Call Center Market: Summary

The call center market has grown tremendously over the past three decades expanding wider and wider markets, gaining billions of dollars worth of revenues. In a study conducted by Batt, Doellgast and Kwon (2004)[1] the “typical call center (those included in the study) serves the national market, rather than a local, regional, or international one. The exception is the telecommunications industry, where the centers remain primarily local or regional in scope.” In developing countries like the Philippines, the call center industry is becoming one of the fastest growing industries catering to international markets mainly the United State, Australia and the United Kingdom. In this article, we shall take a look at some of the industry statistics that illustrate the increase of its market coverage.

Call Center Market: US Markets and Industry Segment

According to Cornell University’s  U.S. Call Center Industry Report of 2004 prepared which consisted of surveys of call centers in a wide range of industries, wireline communications services (25%) and financial services (19%) comprise the largest industry segment. Financial services include insurance, retail banking as well as other financial services (such as financial advising and brokerages). The rest of the segments which the call center industry serves include business and IT services, cellular telecommunications, cable TV and retail outlets. In addition, the public and the non-profit sector, print and media, manufacturing and hospitality are also included. “While this report is based on data collected among workplaces in the U.S., it has implications for the global call center industry. The U.S. has been a leader in the development and diffusion of call center technologies and management models.” (Batt, Doelgasst and Kwon, 2004)

Call Center Market: Continuous growth of the industry market

NelsonHall (2004) reports that 52% of all North American outsourcing contracts for BPO services surpassed IT outsourcing during the first quarter of 2004. This was a leap from 39% representation of the BPO outsourcing in the earlier year.

In the US, the call center industry market for e-learning is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 110% over the next four years based on the report of Saddletree Research as cited in Call Center Management Review in 2002.

In the Asia Pacific region, call centers are expected to increase from 21,360 to 39, 247 by the end of 2011. This growth is fueled mainly by the regions healthy outsourcing market (Frost and Sullivan cited in The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. 2011).

The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. further cited In Stat study that for VoIP services in Asia, including Japan, there is an expected growth rate of around US$1 billion per year between 2005 and 2009 to more than US$10 billion estimated on the doubling number of users. Leading service providers in Asia offer customers discount mobile phone or home rate on long distance calls that are transferred to the IP network. According to the report, VoIP has been received with warmth in the wealthier nations of East Asia, but not in some countries where governments have been over-protective in incumbent telecom operators, which results in poorer VoIP adoption.  At the end of 2004, VoIP services revenue in Asia totaled US$5.5 billion and this was forecasted to rise to over US$20 million by 2009 (In Stat in The Taylor Reach Group, 2011).

The call center market has been performing well to serve a wide range of other industries. Dominant in telecommunications, the services of the call center industry is expected to expand further in other segments including retail, government and media.