Inbound Technical Support in Contact Centers of Northern Mindanao, Philippines: Toward a Grounded Theory

Abstract

The contact center industry is a vast and rapidly expanding information technology-enabled services (ITES) industry. Deloitte has identified the Philippines together with India as the top contact center destinations of Asia. IBM Global Services has also singled out the Philippines as one of Asia's global leader in business process outsourcing (BPO), the biggest revenue-earning subsector of which is the contact center subsector. This study aim to explore, using the Glaserian or classic grounded theory method (GTM), the main concern of the ITES workforce in contact centers, particularly inbound technical support representatives, and how they resolve their main concern. GTM goes beyond the descriptive approach of most qualitative methods by generating from data a theory of the substantive area. The theory that will be generated by this research can be used to inform the development of systems, processes, structures, and policies that will support inbound technical support representatives.