The North American market for outsourced customer service operations is expected to continue along a steady growth path, according to recent research by Frost & Sullivan Inc.
The San Antonio-based research and consulting firm states that the market reached $19.5 billion in revenues in 2005 and is likely to reach $20.1 billion by 2012. Call center agent attrition, companies' continuing to adjust to the Do Not Call legislation, and greater specialization by North American outsourcers are driving the market, according to Michael DeSalles, Frost & Sullivan's industry analyst for the communications practice.
"Call centers are the tip of spear. In a lot of places, it's the only place [the] customer touches the company," DeSalles said. "For some companies, they find that's not their core competency, that's for someone else. An outsourcer can do it cheaper or better. If you're not doing a good job or at least on par with companies with good contact centers, you're at a competitive disadvantage."
Also, the backlash by North American consumers over jobs sent overseas is helping to bolster the on-shore and near-shore outsourcing markets.
The market for North American customer service outsourcing is a fragmented one, with literally thousands of providers. According to Frost & Sullivan, however, it is dominated by fewer than a dozen major, global outsourcers.
The market is growing, but outsourcers are also under increasing pressure to do more than just increase efficiencies. Clients expect outsourced call centers to improve retention, and loyalty as well.
"The way to measure that is not by handle time, which was the prevailing metric," DeSalles said. "Now we're looking at first-call resolution."
Outsourcers are also conducting post-call surveys, measuring the number of transfer calls and up-selling and cross-selling.
Consolidation in the market has also provided companies with the ability to mix and match their outsourced call center needs, using some offshore, some near-shore and some internal resources. The growth of work-at-home agents, who can access CRM systems through Web-based interfaces and phone systems through Voice over Internet Protocol, is also providing outsourcers with a greater talent pool, while reducing facility costs.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Offshore Outsourcing Driving Contact Center Growth in Asia Pacific
Despite the negative press that the term off shoring tends to generate, the reality is that we are a global economy and many companies can maximize customer service operations by considering facilities in another country. One such country that is enjoying considerable contact center growth is that of the Asia Pacific.
Growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has produced new analysis that points to low labor cost, increasing competition, globalization, increased IP (Internet Protocol) adoption and improved network infrastructure as driving the contact center outsourcing market in Asia Pacific.
While high growth in both domestic and offshore outsourcing is expected in the coming years, offshore outsourcing is anticipated to drive a majority of that growth. Customer service and technical support services in the banking, telecommunications and technology sectors are on the rise and will likely fuel this growth.
According to the report from Frost & Sullivan, the Asia Pacific industry, which covers 13 major Asia Pacific economies, produced revenues of US $7.2 billion in 2005 and estimates indicate that the industry will be worth US $25.1 billion by the end 2012.
Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shivanu Shukla, offered that offshore outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has driven growth in the contact center outsourcing market in Asia-Pacific and expects to continue to be the key driver for growth. Proximity to the West, cultural similarities within Asia Pacific and increased focus on outsourcing and offshoring by the governments in Asia Pacific are all expected to boost growth.
US companies using India as a back-office hub for their administrative functions has led the offshore outsourcing trend. Many enterprises today from not only the US, but also the UK have outsourced significant portions of their customer care functions to countries such as the Philippines and India. Contact center outsourcing contacts serviced out of the Asia Pacific region from these two countries has represented more than US $2.17 billion in 2005.
Shukla noted that as the contact center market in Asia Pacific continues to return strong growth, the demand for skilled agents increases in tandem. Since employment as a contact center agent is not perceived as a great career option in most parts of the region, available talent pools are lacking. In addition, inadequate compensation and incentives are leading to higher attrition and agents tend to move fast within the industry.
Frost & Sullivan recommends that outsources offer structured career paths and better incentives to reduce attrition. The firm also highlighted the need to train and coach agents and leaders in order to build a strong middle management team as a necessity to retain employees.
Data security and customer information issues have been a key area of concern for customers and companies alike and as a result, outsourcers in India and other offshore destinations are implementing stringent measures to ensure that data security is maintained. ISO and COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certifications, along with Six Sigma processes are gradually being adopted by outsourcers to increase the confidence level of customers and enterprises that outsource their customer information to the Asia Pacific region.
Growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has produced new analysis that points to low labor cost, increasing competition, globalization, increased IP (Internet Protocol) adoption and improved network infrastructure as driving the contact center outsourcing market in Asia Pacific.
While high growth in both domestic and offshore outsourcing is expected in the coming years, offshore outsourcing is anticipated to drive a majority of that growth. Customer service and technical support services in the banking, telecommunications and technology sectors are on the rise and will likely fuel this growth.
According to the report from Frost & Sullivan, the Asia Pacific industry, which covers 13 major Asia Pacific economies, produced revenues of US $7.2 billion in 2005 and estimates indicate that the industry will be worth US $25.1 billion by the end 2012.
Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shivanu Shukla, offered that offshore outsourcing is a global phenomenon that has driven growth in the contact center outsourcing market in Asia-Pacific and expects to continue to be the key driver for growth. Proximity to the West, cultural similarities within Asia Pacific and increased focus on outsourcing and offshoring by the governments in Asia Pacific are all expected to boost growth.
US companies using India as a back-office hub for their administrative functions has led the offshore outsourcing trend. Many enterprises today from not only the US, but also the UK have outsourced significant portions of their customer care functions to countries such as the Philippines and India. Contact center outsourcing contacts serviced out of the Asia Pacific region from these two countries has represented more than US $2.17 billion in 2005.
Shukla noted that as the contact center market in Asia Pacific continues to return strong growth, the demand for skilled agents increases in tandem. Since employment as a contact center agent is not perceived as a great career option in most parts of the region, available talent pools are lacking. In addition, inadequate compensation and incentives are leading to higher attrition and agents tend to move fast within the industry.
Frost & Sullivan recommends that outsources offer structured career paths and better incentives to reduce attrition. The firm also highlighted the need to train and coach agents and leaders in order to build a strong middle management team as a necessity to retain employees.
Data security and customer information issues have been a key area of concern for customers and companies alike and as a result, outsourcers in India and other offshore destinations are implementing stringent measures to ensure that data security is maintained. ISO and COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) certifications, along with Six Sigma processes are gradually being adopted by outsourcers to increase the confidence level of customers and enterprises that outsource their customer information to the Asia Pacific region.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Contact Center Outsourcing Services
Customer Care Support balances improved customer satisfaction with reduced operation costs in handling various post-sale interactions including complex product and service inquiries, data privacy and security breaches, fraud management, crisis management, billing and credit issues, and product returns and reverse logistics.
People – Our people are the most important component of our approach. Our contact centers around the world are staffed with experienced, results-oriented teams that drive agent productivity and operational innovation. You will find a highly skilled global technology staff who ensure that daily operations remain stable and reliable. We also have recruiting processes that select, train, and retain the best customer service professionals to maintain and improve customer satisfaction. Our agents are further supported through focused training and retention programs that increase agent effectiveness.
Process – Around the world, our contact centers combine our globally consistent, customer operations performance center (COPC) compliant delivery processes with our standard technology infrastructure expertise to help you achieve your customer-focused goals. By clearly measuring the effectiveness of our processes both quantitatively and qualitatively, we provide the operational discipline to effectively manage operations within an individual contact center, across multiple sites or multiple geographies.
Technology – The technology component is a key enabler of the people and process components. Our global leveraged technology platform is built using products from key alliance partners and provides your business with superior functionality, reliability, scalability and security. Its advanced routing capability ensures customers are segmented by value and connected to the appropriate resource the first time, regardless of the interaction channel chosen by the customer.
Quality- All three of these components are strengthened by a Quality System that we have developed over the last decade and continues to enhance globally. Our Quality System is our set of management practices to ensure that our services, products, and solutions are reliably designed, delivered and supported at the claimed quality levels and continuously improved to meet changing customer and business requirements. To support the Quality System, we provide a comprehensive integrated framework comprised of dozens of market recognized best practices, regulation and standards. These Quality components are woven into the fabric of our global common processes to enable consistent delivery of services while complying with international standards for quality, security, privacy, and service management that protect the interests of our clients and their customers.
People – Our people are the most important component of our approach. Our contact centers around the world are staffed with experienced, results-oriented teams that drive agent productivity and operational innovation. You will find a highly skilled global technology staff who ensure that daily operations remain stable and reliable. We also have recruiting processes that select, train, and retain the best customer service professionals to maintain and improve customer satisfaction. Our agents are further supported through focused training and retention programs that increase agent effectiveness.
Process – Around the world, our contact centers combine our globally consistent, customer operations performance center (COPC) compliant delivery processes with our standard technology infrastructure expertise to help you achieve your customer-focused goals. By clearly measuring the effectiveness of our processes both quantitatively and qualitatively, we provide the operational discipline to effectively manage operations within an individual contact center, across multiple sites or multiple geographies.
Technology – The technology component is a key enabler of the people and process components. Our global leveraged technology platform is built using products from key alliance partners and provides your business with superior functionality, reliability, scalability and security. Its advanced routing capability ensures customers are segmented by value and connected to the appropriate resource the first time, regardless of the interaction channel chosen by the customer.
Quality- All three of these components are strengthened by a Quality System that we have developed over the last decade and continues to enhance globally. Our Quality System is our set of management practices to ensure that our services, products, and solutions are reliably designed, delivered and supported at the claimed quality levels and continuously improved to meet changing customer and business requirements. To support the Quality System, we provide a comprehensive integrated framework comprised of dozens of market recognized best practices, regulation and standards. These Quality components are woven into the fabric of our global common processes to enable consistent delivery of services while complying with international standards for quality, security, privacy, and service management that protect the interests of our clients and their customers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
