Costa Rica Call Center Blog

“Our experience in the country has been positive in the quality of service”

Amazon, a leader in Internet sales, expects to expand its operations to Costa Rica at the end of the year hiring 100 more people for customer service.

Patty Smith, Director of Corporate Communications for the company, confirmed the information from the firm’s headquarters in Washington State, United States.

According to Smith, the reason to expand its operations in Costa Rica is due to the good performance of its first customer center in Latin America, which operates in the free zone UltraLAG in Heredia.

“We will grow as our requirements demand, and we will do so at a pace that allows us to ensure that quality standards remain a positive experience for the customer. Therefore, at this time, Amazon Costa Rica has approximately 200 employees and expect to have 100 by the end of 2009″ confirmed Smith in an email.

“Our experience has been very positive, especially as regards the quality of service. Amazon aims to be the largest company focused on customer care, and Costa Rica has proven to have quality people who can provide the proper customer service” added the spokeswoman.

The good news of the new 100 does not come alone. Smith added the company plans to hire in its global operations, temporary jobs for the holiday season this year.

“For the dates of holidays between October and December, we will be offering temporary opportunities for those who want to earn extra money for Christmas or the end of the school year (…) Amazon is one of the few companies that offer this option, where we give full training for a period of two to three months” said the executive.

Even Smith did not rule out that the company considers full time employment to those who “have shown a high performance for that period and would like to remain in the company.”

Amazon began operations here last October and according to Smith, the home has a capacity to house 700 employees.

Smith explained that in terms of attracting investment, Costa Rica offers a high level of education and Costa Ricans have a “natural inclination” towards a culture of service.

“Part of the feature of Amazon is to be open to new concepts and ideas, especially if these benefits directly to the customer. If the headquarters in Costa Rica continues to experience high testing to the client, then there will be more opportunities for growth as far as the market allows” she said.

Source: La Nacion

Five companies need to hire 600 people who have a high level of English and immediate availability.

They are Stream, AEGIS, Amadeus, ICT Group and ACE. These companies operate in Heredia and are focused on outsourcing of financial, technical support, billing, human resources and telemarketing, among other services.

According to Gabriela Llobet, director CINDE (the national agency for attracting foreign investment), the new jobs are available because of the good times the services sector in Costa Rica is experiencing.

“It is definitely very good news for the country that in times of crisis there are opportunities for growth for these companies (both organic and new business) because of the credibility and competitiveness of the country and because the companies located here are highly productive and have a skilled workforce” said.

According to CINDE, more than 20 companies of this type are installed in the country.
Labor supply. Lisbeth Thomas of Stream, reported that they need 350 people because of expansion of its services: 150 for one in English and another 200 for a bilingual (English-Spanish).

The company was established in the country three years ago and has a payroll of 1,000 people at its office located in the Americas FTZ, in Heredia. Some of the benefits offered to those interested in joining Stream are subsidies on food and transportation.

Adriana Porras from ICT Group, said the company, which began operations here in 2006 with 10 people – looking for between 150 and 200 people to work in the area of customer service. Porras said that ICT Group provides stability, good wages and opportunities for internal growth.

Felipe Cardona from AEGIS, said the multinational, which in 2008 bought People Support-need about 20 people working in the area of customer service. This group will join the more than 100 people the company hired in April (90) and May (20) and working in Ultra Park in Heredia. The company specializes in outsourcing of sales and collections.

Amadeus – which provides services to travel agencies, hotels, rent-a-cars and cruises, among others, seeks to four people working in the technical part. Recently, the company hired 16 for the service.

John Cotter said that Amadeus offers competitive salaries, annual bonus according to performance, health insurance, international and even a special room for recreation. Currently has more than 30 employees in Oficentro Madonna in Pavas since its installation in 1998.

ACE is looking for people to do collections in United States. Ricardo Esquivel, did not specify the number of people involved, but said that every month “looking for people with a very high level in English”.

Source: La Nacion

What’s working and not working in Costa Rica: A Collective Q/A

The Services Summit is built around corporate speed-dating

Over 300 attendees make up this year’s Services Summit. What’s striking is there is literally no drop off – people are sticking around for the full conference.

The valuable part to blogging from a buyer/seller (corporate speed dating) event from a business journalist’s perspective is you have deeper conversations with a focused group of individuals. Unlike a conference with on-stage speakers and panels, this type of event seems to enable you to self-direct your own line of inquiry and test market your opinions.

Here are the key topics I’ve been driving and the collective responses (drawn from about two dozen in-depth conversations throughout the summit):

Question: How does Costa Rica rate among other nearshore nations?

Answer: Costa Rica is not a lowest-cost provider. The nation’s services industry continues on an upward trajectory toward higher levels of quality, specialization and niche professional capabilities. The services sector is intentionally designed to be dynamic and the nation’s education system is in fact set up to align to business requirements now and for the next generation of market demand.

Question: What is the hottest service sector right now?

Answer: CAD and architectural design is getting a lot of attention and the software development sector is filled with companies with a hard-core focus on differentiation and value-added service. Medical tourism, product development and patent and intellectual property research are doing well also.

Question: Costa Rica is increased looked at as a “hub” for nearshore outsourcing. What exactly does that mean?

Answer: Costa Rica is absolutely a shining light in the Nearshore region. The hub concept is starting to take shape in two ways – regional leadership (dozens of service provider companies from around the nearshore region participated in the Service Summit) and through an “aggregator” role – where business flows from client to the Costa Rica provider which manages the project/ relationship and selectively sources to other locations such at Panama and Colombia, based on need.

(My view: There continues to be a need for the Nearshore nations to come together more collectively as a block which will accelerate global awareness of the unique strengths of this region. Many observers expect CAFTA to enable some of that cooperation. Yet, to be honest, there is definitely a sense of competitiveness among the Nearshore Lions (Costa Rica and Mexico) and the Tigers (Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Barbados). There is more talk of cooperation than real action.

Question: Where are Costa Rica professional services providers struggling?

Answer: Without question the weakest point for many of the providers in Costa Rica (the vast majority of them have under 50 employees) is sales and marketing. These companies generally need help developing targeted marketing campaigns and messaging that highlights their core value proposition. Reaching the US buyer is a top issue – since (at risk of oversimplification) the practice of Nearshore outsourcing is invisible to many US clients. PROCOMER is identified by many providers as a key facilitator of awareness-building in the buyer audience

Source: Caribbean CRM Central

Posted by Bob Evans on Jun 1, 2009 02:55 PM

The list, built around concerns over terrorism, pollution, and geopolitical tensions, includes cities from a range of countries that could otherwise constitute a round-the-world tourism dream: Thailand, Jamaica, South Africa, Brazil, India, Israel, the Philippines, and Colombia. Read on to see if your company’s global outsourcing map matches up with this list of the world’s 10 riskiest locations for outsourcing.

Here are the top 10 as ranked by Brown & Wilson, authors of the annual “Black Book of Outsourcing”:

1. Bogota, Colombia
2. Bangkok, Thailand
3. Johannesburg, South Africa
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Kingston, Jamaica
6. Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon (NCR), India
7. Manila, Philippines
8. Rio do Janeiro, Brazil
9. Mumbai, India
10. Jerusalem, Israel

Bogota took the dreaded top spot for a handful of reasons, according to an article in India Times

Does Bogota Deserve it?

Source: InformationWeek