India has highest percentage of contact centres

Chandigarh, Jul 14: India reported the highest percentage of contact centres at 64 per cent with an increase in profitability this year, followed by the Philippines (59 per cent), and Malaysia (54 per cent), a study suggested.

The inaugural Aspect Contact Center Index Asiaä, the first multi-country comparative study of the performance of contact centres in Asia, was jointly conducted by Aspect Software, Inc, the world's largest company solely focused on contact centres, and callcenters.net.

According to the report, India's primary area of opportunity is in customer service and its challenges are currently with Human resource (HR) performance, particularly agent turnover. Usage of VoIP in India and the Philippines is high and expected to reach 78 per cent and 65 per cent penetration rates respectively over the next two years.

Compared to other Asian contact centre industries, 32 per cent of centres in India were currently using application service provider (ASP) while a further 32 per cent were considering an ASP. The Philippines however, is not far behind with 25 per cent currently using and a further 41 per cent considering an ASP.

On a scale of 100, the survey reveals that the Asian contact centre industry is averaging a score of 67, which places it in the 'reasonable' performance category. The Index, developed by callcenters.net for Aspect Software, assesses the performance of Asia Pacific contact centers across categories, including customer service, sales, revenue, operations, technology and human resources.

Commenting on the study, Mr Pramod Ratwani, Vice President, Asia Pacific and Middle East at Aspect Software said that while Asia was emerging as a viable competitor to contact centres in Europe and the US due to its low cost of operations, the Index shows Asia is hampered by Human Resource (HR) challenges and lacks advanced technologies like customer relationship management (CRM), Voice over IP (VoIP), computer telephony integration (CTI) and workforce management.

The survey covered six key countries in Asia - India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand - and specific countries in the survey ranked differently. Topping the charts are Korea and Singapore, who rank in the 'achievers' category, which is from 71 to 85 on the overall scale.

The survey observed that the Asian contact centre industry should continue its strong growth and performance. Using a combination of telephone and online methods, the Aspect Contact Center Index Asia surveyed approximately 200 contact centre managers operating a minimum of 20 contact centre seats from across all industry segments.

The overall scores of the countries are reflective of the maturity of the contact centre industry in each country. While Korea (75) and Singapore (71) are more mature markets, Malaysia (65) and Thailand (59) are relatively new entrants in the market. India (64) and Philippines (66) have higher levels of outsourced contact centres.

According to the overall findings of the survey, most Asian contact centres are focusing on customer service and HR. Two in five contact centres in Asia are using quality monitoring systems, workforce management and analytics applications.

The survey also found that three in five contact centres will invest in technology over the next 12 months, with key areas of focus being CRM, VoIP, CTI and workforce management. Almost half the market is currently using or would consider using an Application Service Provider (ASP) for its contact centre technology requirements, the survey revealed.Larger contact centres are significantly more likely than smaller centers to use an ASP.

According to the survey India's primary area of opportunity is in customer service, its challenges are with HR performance, particularly agent turnover. India and Korea are the countries least likely to invest in new technology in the next 12 months, the survey claimed.

UNI

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