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Statistics
Spending. How much is spent on centers, and the rates of growth. The B2B market will grow from $145 billion in 1999 to $7.29 trillion in 2004. By that year, B2B e-commerce will represent 7% of the forecasted $105 trillion total global sales transactions. E-market makers are projected to facilitate $2.71 trillion e-commerce sales transactions in 2004, representing 37% of the overall B2B market. The worldwide B2B market is poised for explosive growth as the market is projected to reach $403 billion in 2000 followed by $953 billion in 2001. In 2002, the market will increase to $2.18 trillion, and at the end of 2003 worldwide B2B revenue is forecast to reach $3.95 trillion.
Worldwide spending on customer relationship management services, such as call centers and online computer help desks, are expected to rise at least 20%, to more than $40 billion, this year. And it should more than double that figure in the next four years. By the year 2003, firms are expected to spend $90 billion a year on CRM. This, in contrast to a 1998 worldwide CRM total of $33.2 billion in spending. CRM is defined for these purposes as "a variety of services used to design and operate customer-care systems that help companies attract, retain, service and expand customer relationships to generate business and improve the consumer experience."
France holds 17% of agent positions in western Europe with a projected growth rate of 26% in 1998-1999. In 1998, there were 75,000 call center agent positions in France with growth projections showing 104,900 agent positions in 2000 and 128,100 positions in 2002. That leads to a projected 3,000 call centers in France by 2002, nearly twice the number of call centers that were operating in France in 1997. Currently, there are approximately 2,500 call centers. Growth in the home banking and finance industries is expected to help fuel this forecast. Financial services in 1997 made up 20% of France's call center market.
In 1998, the remote shopping, telecom and technology vertical markets were the top three spenders on call center technology in the US, spending $914.7 million, $805 million, and $512.2 million respectively on call enter technology. However, when you combine banking, financial services, insurance, and investment into one large sector, it becomes the top sector, spending $1.1 billion in 1998.
The worldwide call center services market totalled $23 billion in revenues in 1998, and is projected to double to $58.6 billion by 2003. (This is based on dividing the overall call center service marketing into these segments: consulting, systems integration and outsourcing.) Outsourcing is the largest segment, with $17 billion in 1998, or 74% of the total market, headed for $42 billion in 2003.
Frost & Sullivan estimates the size of the market for e-mail management systems: they predict the e-mail management market to grow 115.7% in 1999 and reach $223.3 million by 2005. The report claims that Brightware has the most market share of vendors in the category, with 28.0%, nearly twice the share of the number two vendor.
In 1998, financial services firms spent $167 million on software, amounting to 23% of their call center technology budgets. That's projected to rise to $364 million-or 39% of those budgets-by 2003.
Call center budgets have increased in each of the past four years. From 1998 to 1999, the increase was 18.5%. The average amount allocated to human resources is down 8% in that period to 56.1% of the total. 1999 Call Center Benchmark Report, Purdue University Center for Customer Driven Quality. US and European companies spend 20% of their IT budgets on implementation of "customer care solutions." Together, implementation, consulting and training account for more than 50% of costs.
A report forecasts that from 1998 through 2002 growth in the US market in the number of call center systems sold will be 13.6%. The PBX-integrated call center market will have a sustained CAGR of 13.2%. The standalone market segment will have a CAGR of 9.4%. And the CO-ACD market will have a 36.4% CAGR.
Spending by businesses and consumers via the internet will hit $124 billion in 1998 and more than $500 billion in 2002.
The worldwide market for automated speech recognition products is projected to grow from $100 million in 1998 to $1.6 billion in 2002. The US market for speech-enabled auto attendant products is expected to grow from less than $10 million in 1998 to $250 million by 2001.
$700 billion in products and services were sold through call centers in 1997 and this figure is expanding by 20% annually.
The worldwide market for call center software will rise to $3.1 billion in 2003, up from $580 million in 1998. The US currently dominates the market with a 64% share. This includes new software, maintenance of current software and systems integration costs, but does not include CTI middleware and servers, database software, education and training and transitional costs.
