The call centre market - France (2024)

1.2 A growing global market

The global call center market is estimated at US$ ***.* billion in ****. This is a growing market, with an estimated CAGR of *% between **** and ****, reaching US$ *** billion in ****. In ****, the United States will dominate the market, with **% of the world market. [***] Growth will be driven in particular by :

the growing importance of CRM, or customer relationship management investment in process digitization the diversification and expansion of call center offerings

Call center market sales World, ****-****, in billions of US$ Source: ****

CAGR of *.*% to ****

Teleperformance (***) Concentrix (***) Atento Alorica Majorel (***) Sitel Group (***) Sykes Teletech Webhelp (***) Comdata (***)

The French parent companies are therefore very strong - with * players in the top **. [***]

1.3 Growth in the French market

insee groups call center activities under NAF code **.**Z, distinguishing between :

inbound call center activities : the reception of calls from customers by human operators, automatic call distribution systems, telephone-computer integration, interactive voice response or similar methods of taking calls.or similar methods for taking orders, providing product information, handling support requests or customer complaints outbound call center activities : using similar methods to sell goods or services to potential customers, carry out market research or surveys, and perform similar activities for customers.

Thus, based on the data and classification carried out by INSEE, we observe strong growth in the French market since ****, with a CAGR of *.**%. Growth peaks between **** and ****, with a CAGR of **%.

In ****, the French call center market is estimated to be worth €*.* billion excluding taxes, with growth over **** of *.*%.

Call center sales in France France, ****-****, in billions of € excl. tax Source: ****

2.1 The customer experience: an increasingly important lever for building consumer loyalty

Call centers, or contact centers, are a relational marketing tool, which encompasses all actions designed to enrich the relationship with the customer. The aim is to build customer loyalty, thereby reducing the cost of acquiring new customers, and encouraging them to continue buying products or services. In this way, using a contact center makes it possible to manage different stages of the customer relationship and strengthen the links between a company and its customer base. The following * surveys were conducted in ****, but consider that the customer experience has remained fairly stable since then, and that in **** this data still makes sense.

The ** key figures in customer relations (***) highlight the points on which contact centers need to focus to best satisfy customer expectations. The diagram below summarizes some of the key data:

These data have consequences for the channels used by contact centers as part of their customer relationship management. Indeed, while nearly **% of contact centers use the telephone today, **% of French people think it's a frustrating channel. This frustration stems from the fact that in **% of cases, waiting time on the phone exceeds * minutes. The aim is to reduce waiting times as much as possible, and thus so-called "customer irritants", in ...

2.2. The impact of digitalization on CRM

Better understanding customer journeys in the age of digitalization

Whereas in the past, customer relations were built around physical contact, the telephone and letters, the rise of digital channels has multiplied the possibilities for contact with customers. This is revolutionizing the services offered by call centers: the use of the Internet means that contacts can be made by email, chatbox or via social networks. Voice" contacts are no longer necessarily the only option.

That's why call centers are moving away from an activity based essentially on telephone contact towards a multiplicity of communication media. The term"contact center" is now preferred to "call center", although the latter is still widely used.today, satisfying the customer involves an omnichannel strategy that uses - simultaneously or not - different channels to facilitate contact with different prospects and/or customers. [***]

Personalization and data protection: the ambivalent aspirations of French consumers can be costly for companies

According to a study by Accenture Strategy in ****, **% of French consumers decided to "switch to the competition" following a disappointing shopping experience in **** - either because it wasn't personalized enough, or because they were worried about the exploitation of their personal data. The cost to businesses was estimated at ...

2.3 Typology of outsourced contact center customers: towards greater diversification?

Sectoral breakdown of the call center market: long-established players and new, fast-growing sectors

The business of outsourced contact centers depends on the activity and needs of the sectors to which they offer their services. The graph below shows that over **% of contact center services are provided to the Telephony and Energy/Utilities sectors.

Market breakdown by sector France, ****-****, in % of market value Source: ****

Nevertheless, as the graph below highlights, the telephony sector - the historical sector - will see its market share decrease slightly between **** and **** (***), underlines the importance of sector diversification for contact centers.

We also note that the French outsourced customer relations market is doing well, with overall growth of around *% between **** and ****.

Significant trends in the breakdown of the French market by sector France, ****-****, in Source: SP*C Zoom: sectors presenting an opportunity for the call-center market, particularly in a phase of slowing growth: Public Services, Banking, Insurance Evolution of sales generated by the * sectors in question France, ****-****, in % Source: ****

Public service sector

From **** to ****, the Public Service sector will experience dazzling growth of **%. Growth in this sector was particularly driven by the Covid crisis, as sales generated in **** were already **.*% higher than in ****. Indeed, ...

