The Mexican and Central American and the Caribbean contact center outsourcing services markets are poised for growth, driven by the rising demand for value-added services and increasing levels of quality interactions to achieve higher customer satisfaction. Faster recovery and economic growth in Latin America has opened up the markets for contact center servicing, sales and debt collection. Government policies directed toward promoting investments in contact center outsourcing have also provided steam for the market. Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean are ideally positioned to serve the U.S. client base, addressing customer care needs in either Spanish or English.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan,  Mexican and Central American and the Caribbean Contact Center Outsourcing Services Markets 2010, finds that the Mexican market earned revenues of $1,191.8 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1,839.0 million in 2015. The Central American and the Caribbean market earned revenues of $899.1 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1,406.6 million in 2015.

"The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the contact center outsourcing services market in Mexico is likely to be 7.5 percent from 2009 to 2015, and Mexican providers are expected to witness growth in the offshore segment," says Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Juan Gonzalez. "The key competitive advantages include service quality, robust telecommunications infrastructure, and competitive pricing."

Growth in the Central American and the Caribbean contact center industry will depend largely on the availability of labor resources. In more mature markets such as Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, contact center activities compete with other BPO industries. Central America and the Caribbean hold only a small share in the overall U.S. outsourcing market. The impact, however, has been significant in those countries. The number of workers employed by the contact center providers in Central America and the Caribbean exceeded 60,000 in 2009.

The economic slowdown in the United States affected the Mexican and the Central American and Caribbean contact center outsourcing services market significantly. The repercussions were strongly felt during the last quarter of 2008 and the first semester of 2009.

In Mexico, the outbound services tied to the financial services vertical as well as telemarketing and outbound credit card promotional campaigns were also negatively affected. The Mexican market revenues had decreased by over 6 percent in 2009. The recession tended to have a greater effect on those small- and medium-sized companies engaged in offshore and telemarketing activities.

Due to the global economic slowdown, offshore outsourcing, and aggressive cost-cutting pressure demanded by clients, revenue growth rates are likely to decline in the medium term. There is intense competition in Latin America, and the market is expected to stabilize by 2013, after witnessing increasing growth rates in 2011 and 2012. Domestic and offshore contact center services will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.

The trend toward increased usage of self- and automated service technologies such as interactive voice response (IVR), E: management and Web self-service will continue. This will enable outsourcers to provide more services with the same number of agents. The overall effect will be to increase the number of transactions handled by outsourcers, while lowering the revenues derived per transaction.

"Providers in this space must look for ways to expand and deepen the existing client relationships," says Gonzalez. "They must continually improve their efficiencies in order to compete on a cost basis as clients demand consistently high-quality interactions."

Participants must strive to move the center environment from a cost-focused to a profit-focused one and clearly articulate the benefits of the latest technologies and social networking tools to stoke market progression.

Mexican and Central American and the Caribbean Contact Center Outsourcing Services Markets 2010 is part of the Contact Centers Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: Latin American Contact Center Outsourcing Services Market, Contact Center Applications Market, Inbound Contact Routing Market, Hosted Contact Centers Market Latin America Enterprise Telephony Solutions Market, Latin America Contact Center Applications Market, Latin America Unified Communications Market, and Latin America Video Conferencing Market. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.newswiretoday.com