Call Center Expansion Amidst AI Revolution – with Mark Shapiro of Select VoiceCom

In this week’s podcast episode, Derek Gallimore spoke to Mark Shapiro. Mark is the CEO and Founder of Executive Boutique Call Center and Select VoiceComm (SVC). 

The conversation explored Executive Boutique Call Center’s rebranding to Select VoiceComm, the company’s expansion to Davao, and AI’s impact on the call center industry.

From Executive Boutique Call Center to Select VoiceCom

Mark excitingly shared updates about his business ventures, which included the 15th-anniversary celebration of Executive Boutique Call Center.

Executive Boutique Call Center, or EB Call Center, will be combined with Mark’s other company, Select VoiceCom (SVC). SVC was launched in 2014 to target the Australian and Asian markets. 

Mark shared, “We’re in the process of combining those two brands. We will be phasing out the Executive Boutique and branding everything under Select VoiceCom or SVC.

The primary motivation behind this consolidation is a lot of confusion in the market. We lease out almost an entire building in Cebu, and we’re getting one of those giant 15-foot signs.

We’d be able to brand the entire building. And then, we do a lot of employee engagement under Select Voice Comms. It didn’t make sense to continue the Executive Boutique brand because we can get a lot more bang for the buck out of the SVC brand. 

That’s very exciting for us,” he added.

Select VoiceCom is a full-service solution call center

Mark provided a detailed overview of their business model.

The company offers a comprehensive package encompassing team leaders, managers, and trainers — a complete solution for clients rather than a simple staffing service for client-managed operations.

He then delved into the scope of their services, spanning traditional customer support, technical assistance, lead generation, and sales across various industries like: 

• Software
• Law firms
• Publishing
• Insurance
• E-commerce

Regarding their entry into healthcare, specifically home healthcare, Select VoiceCom provides Filipino nurses to handle the backend (medical and admin support) for certain healthcare segments in the United States.

“There’s a lot of back-end paperwork that has to get done and complicated billing processes that we’ve learned and become experts at. This requires nurses, and the Philippines produces more nurses than any other country worldwide,” he said.

Moreover, Mark emphasized the opportunities their setup provided for Filipino nurses to work in their own country: 

“A lot of [Filipino] men and women go to college in hopes that one day they can be a nurse in another country and make a lot more money.

But we’ve allowed them to stay in Cebu and soon to be Davao – offering a significantly better salary than many call center employees due to their specialized medical care and education,” he added.

AI’s impact on the call center industry

Mark acknowledged the vast potential within healthcare while expressing concerns about the impact of AI.

“[Healthcare] is one of those areas that AI is a genuine concern for us. Everybody’s used ChatGPT now. If you’ve tested it on your phone or iPad, you could talk to it instead of typing, and it will answer.”

Further, the Select VoiceCom CEO noted the positive reception of such technology. “It sounds great, and several companies are selling these services that you can have AIs make or take phone calls, and they’re going to be better and smarter than the average agent. And we’re not far off from that point.” 

Mark concluded, “Certainly, finding parts of the call center industry that will be protected from the eventual AI takeover is important.”

Select VoiceCom’s expansion to Davao

The CEO also shared his company’s expansion plans. Select VoiceCom’s office is currently in Cebu, but Mark plans on opening an office in Davao, Philippines. 

The primary motivation behind the trip was their extensive nurse recruitment: “We’re going there primarily because we are hiring so many nurses. We need to be in a different city to get that expanding pool of nurses from a different geographic location.”

For further information on the Executive Boutique Call Center, you can visit their current website: https://ebcallcenter.com/

Thus, you may establish connections with Mark through Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-alan-shapiro/