Why are European contact centres increasing their prices?

If you provide outsourcing services, you may be able to increase the prices for your contact centre services. This year, most European contact centres will increase their employee’s salaries and the prices for new and current customers. We look at why this is happening and what opportunities it offers providers in developing countries.

Increasing contact centre service prices

In 2022, most European contact centres are raising salaries in their contact centres by 5 to 10%. They are also considering increasing client prices. By increasing their prices, contact centres can:

• keep employees, and
• cover the costs of inflation.

The high demand for valuable output in the industry also justifies a higher price.

Good quality employees are hard to find

The skills shortage in Europe has increased the demand for outsourcing, especially contact centre services. The skills shortage is due to:

• the shrinking labour force,
• the increase in demand, and
• the relatively low reputation of contact centre jobs.
   

Contact centre employees are extremely valuable. They have direct client contact, representing the company they work for. How well a contact centre performs is directly related to the quality of its employees. Finding and keeping the right people is one of the biggest problems in the contact centre industry. The industry hopes that a higher salary will attract new employees and keep current employees from leaving the company. Still, experts are debating whether a 5 to 10% pay rise will be enough.

Covering the costs of inflation

Inflation is a global problem. It affects employers and employees. Contact centre employees are dealing with an increased cost of living and thus need higher wages.

Employers’ operation costs are also increasing. Gas and electricity bills are higher, and so is the cost of rent and office supplies. Contact centres are even seeing rising costs due to more expensive raw materials. This, even though the industry is not the most vulnerable to these fluctuations. An increase in customer prices is necessary to cover these increasing costs.

Opportunities for providers from developing countries

The current market for contact centre outsourcing offers providers from developing countries opportunities to export to Europe. The skills shortage and increasing costs mean that companies in Europe may be looking for new service providers.

This may also be a good time to increase the price of your contact centre services. European companies are willing to pay for valuable output. The sector values output much more nowadays. This is because of the growth in e-commerce, customer satisfaction tracking, and customer experience and retention rates. If you can offer good output, you are worth the money.

Find out more

Read our study to learn more about exporting contact centre services to Europe.

Globally Cool B.V. wrote this article for CBI.

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