Hong Kong Call Centre Association
Call Centre Industry Research 2003
(Executive Summary)
Supporting Organisation:

Executive Summary

The Hong Kong Call Centre Association (CCA) is proud to announce our first Hong Kong call centre industry research 2003. Without the support from Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., the independent compilation of the collected data by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and the participation of the industry practitioners, we would not have been able to carry out this survey successfully. As the first industry research of this kind by CCA, the objective of this survey was to collect and share general information about call centre operations in Hong Kong , as well as the future direction of the industry in Hong Kong.

We prepared the survey with around 65 questions and placed this our website ( http://www.hkcca.com/ ). We invited, by electronic mail, 1,000+ call centre industry contacts to participate in the Internet survey. Participants filled in an online survey form and the results were mailed back to HKPC electronically.

This survey covers different aspects of call centres including scale of operation, people, technology and performance. The questionnaires are completed by personnel managing the operations who have sufficient knowledge and information regarding how their centres are being run. Call centre practitioners from various industries responded to our survey with the distribution:

Banking/Finance/Insurance 19%   Retail/Wholesale 6%
Broadcasting/Media 6%   Service Bureau 9%
Government 16%   Telecommunications 13%
Hotel/Tourism 6%   Transportation 9%
Information Technology 3%   Others 6%
Professional Services 6%      

Comparing the general size of call centres in Hong Kong with those in the North America, Europe and Asia Pacific region, the average size of call centres in Hong Kong from our data is 38, while some centres in our collected data such as the telecommunications industry are large, with over 200 seats.

From the results, there are many observations worth noting:

Call Centre General Information

In terms of Call Centre Management, we are focussing on the general management on the strategic level including business and financial model, years in operation, etc.

 
31% of the centres responded are under 10 seats while 57% among the responses are centres with 20 seats and below
25% of the centres responded are 100% phone-based call centres
75% of the centres responded are in-house call centres while centres employing out-sourcing and in-sourcing are both 6% among the responses
68% of the centres responded are in operation for over 4 years while 26% of the centres have been running 2 to 3 years
45% of the centres are running as a cost-centre while 14% are in the profit-centre model
 

Performance

50% of the centres process fax requests which amounts to 7% of their total customer contacts
62% of the centres process requests via electronic mail which amounts to 8% of their total customer contacts
Electronic mail in some centres can account for 50% of their total customer contacts
SMS (Short Message Service) and Web Chat are not common in respondent call centres, while in certain cases, web chat can account for up to 50% of the total customer contacts
Average call abandonment rate is 4%
Average speed of Answer is 8.3 seconds
Average call handling time is 148.4 seconds i.e. around 2.5 minutes
72% of the centres have an overflow plan
84% of the centres have a disaster recovery plan
84% of the centres have a quality assurance plan
81% of the centres measure customer satisfaction
 
Human Resources
38% of the agents are Form 5 or below while 34% are with tertiary education or above
Centres require their agents to be able to speak in different languages: Cantonese (97%), English (84%) and Mandarin (75%) respectively. Around 6% of the centres requires Japanese and Korean language skills
Around 50% of the agents receive 1 to 5 hours of training per month
Average ratio of Team Leader to Frontline CSR is 1:10
 
Technology
63% of the centres are equipped with traditional Private Branch eXchange (PBX) systems while 22% and 9% of them have PC- and IP-based phone systems respectively
Workforce Management Systems are not common among the responding centres, around 9%
38% of the centres installed Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems
15% of the centres have data warehouse, knowledgebase or expert systems
 
Future Plans
Data is collected regarding their plans in the coming 12 months:
32% of the centres responded would expand their call centre comparing to 16% would shrink their centres
25% of the centres responded would deploy more technology in their centres
9% of them would move their centres to the PRC or elsewhere in the region
25% of the centres are running 7x24 while some are planning for providing round-the-clock service
 
As our very first industry survey and with only limited resources, we are trying our best to collect the most crucial and much wanted industry information for industry practitioners. We hope that this survey will become an annual event on the Hong Kong call centre calendar, allowing the participants both a macro- and micro- view of the industry while providing call centre staff from all levels a benchmark towards continuous improvement.
 
We are very much looking forward to your participation in our Industry Survey next year.
 
 
Sidney Yuen
Chairman
Hong Kong Call Centre Association
Tel: +852 2788 6011 Fax: +852 2788 6056 Email: secretariat@hkcca.com


This report is compiled base upon the Internet written reply from the survey participants, and we understand that the information in this report may include inaccuracies or typographical errors. We tried to maintain the accuracy of the information on the highest possible level herein. All parties involved in the production of this report do not make any assurances with regard to the accuracy of the result and implication of the report. No part of this research report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchases.

Copyright © 2003 Hong Kong Call Centre Association.