Smaller contact center companies’ weakening operating margins signal that they will have to confront the possibility of merging with other companies.

Such a move is intended to take advantage of economies of scale.

Overall, though, the local contact center industry continues to grow, with revenue up to 21 percent and number of seats increasing by 13.8 percent in 2008. Also, the improving agent to non-agent ratio shows better utilization of support staff.

These scenarios are among the key findings of the first of four-part quarterly survey series on the contact center industry entitled, “Contact Centers: Forerunners of Resiliency.” The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) through its Country Competitive Research Committee in collaboration with Pricewaterhouse Coopers Financial Advisors, Inc. did the survey with a sampling base of approximately 90,000 of the 275,000 seats in the industry. The respondents cater mostly to the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Here are the other highlights of the report:

One. Eighty percent serves the telecommunications industry, followed by financial services (71%), technology (52%) and business services (52%).

Two. Ninety-four percent handle inbound calls; while 81% and 77% handle outbound and blended type calls, respectively.

Three. The top five service types offered are complaints handling, account and product questions, help desk/technical support services, order taking and confirmation, and telecollection.

Four. All contact centers offer services in English, with Filipino/Tagalog as the next most prominent language used.

Twenty three percent of respondents offer services in Spanish for inbound calls; 15% offer French and 12% offer Mandarin Chinese for inbound calls.