In 1998, the call center software market will be worth $3.284 billion; in 2003, that will be $8.921 billion. Technology and telecom is the vertical industry that generates the most revenues for call center software providers: $576 million in 1998. Customer support and call center sales force automation is the fastest growing subset: $899 million in 1998. In total, the call center software market is growing at a CAGR of 21.5%.
The 1996 market for call center services in the US generated revenues of $15.4 billion. The forecast for compound annual growth rate in the U.S. call center services market from 1996-2003 is 15.8 percent.
The call center operations market will grow 21% annually, from $7 billion in 1998 to $18 billion in 2002.
The CTI industry continues to grow at a steady rate, with 1996 revenues of $1.5 billion and growth projected at an annual rate of 27.4% compounded. Results show that the boards market is dominated by a few large manufacturers who control the majority of the market share, with competition based primarily on depth of product line and the ability to match volume discounts. The software market, on the other hand, is less concentrated, with competition in that arena depending heavily on a company's ability to partner with complementary solution providers and systems integrators.
In 1997 insurance companies and securities firms bought $29 billion worth of information technology. That'll hit $38.5 billion by 2002. Firms in the US spend more on this than any other country. Datamonitor predicts that call centers in those sectors will grow at a compound annual rate of 12% over the next five years.
11% of the 78 billion contacts that occur annually between retail customers and financial companies are handled by telephone, growing to 16% by 2001. It is estimated that global financial services firms spent just over $3 billion (US) on IT related to consumer call centers in 1997. This spending is currently growing at an annual rate of about 10% and is expected to reach $3.3 billion (US) by the end of 1998, before accelerating to approximately 15% annual growth for the subsequent two-year period. North American financial institutions have historically invested the most in call centers, representing 68% of the total current investment. The strongest growth in spending, though, is predicted to come from the European market, as European banks and insurers start to employ call centers in larger numbers. Most customers interact with financial companies either through automated teller machines or physical branches. Electronic (non-telephony) just 1.4% of the total.
Spending on enterprise help desks was up in 1997. More than 70% of the IT managers polled said that spending on their help desks increased "significantly" in 1997. 40% said spending would hold steady this year, while 50% said that they expected spending to increase in 1998. 10% said that spending would decrease this year. About a third of those polled said that the key cost driver was the need to support a growing user base, while a quarter each cited distributed client/server apps and network-centric applications. Also a growing area of concern affecting spending-Year 2000 compliance projects.
TOP In a new report entitled "Unified Messaging CPE: Moving to Unified Communications," The Pelorus Group, cites strong growth in system sales. From worldwide sales of 10,299 systems in 1999, shipments of unified messaging systems should increase to 517,000 by year-end 2004. The leaders in this systems race are Nortel at 12.6%, NEC at 11%, and Active Voice at 9.5%.
Over 90% of managers polled indicated that the Internet will be incorporated within their call centers by the end of 2000. This is an increase of 15% from those citing Internet use at the end of 1999. Email integration represented 79% of Internet applications cited by call center managers while call-me-back and Internet telephony represented 14% and 6%, respectively. By the end of 2000, however, e-mail will represent only 55% of total Internet applications while call-me-back and Internet telephony applications will increase to 25% and 19%, respectively.
One-fifth of UK firms surveyed had human contact available from their web sites and there are no examples of shared browsing to date. Only 14% of call center operators have website access and only 11% are able to provide web site assistance. Overall, 60% of the financial service operations benchmarked in this report had systems for handling e-mail queries from web sites in call centers. Employing integration systems and technology can increase the overall operating costs of a customer services unit by around 10% per year. In a center of 150 agents, and with a web site costing around £300,000 to maintain annually, this would represent a increased cost per agent of around £3,000 (from £33,000 to £36,000 per agent seat overall).
The total CRM software market in Southeast Asia grew from $60.3 million in 1998 to $104.2 million in 1999. Double-digit growth rates should continue throughout the forecast period (2000-2006).
Total market revenue for PBX and KTS equipment in Asia Pacific reached $672.6 million in 1998. While unit sales grew to 6.8 million, the market experienced a decline in the average unit price. Growth is being driven by the Asia Pacific economic upsurge and increasing demand for call centers, unified messaging, networking capabilities and computer telephony integration.
