Economy and “do not call” register hobble call centre growth

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 25 August 2009 12:33

IT Industry - Market

The economic downturn coupled with two years’ worth of the “do not call” register have hobbled the once unstoppable rise of Australian call centres, with headcount growth stagnant and a 20% plunge in technology spending in the last 12 months.

Releasing the 2009 Australian Contact Centre Industry Benchmarking Report, analyst Dr Catriona Wallace, said “this is the flattest we have ever seen.” Over the coming 12 months market consolidation is expected to lead to a further 1% fall in the number of contact centres, although the total number of people employed in call centres is expected to rise 7% to 205,700.

This is the 12th year that the research has been performed in Australia according to Dr Wallace who is managing director of callcentres.net. The research has been sponsored by RightNow Technologies and Salmat and is based on interviews with 144 contact centre executives.

Quizzed in 2008, call centre executives had forecast a 6-8% increase in the number of call centre seats, but “that has not happened” said Dr Wallace, who explained the number of seats rose just 1% to 192,800. And while call centres had spent an average of $526,143 on technology last year, in 2009 that fell to just $421,476.

She said that financial services call centres had “definitely been affected more than any other sector. Most other areas stayed stable.”

While the economic downturn seems to have taken its toll, it has not accelerated the move toward total self service. Dr Wallace acknowledged that Australian call centres were enduring a “slow and painful march to self service with 79% of in-bound customer service calls still involving a human agent.” That, she said, is in stark contrast to other markets, particularly the US, where self service is the norm.

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