Number of ‘contact center’ workers in Portugal increased by 19% in 2021
The number of workers in contact center in Portugal rose 19% in 2021, compared to the previous year, to 51,167, according to a study by the Portuguese Association of Contact Centers (APCC), which will be presented this Tuesday.
“The number of human resources allocated to operations of contact center increased by 19% in 2021 compared to 2020 (51,167 instead of 42,889), which in part can be explained by the number of responses,” the document reads.
Among these, there are 44,523 operators, 3,474 supervisors and 3,170 people who form part of support teams.
The number of full time equivalents (full-time) increased by around 12% compared to 2020, standing at 43,365, with the sectors with the most workers in this regime being the outsourced (34,395) and telecommunications (3,071).
Of the total number of workers, 36% have higher education, 59% attended secondary education and 5% only basic education.
The average length of service of operators increased from 36 to 43 months, compared to 2020.
According to the APCC, the percentage of employees with open-ended contracts dropped from 50.9% to 55.7%, while the percentage of employees with fixed-term contracts dropped from 43.4% to 36.5%.
Customer service in Portugal remains a function of contact center representative (89%), also highlighting activities of back office (62%) and complaints management (58%).
This is followed by customer technical support (52%), crossed sale and upselling / sales Prohibited (46%), telemarketing/sales exit (41%), order management and registration of products and services (34%), collections (32%) and satisfaction surveys and similar (31%).
At the end of the table are studies and opinion polls (11%), receiving and processing orders (21%) and managing cancellations/cancellations of services (27%).
In 2021, the total number of contacts Prohibited (received by the operator) increased by 7% compared to 2020, rising to 2,285,314 per day and the channels recording the most contacts were websites and apps [aplicações] and telephone (both with 31%), followed by IVR self service (21%).
In the opposite direction, with the smallest number of contacts appear SMS and chat (0% and 1%, respectively).
In turn, the number of contacts exit (issued by operator) approximately 29% to 339,871, with the telephone (83%) presenting itself as the channel with the highest percentage, followed by SMS e-mail (8%) and IVR self service (1%).
“The joint average time (Prohibited and exit) the duration of calls increased compared to 2020, from 5.0 to 5.5 minutes in 2021. In 2021, ‘inbound’ calls had an average of 5.4 minutes and ‘outbound’ calls had an average of 5.5 minutes. ”, he detailed.
The sectors in which the longest times were recorded did not Prohibited were: Utilities (7.2 minutes), telecommunications (6.9 minutes), commerce (6.3 minutes) and tourism (6.0 minutes).
The shortest times concern the sectors of roadside assistance (30 minutes) and public administration (3.5 minutes).
Regarding calls exitthe sectors with a higher average duration are the outsourced (7.8 minutes), courier and express delivery (6.7 minutes) and Utilities (6.6 minutes).
The sectors with the lowest values are, in turn, tourism (0.0 minutes), public administration (1.6 minutes) and travel assistance (2.0 minutes).
The average waiting time, about 16 seconds in the year and the markets, to 58 seconds and the marketsacting least positive” were telecommunications (94 seconds), commerce (93 seconds) and law (83 seconds).
In the year under review, the sectors with the best average waiting time were travel assistance (10 seconds) and health (27 seconds).
The APCC study further concluded that the average first contact resolution rate has increased percentage points for 2020, remaining at 85%.
Here, the sectors of public administration (94%), other services (93%) and Utilities (91%), while roadside assistance (70%) and outsourced (82%) were the ones with a lower percentage.
The latest available data that websites and apps (21.1 hours) and the e-mail (20.6 hours) are “those with the highest average resolution time for smaller queries” and the channels with an average time are the chat (2.3 hours) and SMS (4.3 hours).
Compared to 2020, average time for resolution of increase, increase from 1.8 days to 2 days, with those included in the item other services having a longer time (11.5 days).
per channel, the the e-mail (3.74 days) and social networks (3.50 days) were the ones with the worst performance and chat (0.09 days), SMS (0.13 days) and telephone (1.97 days) had the best performance.
“On average, each operator responds to 12.4 requests for requests per hour, which is higher than in 2020 (8.6 requests). The telecommunications sector compared to the rest, registering an average number of requests answered of 21.1 per operator per hour”, he added.
The average occupancy rate of intermediary resources from 73% to 79% in 2021 and commerce (89%), others (83%) and express courier services (82%) are the sectors with the highest rates.
The majority of workers are in a fully remote regime (62%), and of the remaining 18% are in a hybrid regime with fixed face-to-face days, 12% in a face-to-face regime and 8% in a hybrid model without fixed face-to-face days.
The inquiries in this defense also that the future of work will be hybrid with fixed face-to-face (30%), 100% face-to-face (29%) or fully remote (28%) days.
A total of 1058 service lines, operated by several companies, responded to this study, which translates into an increase in the sample by 126 lines for 2020.
The centralization of human resources remains in Lisbon (61.4%) and Porto (18.2%) and most companies remain under outsourcing (outsourcing), with 58%.
Regarding the lines of other service institutions, financial institutions and service sectors (14.5%) and financial services sectors (14.3%).
In relation to the number of assistance provided, 14 there was a growth from 2029, from 2029 to 3,784.