Chile Forum

I'd like to start a call center/tele-sales; target companies are in the US. Questions: 1) Is there really a good pool of English speaking people in Santiago? 2) Is the business environment better than BsAs? 3) How much corruption is there? 3) IT... can I get the equipment to support a call center?
Thanks all!

My opinion in few words
1) Probably no
2) Yes
3) Almost none
4) Probably yes

yea, English speakers are going to be your problem. All the rest are not.

If someone speaks sufficient English to do that sort of job, they are likely being paid a much higher wage somewhere else. What someone in say India gets paid, is much less than what you could get away with paying an English Speaker in Chile with the same sort of level of English.

admin wrote:yea, English speakers are going to be your problem. All the rest are not.

If someone speaks sufficient English to do that sort of job, they are likely being paid a much higher wage somewhere else. What someone in say India gets paid, is much less than what you could get away with paying an English Speaker in Chile with the same sort of level of English.

I guess this is a surprise considering the Chilean delegation that came up to the Silicon Valley in June touting the pool of English speakers

admin wrote:What someone in say India gets paid, is much less than what you could get away with paying an English Speaker in Chile with the same sort of level of English.

Salary for English speakers; are we talking about $500 to $800 USD per month? Higher?

here is in part the problem. If someone already speaks very good English, the kind you would want on a phone talking to a client in the States or Europe then they are likely already professionals that are making a lot more money in some other field because they have say graduate degrees.

There is not a very big pool of low education, but high quality English speakers. People with the money to invest in good quality English courses, tend to be executives.

I bet many Lonely Planet type gringos would bite at around $600-700. Turnover would be high but it would be an appealing option over English teaching at a questionable instittute or school.

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:I bet many Lonely Planet type gringos would bite at around $600-700. Turnover would be high but it would be an appealing option over English teaching at a questionable instittute or school.

My next logical question would be... is there that many English speaking gringos in Chile? Any guess as to the amount? Thanks

admin wrote:here is in part the problem. If someone already speaks very good English, the kind you would want on a phone talking to a client in the States or Europe then they are likely already professionals that are making a lot more money in some other field because they have say graduate degrees.

There is not a very big pool of low education, but high quality English speakers. People with the money to invest in good quality English courses, tend to be executives.

So it isn't like BsAs where the education is "free" and people are bi/tri-lingual? Or for that matter Uruguay.

under-graduate and graduate university as well as most institutes(instructors coming from the standard CHilean U system) are taught the British way of speaking english...the pool of english speakers in CHile cannot be that large...the u of CHile might graduate 50 a year from thier humanities department...they will be the only ones that could adapt to american style english and barely at that...try calling the lan Chile customer service line and opt for an english operator...talk to them and you will see what I mean...they are most likely the best call center type facility operating in CHile and do a good job essentially but really it is very controlled and the client doesn't have to much to say that will surprise them....

I do not think that the average Chilean with or without english skills is going to put up for long with some irrate business owner in Houston...screaming in english...I don't believe its in thier nature and with the present english skills they would have to translate and comprehend some american screaming at them...it would not go well...remember that in CHile the customer is never right...and how would that translate in a customer service call center...?..not well I would imagine....

I think that the better focus for a call center idea would be to apply Chilean english speakers in a call center for chilean products offered to english speakers..ie talking to lan chile and handleing thier call center for them at a predetrermined monthly or per call basis...this way you could teach/communicate american colloquialisms as they relate to a chilean product...

laters...

p, out.


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I definitely think you could find enough English speakers to hire. You could always advertise in the Facebook marketplace for Chile.

Unless you're marketing Chicha. In this case, English is probably secondary and an Indian call centre would work just fine. "Vot? You vont TREE leeters? Vell, it's just not done, innit"

Sorry, can't miss a swipe at Indian call centres

Juanito wrote:I definitely think you could find enough English speakers to hire. You could always advertise in the Facebook marketplace for Chile.

Facebook... didn't even think about that. There is a good representation from Santiago?

You guys/gals are all great for your assistance.

Very few people speak good english in Chile, only those who are lived in an english country for long years because the english classes here worth nothing. Most of us chileans just speak some SPANGLISH a low budget version of the real thing and we are unable to interact properly with native english speakers.

Of course those happy few that postgraduated in the US ivi league (sons and relatives of politicians mostly) speak good english (well some of them) but they are not available to work in a call center, same for expats living here because, as everyone know, gringos are very, very rich people

I'm looking for something slightly different. I'm interested in finding people with decent understanding of written English and some basic understanding of corporate structures (e.g. understand what a subsidiary is), but I don't need them to make phone calls. My tentative profile would be students in the process of finishing business school. We'd use these interns/temps to do data entry in our CRM where we track our prospects and clients. I might also be interested in relatively similar profiles but to handle data entry related to the medical field (we're thinking of adding a directory of medical devices to one of our online publications).

Sounds doable to find such people? Are Chilean (business/marketing) students in the 20-25 years range used to working part-time on the side, or doing internships? My expectation would be to pay $5 an hour or less.