Welcome to Fifth Quadrant and callcentres.net's first news issue for 2012. We are pleased to be back and be bringing you our regular contact centre and service sector news reports, Analyst updates and blogs.

I will start the year by sharing new insights from our Australian and New Zealand contact centre industry market reports.

For Australia…

The Australian contact centre industry has grown 7.6% since late 2010 to be about 214,300 seats. The industry is expected to continue growing at 4.1% (predicted 223,100 seats by end 2012).

48% of contact centres are using hosted solutions and there is an increase from 7 to 13% of centres using cloud based technology.

The top challenges facing the contact centre industry in Australia over the next 12 months include:

1. Inadequate headcount to effectively meet business requirements
2. Need to upgrade existing technology
3. Change management
4. Training/ Agent development
5. Budgetary constraints/ Expectation to do more with less

Now to NZ…

The contact centre industry in New Zealand is about 29,610 seats which is a 1% decline from 2010. This is exactly the growth rate (albeit negative) that the industry predicted it would achieve when researched in 2010. The industry predicts stronger growth over the next 12 months with a projected seat size of 31,500 by end of 2012.

The agent turnover rate is 24% p.a. down from 27% in 2010.

About 4 in 10 centres currently use hosted solutions and about 1 in 3 are using or about to use some type of cloud based application in their centre.

The top challenges facing the contact centre industry in NZ over the next 12 months include:

1. Inadequate headcount to effectively meet business requirements
2. Change management
3. Improving productivity/efficiency
4. Training/ Agent development
5. Better utilisation of current technology

Wishing you a prosperous Water Dragon inspired 2012.

Here is a question for you.. On average, across Australia, are contact centres hours extending in length to meet customer requirements? I reckon so. Please see the tables below that set out the average opening hours per business day, Saturday and Sunday. Since 2006 opening hours have extended by about two hours on a business day, and three hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Also 16% of all contact centres are open 7 days per week, 19% are open days per week and 43% are open 5 days or less. 24% of contact centres in Australia service more than one country. Fascinating.

Why I wanted to note these stats is to point out that with the emergence of new channels, such as online and social media, we will continue to see other business units, such as Marketing and IT, who have launched social or online channels, soon become challenged in being able to resource and respond effectively to customer enquiries when their hours are Monday to Friday 9 to 5.

Speaking of social media… on November 3rd, we are hosting a webinar with world renowned social media celebrity, Dave Carroll, Canadian and writer of the You Tube sensation ‘United breaks guitars’ song. Dave’s song in protest to a bad service experience he had with United Airlines went viral. Please make sure you join us on the webinar for this rare treat to talk with a top Canadian bloke. Dave is also quite a funny guy and Jules and I have been mentoring him with regard to the rules of business and how these might be different to the rules of the music world. Here are some of the valuable lessons that Jules and I have shared with Dave...

• No Money No Honey.

• Only drop your daks (pants) on price if you are likely to get a Business Holiday (another term for an overseas Conference where some is paying for your airfare and accommodation).
• People who want contra deals usually have less than you have.

• Money is a direct reflection of your value in a capitalist regime. Go with it.

• Your sense of humour is a direct reflection of your value in real life. Go with it.

• Never do business with people who are not funny.

• Even if things go badly in a business deal but there was something funny about it then it didn't go badly.

• Never wear white joggers with jeans on casual office day.

• Be able to spot a TW within 30 secs of meeting (TW= Time Waster).

• Never wear a pencil skirt on stage when you have to sit down.

• Win over the gay community. They dress better than straighties so will make you seem cooler.

• Never ever do business with people with body odor. Smell is a critical business sense.

• Outside of Nth America try not to wear white tee shirts under other shirts.

• Destroy any cino pants or moccasin shoes you own.

In particular Dave has taken exception to our banning of the white undershirt. He will not budge on this one. So to hear Dave share his story and to support Jules and I lobby against the Nth American undershirt, click her to join us