The interactive kiosk market is projected to exhibit a compound annual revenue growth rate of more than 20% from 1999 to 2006. Interactive kiosk vendors supplying the retail, government, banking and finance, tourism and entertainment, transportation and telecommunications industries brought in $806.6 million in 1999.
By 2005, total peak global international demand for bandwidth will be about 7 Tbit/s, with an average annual growth rate of over 90%. The demand for bandwidth will be driven by growth of Internet use. By 2005 the forecast is that 83% of international demand will come from Internet traffic. Also, Ovum predicts that the value of business to consumer e-commerce transactions will be $358 billion, and business to business e-commerce transactions will be $2.1 trillion. Average annual growth rates will be about 60% per annum over the period.
More than 90% of companies are planning on incorporating Internet technologies into their CRM efforts, focusing efforts on web-based customer service solutions. A study analyzed user experiences in incorporating Internet technologies into CRM applications in the areas of sales, marketing, and customer service and support.
A benchmarking study of IVR use says that with the increased use of technology (e.g., speech recognition and intelligent call routing) and increased customer use and sophistication, IVR integration has gone up in the last two years (51% in 1996 and 67% in 1998) in the financial services industries with frequently used applications (e.g., mutual funds, credit card, banking). However, at the same time, customer satisfaction has slightly decreased, from 87% satisfied (with calls completed in the IVR) to 80% satisfied.
CTI penetration rates will rise from 17% of financial services call centers at the end of 1998 to 36% in 2003. At the end of 1998 there were 183,000 agent positions in retail financial services centers. This number will grow to an estimated 215,000 by 2003.
The compound annual growth rate for the web/call center application market for 1997-2004 is forecasted to be 110.4%.
By 2001, more than 75% of Global 2000 companies will outsource some function of their help desk, a growth curve of more than 35% annually.
A report forecasts that from 1998 through 2002 growth in the US market in the number of call center systems sold will be 13.6%. The PBX-integrated call center market will have a sustained CAGR of 13.2%. The standalone market segment will have a CAGR of 9.4%. And the CO-ACD market will have a 36.4% CAGR.
Customer contacts by e-mail will grow by more than 250% over the next three years. In 1996, only 15% of the US population used e-mail, but that number will grow to 50% by 2001.
The worldwide market for automated speech recognition products is projected to grow from $100 million in 1998 to $1.6 billion in 2002. The US market for speech-enabled auto attendant products is expected to grow from less than $10 million in 1998 to $250 million by 2001.
A survey of call center opportunities in the Asia Pacific region found that:
The US IVR market is growing at a compound annual rate of 11.6%, with 1996 revenues of $684.4 million, and is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2003.
Internet telephony will capture as much as 5% of the long distance calling minutes worldwide by 2002, and will be 3% of long distance revenue. (The disparity due to the fact that IP telephony has a lower consumer cost.) The total market for Internet telephony-including both services and hardware and software-will grow to $9 billion in the next five years. Business fax transmissions, voicemail messages, and pages-not real-time voice conversations-will drive most of the growth in the use of Internet telephony in the next five years.
The CTI industry continues to grow at a steady rate, with 1996 revenues of $1.5 billion and growth projected at an annual rate of 27.4% compounded. Results show that the boards market is dominated by a few large manufacturers who control the majority of the market share, with competition based primarily on depth of product line and the ability to match volume discounts. The software market, on the other hand, is less concentrated, with competition in that arena depending heavily on a company's ability to partner with complementary solution providers and systems integrators.
From a study of CTI:
Revenues for help desk software tools will grow from 1997's $7.9 billion, to an estimated $24.5 billion in 2004, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.6%. Opportunities cited as driving the market include: increasing self-help capabilities, a shift towards proactive versus reactive operations, cost reduction and service quality improvement, and the shift from help desk management to enterprise management. Market restraints are also covered, including long sales lead time, unwillingness to outsource help desks and the large number of vendors.
TOP According to a survey of 771 US call centers, the 186 managers who participated stated that the average hourly wage of top-paid full-time agents ranged from $6.90 to $40 (median $15). The five most competitive industries for top-paid agents' hourly wages who paid $15 and up were Computers (91%), Manufacturing (86%), Healthcare (63%), Insurance (62%), and Telecommunications (62%), which may suggest when correlated with other salary data from the survey that businesses in these industries value agents once they are fully trained in the company's products/services.
