Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

The contact center industry is nothing if not dynamic and the challenges facing contact center leaders everyday have a great impact on their ability to drive efficiency while also controlling costs.

According to the 2007 Australian Contact Center Industry Benchmarking Study, the Australian contact center industry is showing rapid growth, but this growth is placing increased pressure on its ability to retain quality staff and keep costs down. The study also found a slight decrease in outsourcing rates, increasing use of hosted technology systems and a strong trend in the direction of teleworking.


The study, launched by callcentres.net, is an annual survey of contact centers conducted by callcentres.net. The company surveyed 156 organizations across a wide range of industries that represent the operations of 306 centers. The Australian contact center industry is estimated to comprise 1,750 firms representing 3,850 contact centers.

One of the key findings from the study was that the contact center industry is undergoing a period of considerable growth. The total number of seats increased in size by 13 percent from 2006 to 2007. The industry also saw an 8 percent increase from 2005 to 2006. This growth, however, is also causing the industry tremendous challenges, especially in human resources management. 

"Contact centers in 2007 are more acutely feeling the strain of training, managing and retaining good staff. There is considerable competition for good staff, which is placing increasing pressure on wages," said Dr Catriona Wallace, Director, callcentres.net, in company statement.

"The turnover rate of full-time agents grew from 16% in 2006 to 22% in 2007. Turnover is considerably higher in contact centers with 50 or more seats, at 27%, and even higher in very large centers with over 100 agents, at 34%."

Beyond these changes, the mean base salary for a full-time agent rose by 6 percent from 2006 to 2007 to roughly $41,000. The survey found that this combination of trends is ultimately having a noticeable effect on the contact centers’ bottom line.

"Labor represents a growing proportion of the running costs for a contact centre and now accounts for about 70% of total operational expenditure," said Wallace. "High turnover is a major concern, given an agent costs an average of $19,000 to replace. The cumulative effect is that total costs are on the rise."

The survey also found changes in the outsourcing trend. Surprisingly, the trend towards outsourcing contact center functions has reversed itself. According to the surveys callcentres.net completed in 2004 and 2006, 20 percent of respondents indicated that they outsourced some or all of their contact center functionality. However, in the 2007 survey, only 15 percent outsourced any of their functions.

"Any growth in outsourcing appears to be coming from the growth of existing accounts rather than from new business,” said Wallace. “We are surprised at this result given the current HR and cost pressures. This finding is perhaps indicative of Australia's continued resistance to outsource and in particular to offshore service work."

This survey found changes in other areas as well, including revenue generation, contact center technology, teleworking – or home-based agents – and the Do Not Call register. Check back with us tomorrow as we review these findings from the 2007 Australian Contact Center Industry Benchmarking Study.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.