Working for Job Security and Quality
Customer Service in The U.S. Contact
Center Industry
Why We Need the
Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act
Customer contact is a major industry
57,000 contact centers in U.S.

4,000 large centers (150 or more agent positions)

Large centers employ about one-half of agents

86% of centers are “in-house” (not subcontracted)
4.7 million U.S. contact center workers

3.7% of the total U.S. workforce
Customer service rep is largest occupational title in centers

2.2 million CSR jobs in 2010 (45% of call center jobs)

7th largest occupational title in the U.S.

2
3rd largest projected growth in the number of jobs with an
expected increase of 400,000 jobs (18%) from 2008 to 2018
Sources: U.S. National Report: Global Call Center Survey, www.globalcallcenter.org; BLS, Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2009,
www.bls.gov/oes/oes_dl.htm
Competition drives goals and strategies
Business Goals:
3
Strategies to Achieve Goals:

Retain customers

One Stop Shop – for sales,
service and billing

Reduce costs

Web Self-Serve – for sales,
tech support

Increase revenue

Interactive Voice Response

Outsourcing/Offshoring
In-House, outsourced, and offshore centers
In-house centers: Still the overwhelming majority of
the industry

Call center industry revenues: $250 billion/year

$200 billion in-house; $50 billion outsourced

80% of US centers are in-house
Leading outsource and off-shore companies
4
Convergys Corp.
Teleperformance
Sitel Worldwide
TeleTech Holdings, Inc.
Sykes Enterprises, Inc.
APAC Customer Services, Inc
Source: CFI Group: Contact Center Satisfaction Index 2010
Call centers rebuild third world economies

Top two offshoring destinations are Philippines, India

350,000 – 400,000 call center workers in Philippines


Growing at 50,000 jobs per year; estimated 30-35% annual
growth rate

Bills itself as 5th largest English speaking country and
“inexpensive” labor
330,000 call center workers in India

Estimated 10-15% annual growth rate

Indian call centers beginning to sub-outsource to yet other
countries to take advantage of lower labor costs

Markets “low cost of manpower” and government support of
the industry
Foreign centers lack security measures common in
the U.S.

Expensive and difficult to run background checks on
foreign call center workers

Bank account and sensitive data more susceptible to
theft and fraud

Overseas call centers not subject to data breach
notification laws

Indian government carved out call center companies
from compliance with data privacy laws
Customer satisfaction in US vs. offshore centers
Customer satisfaction in US centers is 25% higher than
off-shore centers
7
Source: CFI Group: Contact Center Satisfaction Index, 2010.
What We’re Doing to Secure Jobs and Quality
Service in the Call Center Industry


8
Bargaining

Job security, improved working conditions, wage and
benefits

Customer Service Committee sharing strategies and
solutions
Organizing

Telecom: T-Mobile

Airlines: Piedmont, American & American Eagle

Outsourcers: ACS/Xerox
What We’re Doing to Secure Jobs and Quality
Service in the Call Center Industry

Legislative Action: The United States Call Center
Worker and Consumer Protection Act (HR 3596)

Introduced by Representative Tim Bishop

Creates “bad actor” list of U.S companies that
send jobs overseas

Requires disclosure of call center location to
U.S. consumers

Provides right to have call transferred to U.S.based agent.