Many multinational organisations have come to rely on SA as their base for contact centre operations.
This is according to a recent 1Stream report examining the 2016 trends in the South African contact centre industry.
The South African contact centre industry has evolved to such an extent that it is becoming the focal point for corporate sales, service and support, it says.
The report notes the operating environment in the country has made it attractive to those businesses that want to set up an offshore contact centre, explains 1Stream.
A weakening local currency and an ICT market that is conducive for growth, mean SA will remain a good investment opportunity in this regard, it says.
Also, local companies have been able to embrace new legislative requirements in spite of obstacles and concerns around by the Protection of Personal Information act, notes the report.
While security and privacy will always be priority areas, negative expectations around legislation proved to be ill-founded, it adds.
Jed Hewson, co-founder of 1Stream, says factors like cloud computing, data analysis and outsourced managed services indicate the coming months will be crucial for local contact centre growth.
He adds cloud computing is becoming mainstream in the contact centre industry.
"The technology has simplified products and services resulting in the opportunity for decision-makers to take a fresh approach towards cloud-hosted solutions and the associated cost and efficiency benefits."
Also, the resultant focus on data growth also means contact centre executives are relying on more advanced tools to analyse what they have at their disposal, says Hewson.
By extracting real-time data intelligence, they can move beyond just monitoring the performance of a contact centre into having meaningful, high-level information, he adds.
As companies face increasing cost pressures and as all areas of the business come under greater scrutiny, so the interest in leaner contact centres has grown, says ITEC.
As a result, we expect business models such as the virtual or decentralised contact centre to become an increasingly attractive option for customers, it adds.
Executives risk falling behind and trying to catch up to what their competitors are doing if they ignore what is happening from an ICT innovation perspective, warns co-founder of 1Stream, Bruce von Maltitz.
Von Mailitz believes contact centre decision-makers need to embrace an outsourced managed services approach to leverage knowledgeable professionals in a more cost-effective manner.
Meanwhile, Wynand Smit, CEO at INOVO, says before organisations look at any technology, as well as the channels available for customer contact, they need to find out what customers want and expect from the company.
"If your contact centre has no feedback capabilities in place, you can't 'hear' your customer and use this feedback to drive improvements in the business"
The goal is to provide a seamless customer experience across all company touch points, which is why the contact centre can be an important contributor to or detractor of customer loyalty and therefore requires consistent monitoring, maintenance and enhancement, says Smit.
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