A regional analysis of vertical contact center outsourcing by Datamonitor shows the largest investors by industry tend to be telco, manufacturing and financial services. However, this is likely to be due to many concurrences in attitudes toward third-party customer care among particular industries, as well as heavy offshore deployments from western business in both Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA).
Mature industries still outsourcing but annual growth to slow
Financial services, telcos, manufacturing and retail have long been the backbone of vertical contact center outsourcing clients, and this is expected to continue to the case through 2012. However, the pace of these deployments will slow.
Unquestionably, these mature markets have proven the value of third-party customer care in their own operations. In fact, contact center agent positions associated with mature vertical markets globally are forecast to increase from 953,000 in 2007 to over 1.2 million by 2012. However, annual growth will slow from 10% to approximately 3% through this same period, as outsourcing investment by these industries matures.
Emerging vertical markets offer new opportunities for outsourcers
There has been an increase in business associated with energy & utilities, healthcare, the public sector and travel & tourism in recent years, which Datamonitor projects to collectively grow from an estimated 154,000 agent positions by year-end 2007 to 229,000 in 2012 – a compounded annual growth rate of over 8%.
New industry segments are finally coming to realize the possibilities of growth associated with contact center outsourcing. In certain cases, such as travel & tourism and utilities, this may be due to the growing need for top-end customer care so as to promote customer retention.
Conversely, there is much evidence to show that sectors facing cost constraints like government and healthcare are also interested in the cost savings that can be recouped from outsourcing, in addition to a heightened caller experience.
Many contact center outsourcers are working hard to tailor vertically focused solutions to existing clients and prospects, as a means of differentiation.
It is clear based on Datamonitor’s research that each industry has its own particularities, and, with that in mind, one-size-fits all solutions are not necessarily going to work in the current competitive environment. Thus, recognizing the issues and challenges related to verticals based on their location and maturity are key, in addition to increasing customer retention and satisfaction.
