Singapore lags in Asian contact centre shift

Singapore lags in Asian contact centre shift; callcentres.net research shows

The Singapore contact centre market risks falling behind its Asian neighbours with new research indicating only a third of its facilities are measured as profit centres.

According to callcentres.net’s newly released 2008 Asian Contact Centre Industry Benchmarking Report, the Asian contact centre industry is shifting from the provision of traditional service and support to being service and sales, or revenue generation focused. However, only 32% of Singaporean contact centres are measured as profit centres and 68% are measured as cost centres. In the Philippines 72% of contact centres are measured as profit centres, while China (79%) and India (91%) are even higher.

“These results are a call to action for the Singaporean contact centre industry as there is currently a global trend towards contact centres becoming profit centres and being the primary channel for sales and revenue generation,” said callcentres.net president Dr Catriona Wallace. The research, sponsored by Autonomy etalk and Genesys, involved interviewing 539 contact centre executives representing 2,488 contact centres and 259,699 contact centre seats across Asia, including 59 Singaporean-based organisations.

Originally published in callcentres.net