine peso
- The industry
- About 1.9 million people
- In IT and business services, 2025
What we use the Philippines for.
Scale
The largest pool of our three locations, for teams of any size and for growing them.
Value
Where volumes are high, the location that makes the most of every hour.
Experience
People who have looked after customers for international companies, often for years.
Every kind of work
Customer service on every channel, back office, quality checks and content review.
Trained for your customers.
Good English isn't the same as knowing your customers. So the team is trained for the market your customers are in, and how they sound is checked like everything else.
- Your customers’ marketWhat they expect and how they like to be spoken to, whether they’re British, Irish, American or anywhere else.
- Your tone of voiceHow you sound, written down and taught, so every reply sounds like you.
- Checked like everything elseTone and understanding are part of every quality review, alongside the right answer, so it's measured, not assumed.
Quality review
Email reply to a customer
- The right answer
- In your tone of voice
- Understood what the customer needed
The team
Hired and run by us.
Our own people, managed by us, on the same hiring, training, coaching and quality checks as every team we run.
- Hired for your account, the channel and the work
- Trained on your products, processes and tone of voice
- Team leads who coach, and reviews of real work that feed the coaching
- Managed, encrypted company devices
Good to know.
The practical things worth planning for.
- Public holidaysIncluding Holy Week, All Saints’ Day and a long Christmas season, planned into the rota well ahead.
- Power cutsBrownouts happen, so we provide every home set-up with a battery for the router and a backup mobile connection. With laptops on battery too, a short power cut doesn’t stop the work.
- WeatherTyphoon season runs through the second half of the year. Bigger disruptions are planned for, and you are kept informed when one is coming.
- Data protectionAccess from the Philippines counts as an international transfer for UK and European data, so the safeguards your customers' law requires are in place before work starts.
How it grew
Three decades of looking after customers.
- 1995Economic zonesA new law created economic zones and IT parks with simpler rules for companies serving the world.
- 1997The first contact centresInternational providers opened in Manila, with many more following through the early 2000s.
- 2004An industry bodyThe industry organised, working with the government and universities on training for the work.
- 2010sBeyond ManilaCebu, Clark, Davao and other cities grew their own hubs, and the work broadened into back office and specialist support.
- TodayAbout 1.9 million peopleIn IT and business services, including home working made permanent for registered firms in 2024.
Figures from the Philippine IT and business process industry body, 2025.
Did you know?
The country, and its people.
From the business districts of Metro Manila to Cebu, at the centre of the islands.
- 1901Several hundred American teachers arrived by ship to found an English-language public school system.
- About 7,641Islands make up the Philippines.
Questions, answered.
The things people ask us first.
Will our customers understand the team?
The team speaks English fluently, and is trained for your customers’ culture and expectations. How they sound is part of every quality review.
How good is their written English?
Everyone is tested on the channels they will work on before they are hired, so someone answering email or chat is tested on their writing, not just on a call.
Will the team push back, or just say yes?
They are coached to ask, to escalate, and to say no when the answer is no. Knowing when to escalate is part of every quality review.
Can the team cover our nights and weekends?
Yes, and bank holidays too. Whatever hours your customers need.
Do they work from home or from an office?
From home, on company laptops we manage and encrypt, with access only to what the work needs. Spreading people across many homes and towns also means one outage or flood is far less likely to stop everyone at once.
Can our customers’ data be accessed from the Philippines?
Yes, with the right safeguards. Access from the Philippines counts as an international transfer for UK and European data, so the safeguards your customers' law requires are in place before work starts. The team works inside your systems.
Who employs the team?
We do. They are our own people, hired and managed by us, not freelancers and not staff you have to manage yourself.
Will we keep losing people we have trained?
People move on everywhere, so we plan for it. What they know lives in your knowledge base and training material. People are trained to cover for each other, and we recruit and train any replacement ourselves.
How much of our time will it take?
Much less than running a team yourself. Team leads, coaching and quality checks are ours. You have one person who owns your service, and a regular review together.
Can we start small?
Yes. One person or a small team is fine, and we can start with a pilot if you would like one.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the work, the channels, the hours and the size of the team. We will set it out plainly once we understand what you need.
What if something disrupts work there?
We provide every home set-up with backup power for the router and a backup mobile connection. Bigger disruptions, such as typhoons, are planned for, and you are kept informed.
Can we combine the Philippines with another location?
Yes. Volume from the Philippines and specialist or language work from Portugal or Ireland, from one provider, on one standard, in one report.
Thinking about the Philippines?
Tell us about the work, and we'll tell you honestly whether it's the right fit.