There are more than 100 contact centres across Ireland employing more than 29,000 people, new research by Contact Centre Management Association of Ireland (CCMA) has revealed.
The contact centre sector is in a significant period of growth, with 52pc of respondents growing in absolute revenue terms in 2010. On top of this, 73pc of companies surveyed said they expected to grow in revenue terms over the next two to three years, while 13pc expected no change, the IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland-supported research shows.
The first time this level of research has been done into the contact centre sector shows there were more than 150m customer interactions in call centres last year. More than half (59pc) of these were telephone-based, while SMS and email accounted for a relatively low 16pc of all communications.
Language skills critical
With 37pc of respondent companies requiring multilingual skills, languages are crucial for industry growth, CCMA noted.
“The customer contact industry continues to be an invaluable source of employment creation from multinational companies locating in Ireland across a range of industry sectors, including finance, IT, life sciences and e-commerce,” said Emmanuel Dowdall, global department manager, Content, Consumer & Business Services Division of IDA Ireland.
“As an increasingly important component in the way companies differentiate themselves, the customer contact centre has evolved into a multifunctional, multilingual environment; an early adaptor of new digital technologies and servicing a global customer base. This valuable research will help to inform the continued evolution and growth of this important sector in Ireland.”