Rating the Asian call center market

A new study conducted by Aspect Contact Center Index Asia and Call Centres.net shows that the health of the contact center industry in Asia appears to be fine and India is currently outperforming the rest of the lot. Indian call centers had the highest success rate, with 64 percent reporting an increase in profitability this year. The Philippines and Malaysia were runners up at 59 and 54 percent.

The study was promised to be only the first in an ongoing regular series and is said to be the first multi-country comparative study of the performance of contact centers in Asia. The study assessed performance and confidence of 200 Asian contact centers across customer service, human resources, revenue, operations and technology-based indicators. Firms from industry sectors in finance, telecommunications, government, outsourcing, professional services, manufacturing and retail were probed for data.

Every contact center polled had a minimum of twenty contact center seats. The bi-annual study seeks to provide Asian contact center industry executives with a benchmark with which to track performance against competitors, to justify investments, and to drive future growth initiatives. “We created the Aspect Contact Center Index Asia to provide the insight, backed by hard data, to really understand the Asian contact centre industry and to address the challenges that come along with its growth,” said Pramod Ratwani, Aspect Software vice president, Asia Pacific and Middle East.

Indian, Korean, Malaysian, Singapore-based, Philippino and Thai call centers were studied in the survey, with specific countries in the survey ranked differently. Korea and Singapore topped the charts, scoring 75 and 71 overall, respectively, on the 100-point scale. After Korea and Singapore finished the Philippines at 66, Malaysia at 65, India at 64, and Thailand at 59. The Asian contact center industry itself managed an average of 67, placing it in the study’s “reasonable” performance category. The high rank for Korea was attributed to the strong focus in that country on customer service, sales, HR and operations.

The Thai performance in the overall Index was below average in customer service, HR and revenue; Thailand was subsequently said to be the largest opportunity for improvement of the survey’s half dozen. The report cited the Malaysian and Thai groups as “relatively new entrants in the market,” while India and the Philippines “have higher levels of outsourced contact centers.” The study drew comparison via key differentiators between mature and emerging (Malaysia and Thailand) and mature (the remaining four) markets, with mature markets superior in customer service, or “achieving service level targets and first call resolution”; sales; HR, i.e. agent absenteeism and turnover; gross revenue; and contact centre efficiency.

According to the survey, some low numbers showed in high tech, implying future growth: Two in five contact centers in Asia currently use quality monitoring systems, workforce management and analytics applications; three in five plan to invest in technology within the next year, with clear focus on CRM, VoIP, CTI and workforce management. Almost fifty percent is currently using or “would consider using” an application service provider for its contact center technology requirements. India and Korea and the nations most likely to invest in technology upgrades. Use of VoIP in India and the Philippines was noted as high and is projected to reach 78 and 65 percent penetration rates, respectively, over the next two years. In comparing the Asian contact centre industries, the study found India most likely to use as an application service provider, with 32 percent of centers currently using and an equal amount considering an ASP.

The Philippines posted a rate of one-quarter currently using and 41 percent considering ASPs. The primary area of opportunity for India, says the report, is in customer service and “its challenges are currently with HR performance, particularly agent turnover.” Ratwani sees Asia emerging as a viable competitor to the larger American and European markets, but “the Index shows Asia is hampered by HR challenges and lacks advanced technologies like customer relationship management, Voice over IP, computer telephony integration and workforce management.”