The UK Call Centre Industry
“An era of change is upon us”

It is said that the UK has the biggest call centre industry in Europe, employing between 1.6 and 1.7% of the working population [Datamonitor].

There are estimated to be 3,325 call centres of 20+ workstations, employing 375,000 call centre operators [Mitial Research].

These centres are under threat of change from off-shore competition, in particular from India, which has capital investment, cost advantages, and employing bright graduate quality people who are dedicated professionals who see their role as long term participants in a high status and comparatively well-paid career.

Contrast this to the UK, where staff recruitment and retention is not easy. Hence the historic migration of call centre establishment to what were the unemployment black-spots of the North-East, Scotland, South Wales and Northern Ireland, where personnel were perceived to be low-cost and readily available – no longer necessarily the case.

What are the implications for the UK call centre sector?

Given the current and future potential shortfall of suitable personnel in the UK, outsourcing a proportion of customer support tasks to India is unlikely to substantially impact the number of jobs available in the UK. However, Indian companies will bridge the gap as the demand for service expands exponentially in the next few years, allowing UK staff to move towards higher added value tasks to enhance the total customer support function.

Direct total labour costs in India for a graduate level individual, in the role of Customer Service Representative, is substantially less than in the UK. However, cost is not the only or prime factor. Quality and availability are also major considerations.

This is therefore a potential win-win-win situation for UK based organisations in transferring and outsourcing non-core activity to India – higher quality service plus release of management and capital resource plus a lower cost base.