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MP74092

MAPS CALL CENTRES: UK APRIL 2002

Overview

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This report covers: Call Centres in Europe, Automatic Call Distributor, ACD, Call Centre Agents, Calling Line Identification, CLI, Call Logging, Call Management Applications, Call Screening, Computer Telephone Integration, CTI, Direct Dial Inward, DDI, Display Screen Equipment, DSE, DTI, Electronic Performance Monitoring, FTSE, Full Automation, Integrated ACD, Intelligent Queuing, Screen Pop, Voice and Data Transfer, Voice over internet protocol, WAP, Voice processing systems

Companies covered include: IMS Group, RSL Com UK,The Merchants, Group, Acxiom Corporation, The Merchants' Group, Sitel UK,7c Ltd, Ant Marketing, Brann Worldwide, Broadsystem, CPM InTelMark, Excell Multimedia, Harte-Hanks, iSky Europe, MM Group, MM Group, The Telemarketing Company, Serco Group, Ventura Customer Service Management, Vertex Data Science, Blue Pumpkin Software, Nice Systems, Citel Technologies, Davox Corporation, Mitel, Cincom Systems, The DTS Group, Plantronics,

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the UK, around 3.2 million calls are made every day to call centres or, as they are increasingly termed, contact centres. Around two workers in every 100 have jobs in such centres, which means that approximately 575,000 people work in contact centres.

Outsourcing companies account for around 10 percent to 15 percent of staff employed in the UK's call centres, and this sector of the call-centre business has been growing at between 15 percent and 20 percent a year. Call-centre outsourcing businesses have developed from four main origins: telecommunications companies; communications systems and software businesses; telemarketing specialists; and large companies' in-house call centres, serving markets as diverse as utilities and retailing.

The two largest UK-based outsourcers come from this fourth strand: Vertex Data Science Ltd and Ventura Customer Service Management Ltd. For the purposes of this report, Key Note commissioned an exclusive NOP survey to discover people's attitudes towards call centres, and to see how these have changed since a similar survey was conducted in November 2000.

The 2002 survey found that more people believe call centres waste time, and that the number of people opposed to automated response systems has risen since 2000. Surprisingly, the number of people preferring to contact organisations via the Internet than by telephone fell during the period, albeit by only one percentage point. Only one socio-demographic group - the AB social grade - witnessed a significant increase in preference for the Internet.

The results of the NOP survey make disappointing reading for the organisations that run and use call centres, especially because the public are more critical of these centres in 2002 than they were in 2000. This is despite companies' considerable investments in equipment to integrate communication channels, and to give call-centre staff access to databases of information about customers.

Key Note expects call-centre numbers in the UK to flatten out from 2004. Staff numbers should plateau, too, easing back from a summit in 2004. Key Note's forecasts are affected by customers' preference for speaking to real people locally, and by the following trends: to relocate centres to low-wage regions (such as India); to automate telephone contacts not requiring human intervention; and to make more efficient use of each workstation. In addition, the national rollout of broadband services by 2005 should raise considerably the proportion of automated contacts via the Internet.

High-added-value services, such as expert advice lines, have a good chance of remaining in the UK. These depend on highly motivated and knowledgeable staff, an increasing number of whom will probably work in dispersed or virtual centres. Staff will devote more effort to retaining existing customers, and will increasingly seek to recreate the friendly ambience of a good local branch.

However, an increasing amount of routine work is expected to be relocated off shore. This trend will build steadily until around 2006/2007, and then develop more rapidly. By 2012, a quarter of all current call-centre jobs in the UK - around 150,000 positions - could relocate to Asia. The main destination is likely to be India, but there will also be expansion in neighbouring countries with considerable English-speaking populations. Relocation saves companies between 40 percent and 60 percent of the costs they incur in the UK.

The trend to locate call centres in India shows that advanced economies cannot automatically rely on services to keep them afloat now that manufacturing has migrated to low-wage nations. Services are also moving to where the costs of acceptable standards of provision are lower. However, the disparity between companies' and customers' perceptions of 'acceptable standards' is an important but unquantifiable factor certain to affect the structure and location of call centres in the coming decade.

Text © 2002 MAPS

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