Telephone Call Centers Industry Profile

The US telephone call centers industry includes about 4,200 companies with combined annual revenue of about $16 billion. Major companies include Convergys, Sitel, TeleTech, and West. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies generate over 50 percent of revenue.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is largely driven by consumer spending and business activity. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficiency of operations. Big companies have the scale to provide services to large corporate customers. Small companies can compete successfully for small and midsized customers because there are few economies of scale. The industry is labor-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $40,000.

The industry has been sharply affected in recent years by regulatory controls on telemarketing practices and strong competition from offshore operators.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major services are telemarketing sales, customer care, technical support, and call answering. Smaller companies generally specialize in one of these services. Telemarketing sales - also called "customer acquisition" - consists mainly of making outbound phone calls to sell products or services to new customers. Customer care and technical support consist primarily of taking inbound phone calls from existing customers or from new customers placing orders. Technical support helps customers figure out how to use a product, such as a computer or computer program. Customer care can involve passive activities such as taking orders and answering billing or technical support questions, or active initiatives such as follow-up calls to customers and ...