3.1 Segmentation and player dynamics

Players in the internal and external call-center market

The graph below highlights the fact that the number of companies operating in the call-center sector grew strongly between **** and ****, with growth slowing but remaining positive between **** and ****. Nevertheless, there will be three contractions in **** and **** , with the number of companies falling from *** to *** between **** and ****, and from *** to *** between **** and ****, and a *.*% drop in the number of centers between **** and ****.

In terms of number of employees, the pace of growth was fairly steady from **** to ****, after which the number of employees stagnated. In ****, **,*** people will be working in a call center, a figure which falls to **,*** in **** , representing a *.*% decrease on the previous year .

Growth in the number of companies and employees in call-centers France, ****-****, in number of companies and thousands of employees Source: ****

Market share of outsourced contact centers:

The chart below highlights the market share distribution of the main outsourcers on the French market, according to the annual barometer published by EY and SP*C. In ****, the French outsourcers in the SP*C study generated sales of around *.* billion euros on the French market. The * market leaders accounted for **% of market share, compared with **% in ****, demonstrating a slight concentration ...

3.2 Map of outsourced contact center locations

Source: ****

Out of a total of ** sites counted among SP*C members responding to the survey, there is an asymmetrical distribution of outsourced call centers in France. In ****, the most represented regions will be Hauts-de-France (***).

The importance of nearshoring and offshoring: a threat to French production?

The French outsourced customer relations market is estimated by SP*C at *.* billion euros (***), taking into account both French, nearshoring and offshoring production.

French" production accounts for **%.

Nearshore production, which corresponds to production relocated to Europe (***), accounts for *% of the market.

Offshore production, i.e. production relocated outside Europe, accounts for **% of the market.

Offshore zones correspond to the following geographical areas

offshore *: Maghreb countries (***), offshore *: sub-Saharan African countries (***), offshore *: Indian Ocean countries (***), other locations: Egypt, Jordan, Asia, Latin America...

The breakdown of production for the French market is shown below:

Origin of outsourced contact center production for the French market France, ****, as % of total sales Source: ****

The chart below shows that while "French" production is growing, it is still the lowest in the market (***), but the biggest increase is concentrated in other locations, with **% growth.

Growth in outsourcer production in France, nearshore and offshore for the French market France, ****, in Source: ****

3.3 Typology and dynamics of the main communication channels used

Typology and dynamics of the main channels used:

As the chart below shows, the telephone is the dominant channel (***). Nevertheless, its share of total channels has been declining in recent years, with the breakthrough of new channels. Indeed, while telephone growth between **** and **** is **.*%, it is zero between **** and ****. Web callback, social networking and chat, on the other hand, enjoy higher growth rates of **%, **% and **% respectively.

Breakdown of contact center sales by channel France, ****, in % of market by value Source: ****

3.4 Internalize or outsource contact centers? A thorny question for companies

Today, **% of call centers are outsourced to external service providers. Most of these are grouped around the SP*C, which brings together French outsourced customer experience companies. Its recent report, published in **** and entitled Baromètre des impacts économiques, sociaux et territoriaux des centers de contact externalisés en France, is an important source of information for our study.

There are, however, hybrid forms of internalization and outsourcing, such as when a company sets up a subsidiary to manage its customer relations, or when a group invests in a company that manages contact centers for different customers, of which the group in question is a member. This helps to maintain pressure and control over the centers.

In ****, for example, the Altice group (***) acquired a stake in the Intelcia group, which manages **% of SFR's customer service. [***] Air France is also a shareholder in BlueLink, which operates in the aeronautical, tourism, luxury and cultural sectors. These two companies are among the top ** outsourcers on the French market, and operate both for their parent companies and for other players.

Many large companies can also outsource part of their customer services, and bring another part in-house. This is particularly true of the major telecoms operators, ...

4.1 Contact center organization and types of services offered

Internal workings of a call center:

Guides Comparatifs offers specifications for setting up and managing a contact center.

There are two different, or complementary, rationales for setting up a contact center:

quantitative: to improve contact processing productivity, qualitative: to improve the quality of customer service.

Among the technical systems used in contact centers, we distinguish :

Central systems, comprising :

Telephone systems (***): different for incoming and outgoing calls, Interactive Voice Servers (***): broadcast voice announcements to manage waiting times and distribute information to customers, Automatic Call Distribution (***), Computer Telephony Integration (***): couples computer applications to telephone systems. For example, when a call is received, the caller's profile is automatically presented to the agent, DIALER: call generators to reach a large number of prospects (***).

Contact center management applications:

Resource planning: useful for planning staffing levels according to traffic peaks.

Applications for contact center agents:

Contact management: contains an interview guide, sometimes a customer summary sheet, and information entry to keep a contact history, Agent banner: specifies agent availability and provides information on traffic flows, Sometimes, CRM-type applications, or access to certain databases.

