How is the Call Center Industry Doing in This Recession?

Companies are looking to contact centers to drive more business value in tough economic times. The contact center industry is entering the next stage of evolution in communicating with customers.

Demonstrating this transition is the 22% increase this year in the number of contact centers that have processes and systems in place to identify sales opportunities during an inbound call. Nearly two thirds (61%) of contact centers now have these systems in place. In addition, the number of organizations that have a strategy in place to reduce the cost of serving customers has increased 9.4% year on year to 67%.

Customer value is king

• Contact centers are gaining a better understanding of the true value of multi-channel customer service and strategies to move consumers away from using the phone as their primary method of customer service have become more selective. Consequently, overall call volumes to contact centers have risen again this year.
• As contact centers search for a balance between personal interaction and cost effectiveness only 11% are offering financial incentives to consumers to use self-service or other lower-cost customer service channels.
• Instead, more organizations are telling their customers about the benefits of using lower cost methods of communication such as the web and self-service  – doubling to 36% of contact centers doing so this year.
• Surprisingly for a recession where cost cutting is rife, one third of contact centers do not measure the cost per interaction of agent assisted calls – the most accurate means to determining the cost effectiveness of an operation.

It’s not the worst job in the world

• Despite regular news reports about high staff churn/attrition in contact centers, the Philippines has one of the lowest ‘agent attrition’ rates in the world: 18% compared to the highest rate of 45% in India and an average of 25% in the USA and Europe.