The French Connection: Call Centers Of France

Generally, the main functions of call centers are telemarketing or marketing, information and client support services that give assistance in the resolution of technical problems. From the Collective Agreement for Service Providers of France, call centers are made up of agents who are organized by type of services and grouped in teams at centralized offices. Additionally, call centers manage client relations and prospecting exclusively by telephone, using IT technology or telecommunications, for either incoming or outgoing communications.

For the past years, the word contact center or centre de contacts has changed call center or centre d’appels in order to cover the several means of communication that have been integrated. In France, contact centers have become an essential part of client relations.

France’s Position in the Call Center Business

United States is the world leader in call centers with more than 3.8 million jobs and 60,000 call centers. Canada and Brazil also have significant presence in the Americas, as well as South Korea and India within Asia. However, France is relatively well situated, with identical amount of call centers as in the United Kingdom.

Although the sector in France has attained a certain level of maturity, the margin for progress in such sector remains significant. For the next few years, the key factor for growth will be the evolution from the existing trend of general sub-contracting, to specific sub-contracting.

There are several major generalist service suppliers that have surfaced in France. On the other hand, there are still a large number of smaller actors located in geographical markets, niche functions and sectors that will continue to manage. The following is a list of the 4 major sub-contracting groups in France.

1. The Generalists, which combine industrial scope with a wide range of services;

2. Groups offering a wide range of services but not limited to specific markets because of their size;

3. Groups with large-scale service providers, limited to a specific sector client or position;

4. The Specialists, which include a wide range of actors whose services, are aimed at specific market segments. There are also function specialists that operate in assistance, telephone debt recovery or telesales, and local centers that can benefit from geographical immediacy to a precise local economy.

France is ranked 4th in the world for setting up administration services and call centers in terms of global set-up costs. There are three sectors in France with probably the most call centers and they include Telesales, ICT and Outsourcing and Banking. By incorporating the needs and constraints of call center projects within contractual and structured policies, the French local authorities combined with the AFRC or Association Française de la Relation Client have been able to build up high-tech facilities for the call center sector.

The Workforce in France

The call center human resources account for about 60 to 80 percent of total working costs for client services making them an important consideration. In general, call centers apply fairly low-wage guidelines. There are 75 percent of client relations agents in France who earn less than 31,150 net per month. Additionally, 70% of employees in France are working full-time and contrary to common mistaken beliefs, call centers mainly employ long-term employees with CDI contracts.

After India, France is also the country that employs the most qualified staffs. There are over 60% of centers in France that employ people with at least two years of higher education.