In most contact centers, a supervisor monitors the activity of the call center agents, who are equipped with headsets to help them concentrate and ...

4.2 Cost structure and price analysis

Prices vary according to location and the number of customer advisors and calls handled. Most industry leaders don't advertise their prices. However, according to Callcenter-guide, here are a few examples of the factors taken into account in all contact center rates:

Premises: prices vary according to location, rent, utilities and other taxes, Technology: all the hardware and software required to make contact, Furniture: everything that goes with the workstation, Management: all employees other than advisors (***), Customer advisors.

As a general rule, the breakdown of the price for a classic call-center is :

**% for human resources (***), ** to **% for technology (***), * to **% for premises and furniture.

Other factors are also taken into account, such as the percentage of sales achieved, targets to be met, hourly rates or daily rates.

Once all the basics have been established, the price is determined in three stages:

Scenario development: sales pitch and contact file: between *,*** and *,*** euros. The test phase: testing the scenario with customer advisors: around *,*** euros The operation: depending on the type of call (***) and the tasks to be carried out: around *.** euros per contact.

Offshore labor costs can be as much as * times less (***). In France, for example, the hourly rate for a customer advisor ...

4.3 Prioritize customization and upmarket products over standardization and low-cost models

Standardizing processes and cutting costs: a strategy ill-suited to the new challenges of customer experience

In ****, Les Echos published an article following a mass layoff in Free's call centers. The strategy of lowering costs and standardizing certain call centers may have led to numerous relocations and increased multiskilling of certain call center agents in a bid to cut costs.

A loss of authenticity in customer relations may have led to mistrust on the part of major clients. by trying too hard to standardize or automate responses to customers, these are cruelly lacking in personalization, failing to take account of the customer's emotions and losing room for maneuver. And yet, these elements are crucial to the customer experience and determine consumer purchasing decisions. Indeed, in ****, **% of consumers abandoned a transaction due to poor customer service.

So, in a more recent **** article, Les Echos highlights the change in approach being led by call centers - outsourcers or not - particularly for the telecoms sector. This involves a triple transformation of contact centers.

*/ Technological transformation: responding more effectively to customer requests and automating simple tasks

New technologies - especially those powered by artificial intelligence - bring flexibility to contact centers, call center agents ...

4.4 The future of the contact center in the digital age

The spread of the "as-a-service" contact center: towards ever greater flexibility

According to Relationclientmag, the as-a-service contact center market will be the preferred option for **% of contact centers by ****, **% more than in ****. Among the advantages of this model, the use of the cloud enables all customer exchanges to be handled across all channels. This enhances the flexibility of the service, and enables employees, for example, to work from wherever they like.

The rise of telecommuting in the wake of the Covid-** crisis is a major boost to this model, as telecommunicators have become experts in remote communication, which could also reduce real-estate costs. However, this boom may be limited by the question of teleworker commitment, and security issues linked to the protection of customer data.

In an often unpredictable environment, flexibility is also important, in the event of contract flows both upwards and downwards.

Innovation in outsourced contact centers

The chart below shows that contact centers have high expectations of the use of new technologies, particularly those powered by data science and artificial intelligence. Strictly speaking, AI only accounts for **% of the technologies developed by outsourcers (***), but it is present in other technologies such as RPA or speech / data / text analytics. ...

5.1 Regulations

The Naegelen law: a new framework for telephone canvassing

Telephone canvassing in France is subject to increasingly stringent constraints in response to growing complaints from the French about intrusive calls. As of March *, ****, these restrictions include a ban on calling consumers on Saturdays, weekdays before ** a.m. and between * and * p.m., as well as a limit of four calls per month to the same number. In addition, theAutorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques (***) imposes specific rules on professionals using automated calling systems.systems, requiring the use of numbers beginning with certain prefixes and prohibiting access to numbers beginning with ** or **.

These restrictions have a significant impact on call centers that manage customer relations for large corporations, resulting in potential loss of revenue. Companies specializing in outsourced customer relations in France had forecast a **-**% drop in telephone sales by March ****. This could lead to an increase in rates to compensate for these losses.

However, the French Customer Relations Association points out that restrictions on the number of calls per month will limit outbound call activity. Moreover, Arcep fears that consumers will hang up or spam the numbers displayed, which could hamper legitimate prevention campaigns.

Outsourced customer relations companies have ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Teleperformance
• Armatis
• Comdata
• Intelcia Goup
• BlueLink
• Outsourcia
• SATEL
• Sérénis
• Convers Telemarketing
• SFR
• Bouygues Telecom
• Majorel
• Concentrix (ex Webhelp)
• Acticall Sitel Group
• Immatech Groupe
• Intelsia
• Com Revolution (Jobphoning)