China know for its massive population emerges as a thriving call centre market, which is increasingly difficult to ignore: The number of agent positions in China, for example, is estimated to reach 300,000 in 2009 at a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent, according to a report by Datamonitor.
With a population growing into the billions Global Companies now have their eyes set on China, with its prize of rich potential consumer and business markets. China's focus on using contact centre’s to cater to its domestic market, combined with its low labour costs, which are continuing to boost the country's growing near shore appeal.
“Neighbouring countries and similar markets are strong reasons for moving into China, obviously we can see this move already from Japanese, Hong Kong, US and Taiwanese companies, such as PCCW, 800 Teleservices, Vision-X and JV’s like Wecosmos, It makes good business sense to open a call centre facility in the mainland, says Richard Santoro from Value Communication Services, a Japanese CRM consulting company in Shanghai.
China's rapidly expanding economy and evolving international economic policy, which has been greatly influenced by China's 2001 entry into the WTO, also account for part of the expected uptake in its contact centre market. Improvements in business processes and customer care are two results of China's new international power to compete. Greater competition from domestic and foreign companies in China has ramped up the demand for excellence and service quality" Richard says. As the market expands, expect technology expenditures to increase as well. Heightened interest in multichannel operations, VoIP technology, and VoiceXML-based solutions also accounts in part for the anticipated market growth. (The number of annual VoiceXML-based IVR shipments in China will balloon to more than 66,000 by 2010, overtaking traditional touch-tone IVR systems as the dominant platform in the country, according to further reports by Datamonitor.)
The market may also be ready for moving beyond inbound initiatives. "Often we see in the China market larger contact centres often focus primarily on inbound customer or big key accounts” Untapped markets such as "small and medium enterprises will help fuel the growth through the more innovative way of offering best practices, high quality call centre technology and fixed rate packages," says Richard. But the Chinese contact centre story isn't levelled off yet. High setup capital investment, high telecom charges, various licences, and lack of experienced personnel are problems that the Chinese contact centre market grapples with now, according to Richard from VCS. Retaining good staff is difficult, he says. "As far as I am aware there isn’t enough training or perhaps few universities or institutions of higher learning have training courses or subjects that help students to develop a career in contact centre or customer services. Qualified individuals are also not keen on pursuing careers in contact centres."
Last update : Tuesday, 24 July 2007
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