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1. What is a sector council?
Sector councils are organizations that bring together representatives from key stakeholder groups in an industrial sector. Representatives come from business, labour, education, other professional groups and government. Sector councils deal with human resource issues, and identify and act on the skills needs that are most important to a given sector.
Contact Centre Canada (CCC) was officially incorporated on February 6, 2004. It is one of 34 sector councils funded by the Government of Canada’s Sector Council Program.
The organization was established as the result of a national human resources study initiated by customer contact centre representatives and Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC). In the final report, entitled “The Canadian Customer Contact Centre Landscape: An Industry in Transition,” several challenges to the industry were identified, and it was suggested that a sector council be formed to address these challenges.
For more information on sector councils, please visit the Government of Canada’s Sector Council Program website.
Additional information is also available from The Alliance of Sector Councils.
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2. What is a customer contact centre?
A customer contact centre is a central point in an organization from which all customer contacts are managed. The customer contact centre industry has evolved from call centres—where the telephone was the main communication channel—to multi-channel contact centres that use a wide range of technology and delivery channels, such as e-mail, fax, telephone, web chats and more.
Financial services, telecommunications, utilities, transportation and service industries (such as hospitality, software and retail) all rely heavily on contact centres to provide customer relations—the most important aspect of their business. Contact centres are also prominent in municipal, provincial and federal government departments.
Today, customer contact centres have become vital to our economy. They are a key part of day-to-day organizational operations in many industries throughout the world.
For more information on the customer contact centre industry, including its evolution and current trends, download Chapter 2 of the Sector Study - The Changing Face Of Customer Care (PDF - 0.9 MB).
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3. What is the size of the customer contact centre industry?
In the 1980s, the customer contact centre industry was still in its infancy. Today, contact centres are critical to the success of many of Canada’s key industrial sectors.
In 2000, the customer contact centre industry contributed between $36 and 38 billion (4%) to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector employs 4 out of 100 working Canadians in over 13,000 contact centres. Thousands more Canadians provide external services that contribute to the industry.
The sector is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Between 2001 and 2003, contact centre representative positions grew by a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.5%, significantly outpacing the economy-wide average annual employment rate of approximately 2%.
For more information on the customer contact centre industry, including its evolution and current trends, download Chapter 4 of the Sector Study - Characteristics of the Canadian Contact Centre Environment (PDF - 0.4 MB).
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4. What trends fuelled the growth of the customer contact centre industry?
One of the main drivers behind the increased importance of customer contact centres is the rapid evolution and adoption of technology. The Internet in particular has enabled customers to learn about and interact with more companies than ever before, creating a more knowledgeable customer base. The available technology has also enabled contact centres to offer its customers multiple communication channels, resulting in better, more cost-effective service.
The main function of the customer contact centre has expanded from processing simple transactions to a multitude of complex transactions, such as customer service, direct sales, sales support, reservations, market research, internal support, technical assistance and more. Contact centres have become essential to business success in Canada, serving as both the “voice of the company” and the “ear to the customer.”
For more information on customer contact centre industry trends, download Chapter 4 of the Sector Study - Characteristics of the Canadian Contact Centre Environment (PDF - 0.4 MB).
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5. What are some of the career options in the customer contact centre industry?
A customer contact centre is a great place to start a career. It provides new employees the opportunity to develop critical skills in communication, customer service and technology, and to gain a thorough knowledge of the organization and its products and services. And due to the industry’s exponential growth and rapid evolution, there are plenty of opportunities for advancement. In addition, contact centres offer customer service representatives job enlargement, job enrichment and job tiering opportunities to develop new skills and competencies.
The industry offers a wide variety of occupations, ranging from entry-level positions to senior management roles. Consider just a few examples: customer service representative, workforce scheduling supervisor, database manager, contact centre team lead and manager, technical support provider and HR manager/recruiter.
Because customer contact centres are used in many of Canada’s key industrial sectors, there are excellent career opportunities available in a broad range of fields. Financial services, telecommunications, utilities, transportation, and service industries (such as hospitality, software and retail) all rely heavily on contact centres to manage customer relations. Professionals such as nurses, financial advisors and computer analysts often work in contact centres, earning salaries that range from $40,000 to $225,000.
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6. Where are the future employment opportunities in the customer contact centre industry?
Ontario and Quebec will remain major contact centre locations, but the fastest growth in employment opportunities will be seen in the Atlantic Provinces.
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7. What human resource challenges are the customer contact centres facing?
The 2002 sector study “The Canadian Customer Contact Centre Landscape: An Industry in Transition,” which was funded by the Government of Canada’s Sector Council Program, indicates that the customer contact centre sector faces a number of human resource challenges. These challenges include:
- Labour Shortage
Labour market statistics indicate that the pool of skilled workers in Canada is shrinking. Between 2005 and 2009, the annual growth rate of the labour force is expected to drop below 1%. As a result, there will be increased competition for labour in Canada. Within the customer contact centre industry in particular, it has become particularly difficult to recruit database managers, technical support staff and appropriately skilled contact centre managers.
- Skills Gap
The skills required of contact centre employees are changing rapidly, in tandem with technology and business environment trends. As indicated in the sector study, 34% of customer contact centres report that they were unable to find enough candidates with the necessary skills. As the sector moves toward integrating front and back offices, current roles and positions are expanding and new occupations are emerging. Our workforce must receive the proper skills training to meet these changing demands.
- Turnover
Although the turnover rates in Canadian contact centres are low compared to those in the US (between 12 and 20% in Canada, compared with over 50% in the States), they are still high enough to threaten productivity and profitability. Not only does it cost money to continually train new workers, but it has been shown that long-term customer contact centre employees are more efficient and cost-effective than newer employees. Workers who stay longer in their positions tend to have well-developed customer service skills, which leads to better job performance and higher job satisfaction.
- Recruitment and Selection
Today’s contact centre managers are having difficulty attracting people with the necessary skills, aptitudes and attitude to handle the fast-paced environment of a contact centre. One of the reasons for this is that the industry’s current image does not accurately represent the contact centre work environment and the type of worker required.
The sector study includes recommendations to develop a national recruitment and retention strategy, and to develop strategic partnerships with educational institutions and other training providers to ensure an appropriately skilled labour force.
- Professional Accreditation
Accreditation, as defined in the sector study, is a professional designation granted to those who have received a certain level of expertise through academic training or professional expertise. It helps employers maintain standards, and increases workers’ employability and mobility within the industry.
Professional accreditation for customer contact centre professionals has not been widely adopted in Canada. Contact Centre Canada (CCC) will be reviewing national and international professional accreditation and training programs to determine what will work best for the industry.
- Lack of Human Resource Statistics
The majority (77%) of Canada’s 13,000 contact centres are small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 25 customer service representatives. These contact centres lack affordable access to quality information on leading-edge human resource practices and statistics specific to the contact centre industry. There is a need to develop accessible baseline data on best practices related to recruitment, selection, compensation, performance management and training. This data will help CCC to identify gaps that can be addressed by sector initiatives.
In the coming years, CCC will address these challenges through designated projects carried out in partnership with its stakeholders: contact centre organizations, labour representatives, contact centre associations and educational institutions.
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