The European call center market is quickly expanding as new technological challenges in the market of the customer relationship are growth opportunities for operators contact centers.
Furthermore, many companies externalize as the charges for digital channels are increasing and outsourcing customer relations remains a guarantee of quality and expertise.
In this context, providers are constantly adapting to the environment and the sector of activities of their clients. They are a source of proposals to set up new management processes or develop new tools, always at the service of high-quality customer service.
Europe Assets
In the European sector companies of all types and sizes are turning themselves more and more to contact sector outsourcing.
To the point that the market in Europe was estimated at 20 billion euros in 2018 and is expected to grow furthermore in the next few years.
Attractiveness by countries
Eastern Europe
Some countries in Europe are more attractive than others. Eastern Europe is a relatively important area where outsourcing activity represents a considerable part of the GDP.
For example, Romania, which possesses one of the fastest internet in the world, has become one of the most important centers of outsourcing.
Poland and Bulgaria are very attractive as well in this matter.
Western Europe
Countries like Germany, France and England are representing the largest market.
With England still being highly attractive despite Brexit. Finance and Banking contributing widely to this matter. Furthermore, the English language being dominant in many countries, as well as many ties due to their colonial past, it is an advantage for business relations.
France is also an important market due to Africa’s French-speaking providers. French being the official language of 29 countries. It is is making the country an especially appealing target market for African providers like Senegal.
Germany is Europe’s largest economy. It is also an interesting market although Businesses are much less willing to outsource to other countries than in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands since companies prefer to conduct business in German than in another language and tend to choose nearshoring instead.
On the contrary, the Dutch are very comfortable with the English language and historically, Dutch businesses have been relatively open to outsourcing. Besides, the Netherlands has Europe’s sixth-highest GDP per capita.
Spain is one other significant European market. Spanish is ranked second in the world’s most spoken languages after Mandarin Chinese and before English. Therefore Spain is a highly attractive market for Latin American firms.
Northern Europe
As for the Nordic countries despite having a smaller market, they are often willing to outsource their call center services. They also have a strong and safe economy. External factors like COVID-19 didn’t affect them as much as other European countries. English is also widely spoken. However as with the other markets it is a benefit to speak the local languages if you are willing to do business with those countries.
The characteristics of the European call center market
European businesses prefer to outsource services to providers in their own country. When they chose to do it abroad they favor nearshore countries due to the proximity. But also the short time difference, cultural similarities and of course the language.
Moreover, market prices in nearshore countries, particularly within the European Union, are rising. Cost savings continue to be an important reason for European companies to outsource contact center activities to providers in other countries.
The present COVID-19 pandemic is also hastening several general trends.
In consequence contact center services must invest in their business continuity and in building stronger relationships with their customers.
New Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global business disruption in the European call center market, affecting numerous outsourcing providers.
Companies in Europe have been relocating their contact centre services in-house or to domestic and nearshore providers.
The implementation of homeworking has accelerated the digital transformation of many contact center service providers, as agents require remote access to platforms.
Furthermore, consumers have accelerated their use of digital channels.
This was probably due to both the availability of channels such as chats and social media when phone lines were flooded and new familiarity with digital channels as consumers switched to e-commerce during the lockdowns.
The European market for call centre services is, therefore, a strategic market. It provides not only many benefits but also great security and stability. Additionally, it is a growing field since it enables consumer companies to concentrate on their core competencies.
Furthermore, the field of call center services has become one of the most emblematic sectors of the globalization era. Linked to the outsourcing of corporate activities (outsourcing is worth more than 100 billion dollars per year and is growing by more than 5% according to the BPO index of Cushman & Wakefield), to the development of new technologies and an increasingly multilingual and multicultural environment.
The call center boom in Europe is an illustration of globalization in action. That which transcends borders. Revive the economically stagnant regions. Encourages the free movement of people and services and, not least – creates jobs.