It was a time when many enterprises preferred contact center outsourcing to provide premier customer service to its customers, while controlling capital and operating expenses.
But with the economic slowdown, things have changed. Businesses have started reevaluating their decisions to run their contact centers abroad.
Frost & Sullivan recently presented its latest study – an analysis of the European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) Contact Center Outsourcing Market. The study reveals that the contact center outsourcing market in EMEA experienced relatively low growth in 2011, compared to other major regions of the world.
The analysis suggests slow growth in this sector is expected to persist over the next five years due to the prevailing economic situation in Europe, and stiff competition from in-house contact centers.
The report finds that the market earned revenue of $16.5 million in 2011, and estimates this to reach about $18.9 by 2017. Decreasing margins in certain sectors due to the economic recession has resulted in the need to revise cost structures.
"[The] industry is now being driven by the growing demand for low-cost, high-quality customer contact solutions," said Sathya Subramanian, Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst. "Multi-shoring capabilities for the various languages in the region and the presence of a large workforce that can offer multi-lingual contact center services will boost the industry's growth in the forecast period."
This report is part of the Contact Centers & CRM Growth Partnership Services program.
"In-house contact centers are preferred over third-party outsourcers by many enterprises due to quality and security concerns," explained Subramanian. "Difficult economic conditions have led to enterprises adopting a 'wait and watch' approach with contact centers."