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Contact Center Use Growing in UK But Cost is an Issue
Contact center use and employment trends are on the rise in the U.K., yet there’s also increasing pressure to make contact centers more efficient.
A recent study by ContactBabel (News - Alert) found that there was a 4 percent increase in the number of contact centers this year, which now total roughly 5,840. This is up from 5,630 contact centers in 2014.
The average center in the U.K. employs 126 agents, and overall there are roughly 734,000 agents handling more than 42 billion minutes of inbound calls, according to ContactBabel. Leading the way is the financial industry, partially due to new regulations regarding premium rate numbers.
The study found that web chat is predicted to grow significantly, too, growing in the U.K. by roughly 24 percent per year until 2018.
At the same time, cost pressures will be forcing firms--especially mid-sized firms around the average of 120 agents—to reduce costs. Roughly 44 percent of contact centers in the U.K. surveyed by ContactBabel indicated they expected to cut operating costs in the near future.
With staffing accounting for more than 70 percent of total costs in the typical contact center, ways to make agent staffing more efficient are at a particular premium.
One way that firms are looking to achieve this is through workforce management software (WFM), which can optimize agent staffing, reduce turnover and minimize costs. A good WFM can help ensure that call volumes are predicted and appropriately staffed. WFM also can ensure that the right agents are on the floor at the right times to efficiently handle calls, and help with training.
Interestingly, the ContactBabel study found that while contact centers were looking to WFM, 24 percent were looking to replace their current systems. This is most likely due to the move to the cloud, as cloud-based WFM solutions ease the issue of maintenance and upgrades. Cloud WFM offerings also typically are easy to learn, making them useful given the high staff turnover rates at many contact centers.
The interest in switching WFM systems most likely comes from this move from on-premise to cloud-based solutions.
Overall, the study by ContactBabel paints a robust contact center industry in the U.K.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
