Business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the Philippines need to expand in nonvoice services as rapid growth in this sector is seen in coming years.
Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) President Benedict Hernandez said, at the sidelines of the International Contact Center Conference and Expo in Pasay City on Tuesday, that there will be faster demand in nonvoice BPO than voice services as the industry’s client markets are moving toward nonvoice process.
Contrary to voice-based process wherein customers’ queries are handled over phone, nonvoice services are via e-mail, chat or social media.
“There will be faster growth in nonvoice, while growth in voice services will be minimal,” Hernandez told reporters.
“We need to make sure to position ourselves in nonvoice services,” he said.
With this trend, the country may lose its competitive advantage of speaking the English language clearly than other markets, as nonvoice services will be looking into e-mail, chat, and social-media capabilities of talents.
“That will be a new challenge for the industry; how we could be different in offering non-voice services,” he mentioned.
Currently, 90 percent of the local market are services, while the remaining are nonvoice process.
Meanwhile, global services consulting firm Everest Group Vice President Hanumantha Karthik said annual global spending on contact services has reached the $300 billion to $350 billion mark.
Only 20 percent, or around $60 billion to $75 billion, of the total global spending on contact-center industry is outsource-based services.
The 20-percent share of outsource-based services is expected to grow by 6.0 percent to 8.0 percent in the next three to five years, while spending in this sector is seen to expand by 10 percent to 12 percent.
This means the Philippines still have market to grow its contact center industry with this global trend according to the CCAP chief.
Kris M. Crismundo | Philippines News Agency