Inbound centers have an average annual turnover of 26% for full-time reps, and 33% for part-timers. Nearly half of centers said that part-timers handle 5% or less of their total calls. 1999 Call Center Benchmark Report, Purdue University Center for Customer Driven Quality. 3% of the US working population is currently employed in call centers, for a total of 1.55 million agent positions in the US call center market. At a 6.5% CAGR, the number of agent positions will grow to 1.979 million by 2002.
Average agent compensation is now at $32,000 per year. The average cost to hire a new TSR is $6,500. The average cost for recruiting and training a call center representative is between $5,000 and $18,000.
There are approximately 7,000,000 agents now working in 70,000 call centers in the US, with an annual growth rate of up to 20% in agent positions.
The UK's call center industry is chronically short of skilled staff and therefore more than one in ten calls leave customers feeling "irritated, annoyed or furious." The call center industry in the UK is growing at a reported 50% annual rate, with spending on computer equipment in centers alone rising from 300 million pounds in 1994 to 1.8 billion last year.
The number of call center reps in Germany will rise from 65,000 in 1997 to 148,000 in 2001. German Industrial Investment Council, citing Datamonitor, 1998. A survey of call center opportunities in the Asia Pacific region found that:
From "Learning and Development Best Practices for Call Centers", a study that focused on centers in financial services and insurance:
Why do customers leave? Primarily because they don't get what they want. But it has less to do with price than attention. 45% of those who leave do so because of "poor service"; another 20% because of "lack of attention" (that's 65% leaving because you've done something wrong). 15% leave because they can find a cheaper product elsewhere, and another 15% because they find a better product elsewhere, and 5% for other unspecified reasons.
TOP The number of call centers in Europe will grow from 12,750 in 1999 to 28,289 in 2006.
The cellular telephone subscriber base in the Asian region is likely to expand to 167.0 million by 2005. Total revenues have climbed to $16 billion in 1999, forecast to take a massive leap over the period, with an estimated revenue level of $38.34 billion by 2005.
Europe's call center market is around $9 billion. Great Britain, France, Germany and Holland together accounted for 80% of call center sales revenues within the 15-member European Union EU. During the five-year period from 1999 through 2003, sales of call center systems among those Big Four will total more than 1.8 million seats, over $3.6 billion in base revenues, and over $9 billion in gross revenues.
The global call center software market will nearly triple in size, to be $8.5 billion, by 2003. Growth will be driven primarily by demand for Web-enabling software and media-neutral call monitoring solutions. The aggregate market for all call center software is currently worth $2.9 billion. Customer care software is the largest segment of the call center software market, with sales in excess of $690 million in 1999. 90% of all mergers and acquisitions aimed at call center software vendors has been initiated by companies with no historical experience in the call center software space. (This is $7 billion in M&A over the last four years.) Growth in the call center software industry will not occur uniformly within all of the software segments. Market share claimed by each of the three CRM sub-segments (customer care, sales force automation and help desk software) will diminish slightly between 1999 and 2003. Global spending on software that supports Web-enablement will grow more than six-fold between 1999 and 2003, from $245 million to $1.6 billion. The value of the market for call monitoring software is set to grow from $120 million in 1999 to $850 million in 2003.
The electronic voice market (IVR) is expected to surpass $1 billion in 2001 and $2 billion by 2005. The electronic voice market as a whole will increase more than 340% by 2005.
Online retailing revenues in North America are expected to top $36 billion by the end of 1999, with a projected growth rate of 145% in 1999. Based on data from 328 online retailers, 158 of which participated in a detailed survey, they found that total 1998 online revenues across all categories reached $14.9 billion, representing 0.5% of all retail sales. Online orders in 1998 were up 200% and the number of online shoppers was up 300%. 62% of the $14.9 billion of online revenues in 1998 were from retailers who had businesses that predated the web. Customer acquisition costs for online-only retailers are $42 per customer, almost double that for multichannel retailers at $22 per customer.
The average cost of handling a call in a telephony-based center ranges from US$50-74, and the average cost falls 43% in a web-based call center.
