When Agents Become Leaders: Spotlight on Agent Results Advocates in the Philippines

The strength of customer service in the Philippines has always come from people who lead with empathy. At Liveops, we see that every day in the way our Agent Results Advocates (ARAs) guide, support, and encourage the customer service professionals within our network.  

This is a first-ever spotlight on two of those leaders in the Philippines—Ryan Armena and Ricjun “RJ” Bolocon—and how their journeys show what growth looks like when leadership is based on service. 

We will walk through why leadership development matters in the Philippines, highlight two real ARA stories, show how Liveops Philippines makes it possible for customer service professionals to grow into ARAs, and how this growth improves stability and results for clients. 

Industry Snapshot: Why the Philippines Needs More Leaders 

To frame it with real numbers, the Contact Center Association of the Philippines reported that contact centers brought in about 31.5 billion USD in 2024 and represented about 1.62 million workers in customer operations.  

This underscores two critical insights: customer service continues to be the foundation of the IT-BPM sector, and the customer service workforce itself represents the most significant talent pool for future supervisors, QA specialists, and client-facing leaders. 

At the same time, the industry roadmap from the Philippine Information Technology and Business Process Management (IBPAP) aims higher, targeting around 59 billion USD in revenue and up to 2.5 million jobs by 2028. Growth like that only works if more work becomes higher value and if people who understand customer conversations are promoted into roles where they can guide others. 

That is exactly where ARAs come in. 

Meet Ryan Armena: Leadership as Service 

Ryan’s story starts the way a lot of strong Liveops stories start: supporting customers, learning new systems, and stepping in when other customer service professionals were struggling. What makes him different is that he realized he felt the most fulfilled when he was helping someone else succeed, so moving into the Agent Results Advocate role was a way to make that impact bigger. 

Because he has done the work himself, he can quickly spot confusion, patterns, and dips in confidence. He takes time to walk new agents through every step and explain the “why,” not just the task, and he leans on patience, compassion, and attention to detail to help them perform confidently.  

This kind of coaching shortens the time it takes for new agents to deliver brand-aligned customer experiences, which is exactly what clients need during launches and seasonal peaks. 

If he could talk to his “new agent” self, Ryan would tell himself to treat every challenge as growth, stay curious and stay committed — exactly the mindset we want ARAs in the Philippines to model. When ARAs lead this way, clients see steadier QA scores, fewer repeat interventions, and a support community that absorbs change faster.  

Meet Ricjun “RJ” Bolocon: Paying Growth Forward

RJ’s journey is about giving back. He started in the Liveops network, facing the same hurdles other customer service professionals face — learning new tools, building confidence, handling tough calls — and that’s why he now leads with people first, not just numbers. “I don’t just focus on data, I focus on people” is how he describes it. 

While providing services for Liveops, he finished his MBA and is now pursuing his Doctorate in Business Management; he says that discipline helps him coach others to “trust the process”, because every challenge is shaping their future leadership skills.  

This builds a strong bench of Philippine-based leaders who can support complex client programs without having to start over every time volumes shift. 

Recognition matters to him too; being trusted to mentor agents and being featured internally showed him that Liveops notices people who serve with heart, which is especially important in the Philippines, where community and belonging keep people engaged. Happy, well-supported agents stick around and broaden their expertise across various lines of business, giving clients continuity and maintaining program quality over time. 

What ARAs Actually Do for Philippine Delivery 

ARAs like Ryan and RJ make the remote BPO model stronger in a few ways: 

• They translate experience into guidance. Because they have done the work, their coaching is specific and believable. 

• They lead with empathy. Both Ryan and RJ talk about patience, understanding, and recognizing that every person has a story. That fits perfectly with the Philippine service style. 

• They make learning continuous. Instead of one-time training, they help new or struggling agents stay informed, confident and ready for the next update. 

• They protect quality at scale. When the industry is trying to grow from today’s revenue to the 2028 targets, you need people on the ground who can keep service levels steady. ARAs are that layer.

Liveops Philippines: Growing Leaders From Within 

This spotlight matters because it shows the kind of growth Liveops wants to support in the Philippines. We are not just sourcing customer service professionals across Cebu, Negros, Mindanao, and other regions—we are creating space for people like Ryan and RJ to lead without having to leave their communities. 

For clients, that means you get delivery support that is already stable, already coached, and already accustomed to remote operations in the Philippines, instead of having to retrain a brand-new group every time volume shifts. 

Because Liveops uses a remote-first, people-centered delivery approach, we can identify high performers, route them into ARA-style roles, and let them support others who are just getting started. That keeps knowledge in the network. It also keeps empathy at the center of service, even as clients adopt AI, self-service, and more digital channels. 

An embedded ARA layer also helps clients roll out new processes, promotions, or compliance steps faster, because there is someone local who can explain the change, reinforced with real examples, to the rest of the agents. This reduces ramp time, protects CSAT during peak periods, and gives brands better control over how their voice is delivered. 

Most importantly, stories like Ryan’s and RJ’s show future ARAs what is possible. You can start in the network, grow your skills, help others get certified and confident, and become the person people turn to. That is how the Philippines keeps winning in customer service—by turning real experience into leadership. 

And when that leadership sits inside the delivery model, clients get what they are really buying from the Philippines: consistent service, faster adoption of change, and an agent community that feels accountable to the brand, not just the task.