The rate of growth in the number of call centers is slowing, from 4% in 1999 to an estimated .8% in 2003, attributed to both maturation and consolidation within the call center industry.
There are 69,500 call centers in the US, growing to approximately 78,000 in 2003.
The worldwide call center services market totalled $23 billion in revenues in 1998, and is projected to double to $58.6 billion by 2003. (This is based on dividing the overall call center service marketing into these segments: consulting, systems integration and outsourcing.) Outsourcing is the largest segment, with $17 billion in 1998, or 74% of the total market, headed for $42 billion in 2003.
Frost & Sullivan estimates the size of the market for e-mail management systems: they predict the e-mail management market to grow 115.7% in 1999 and reach $223.3 million by 2005. The report claims that Brightware has the most market share of vendors in the category, with 28.0%, nearly twice the share of the number two vendor.
Outbound telemarketing reached a record $482.2 billion in sales in 1998, including $209.5 billion in sales to consumers.
On an average business day about 40% of the more than 260 million calls on AT&T's network are toll-free, adding up to 24 billion calls per year.
More than 70% of business transactions take place over the telephone.
$700 billion in products and services were sold through call centers in 1997 and this figure is expanding by 20% annually.
3% of the US working population is currently employed in call centers, for a total of 1.55 million agent positions in the US call center market. At a 6.5% CAGR, the number of agent positions will grow to 1.979 million by 2002.
70% of all customer interaction occurs in the call center.
Call center growth has slowed to 32%. More than 90% of call centers have websites.
The number of US companies using call centers in 1993: 41%. In 1995: 81%.
There are approximately 7,000,000 agents now working in 70,000 call centers in the US, with an annual growth rate of up to 20% in agent positions.
Consumer products and remote shopping represent a combined 44% of total call center facilities; these are the largest vertical markets within the call center industry. Deregulation promises to make utilities the fastest growing sector, with a CAGR of 17.1%.
The UK's call center industry is chronically short of skilled staff and therefore more than one in ten calls leave customers feeling "irritated, annoyed or furious." The call center industry in the UK is growing at a reported 50% annual rate, with spending on computer equipment in centers alone rising from 300 million pounds in 1994 to 1.8 billion last year.
The number of call center reps in Germany will rise from 65,000 in 1997 to 148,000 in 2001.
The 1996 market for call center services in the US generated revenues of $15.4 billion. The forecast for compound annual growth rate in the U.S. call center services market from 1996-2003 is 15.8 percent.
The call center operations market will grow 21% annually, from $7 billion in 1998 to $18 billion in 2002.
More than half of the largest companies in the United States use toll-free numbers for customer service, and a majority of the U.S. advertisers use or plan to start using call center operations in their businesses. The market leaders are AT&T, MCI and Sprint, who are creating a significant barrier to others interested in the market. In order to meet the various challenges facing this growing but competitive industry, continuing consolidation (both mergers and strategic alliances) on the part of service bureaus are predicted.
More than 31 million PCs in the United States access the Internet regularly, double the number found a year earlier. Home PCs continue to account for the largest portion of Internet users, but the number of workplace PCs accessing the Internet has increased most rapidly, rising from 3.6 million PCs in early 1996 to nearly 11 million in early 1997. Once connected, the most popular Internet activities are e-mail and Web browsing, followed by downloading software. 30 percent of home Internet users reported engaging in one or more commercial activities, such as using the internet for home banking and stock trading, or to purchase consumer services or electronics.
In 1997 insurance companies and securities firms bought $29 billion worth of information technology. That'll hit $38.5 billion by 2002. Firms in the US spend more on this than any other country. Datamonitor predicts that call centers in those sectors will grow at a compound annual rate of 12% over the next five years.
A study of call centers in banks concluded that:
11% of the 78 billion contacts that occur annually between retail customers and financial companies are handled by telephone, growing to 16% by 2001. It is estimated that global financial services firms spent just over $3 billion (US) on IT related to consumer call centers in 1997. This spending is currently growing at an annual rate of about 10% and is expected to reach $3.3 billion (US) by the end of 1998, before accelerating to approximately 15% annual growth for the subsequent two-year period. North American financial institutions have historically invested the most in call centers, representing 68% of the total current investment. The strongest growth in spending, though, is predicted to come from the European market, as European banks and insurers start to employ call centers in larger numbers. Most customers interact with financial companies either through automated teller machines or physical branches. Electronic (non-telephony) just 1.4% of the total.
TOP A research study on the effectiveness at serving customers and prospective customers online at the leading North American financial institutions revealed that 56% of the firms studied either did not accept Web-based queries or did not respond to e-inquiries placed online by potential customers.
UK blue-chips are more eager to adopt a "clicks and mortar" strategy than their European counterparts, according to a qualitative survey of 171 British, German and Dutch. Of the companies surveyed, the UK had the worst record when it came to sharing customer information between existing departments. The combination of these two factors suggests that UK companies are developing e-commerce divisions in technical isolation from existing operations, compromising quality and consistency of customer service.
Only 0.1 to 1.0 percent of customer care contacts in the utility industry are handled today via the Internet, even though roughly two-thirds of calls to a utility involve transactions that could be handled via the Web. Based on the pace of the shift from CSR calls to IVR calls, E Source believes that utilities could shift 10 to 30 percent of their call center traffic to Internet channels over a five-year period if they develop and consistently support an integrated customer care strategy and if they target those Internet-enabled customers who do business with utilities.
Only 36% of e-customers are satisfied with their Internet purchasing experiences. Poor handling of e-contacts create 30-48% lower customer loyalty among the two-thirds of e-contactors who are not satisfied. E-customers across all industries expect acknowledgment of their e-contact within one hour. However, only 12% receive an acknowledgment within an hour and only 42% receive one with 24 hours. One-fourth of all companies are pushing outgoing e-mails to customers with suggestions and promotions. Only one-third of e-customers indicate a high interest in receiving such e-mails.
AOL handles more than 805 million instant messages per day. This is reportedly 12 times the number of emails they handle, and is more message traffic than the US Postal Service moves each day.
A survey conducted jointly by UK-based Hewson Consulting and eGain Communications compared the average response times of companies to e-mails about customer service issues in the US and the UK: Response UK US One day 25% 31% Two plus days 29% 34% No response 34% 25% No email address 12% 10% More than 150 UK companies were contacted. Companies were sent an email with a relevant, time critical question regarding their products and services, and a request for a brochure. Despite these obvious buying signals, after two weeks of waiting, only 50% of the requested brochures had arrived.
A poll of 143 call center executives on Y2K issues found that:
Why do customers leave? Primarily because they don't get what they want. But it has less to do with price than attention. 45% of those who leave do so because of "poor service"; another 20% because of "lack of attention" (that's 65% leaving because you've done something wrong). 15% leave because they can find a cheaper product elsewhere, and another 15% because they find a better product elsewhere, and 5% for other unspecified reasons.
More than 31 million PCs in the United States access the Internet regularly, double the number found a year earlier. Home PCs continue to account for the largest portion of Internet users, but the number of workplace PCs accessing the Internet has increased most rapidly, rising from 3.6 million PCs in early 1996 to nearly 11 million in early 1997. Once connected, the most popular Internet activities are e-mail and Web browsing, followed by downloading software. 30 percent of home Internet users reported engaging in one or more commercial activities, such as using the internet for home banking and stock trading, or to purchase consumer services or electronics.
More than half of all consumers who retrieve on-line product information say they're placing orders by phone or by going to local stores. The Internet is becoming an integral part of the purchasing process whether the purchase is made on-line or off-line. Even though on-line sales racked were $3.3 billion in 1997, another $4.2 billion in sales of off-line consumer goods and services were influenced by on-line information. Less than a third of on-line purchases resulted from clicking on banner ads. Consumers tend to use the Internet more as an electronic yellow pages than like as on-line direct marketing response medium.
62% of online shoppers plan on doing more purchasing that way. Only 4% said they'd do less. Also, more than a quarter of traditional shoppers studied said they intended to buy online. 59% of consumers who purchased online said they were highly satisfied with the service they received.
Cost of a typical telephone call: $2-5 each. Cost of a typical web transaction: $.25-$.50 each. One live call = approximately 10 web transactions.
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