Call Center Statistics That Are Truly a Wake-Up Call in 2023

By Vladana Donevski

June 19, 2023

Call centers are an inescapable element of running almost every customer-centric business. Regardless of whether you are offering a product or a service or using a call center to market them, you need to provide a line of communication with your customers. 

Not all support and call centers actually require a phone line. Call center statistics show that the industry has moved online to a large degree, and many other trends are emerging as companies strive to provide a better customer experience. 

Let’s see some of the most important stats about the call center industry in 2022.

Call Center Industry Statistics – Key Findings

• The global market value of call centers is estimated to reach $496 billion by 2027.
• 87% of employees in call centers report high-stress levels at their job.
• The contact center software market will be worth $149.58 billion by 2030.
• Businesses lose approximately $75 billion yearly because of poor customer service.
• 35% of customers want customer support agents to help them resolve issues in one interaction.
• General Call Center Operation Statistics
• Call centers are an essential industry nowadays, especially as many people turn to customer support. After all, the world has made a significant shift toward performing most of its daily life online. So let’s check some of the most important stats about this industry.

The global market value of call centers is estimated to reach $496 billion by 2027.

(Report Linker)

Research suggests that the industry’s value will keep increasing at a projected CAGR rate of 5.6% between 2020 and 2027. In-house call center solutions have a 5.5% projected growth rate during the same period, while outsourcing will grow by 5.9%.

In 2020, US call centers accounted for 29.49% of the global call center market.

(Report Linker)

The overall global market was valued at $339.4 billion in 2020, with the US share at approximately $100.1 billion in 2020. Other notable markets worldwide were China, Japan, Canada, and Germany, all with strong growth estimates. 

Almost a quarter of all call centers in the US made less than $250 million in 2020.

(Statista)

24%, to be precise. 13% earned more than $25 billion. 4% made between $15 and $25 billion, while 19% earned anywhere from $5 to $15 billion, and another 19% made between $1 and $5 billion.

The contact center software market will be worth $149.58 billion by 2030.

(Grand View Research, Inc)

According to call center statistics for software, the industry’s market size is $28.09 billion in 2022, up from $23.9 billion in 2021. If it continues following the estimated CAGR of 23.2% between 2022 and 2030, it should reach a staggering $149.58 billion by 2030.

In 2020, US call center businesses employed 2.83 million people.

(Statista)

The number of employees in the call center businesses grew steadily from 2014 when 2.51 million people worked in this industry. This trend changed in 2020, though, which saw a drop in the number of employees in the contact center industry compared to 2019’s 2.92 million.

Businesses lose approximately $75 billion yearly because of poor customer service.

(Forbes) 

Based on research in NewVoiceMedia’s 2018 “Serial Switchers” report, Forbes announced in 2018 that many customers were abandoning companies due to poor customer service. Recent research conducted by Salesforce shows that 91% of customers will make another purchase at the same company after a good customer service experience. 

In comparison, 70% said they would not buy a product from a company with long wait hours for customer support. If your company is struggling with similar issues, consider investing in call tracking software.

Call Center Stats on Customer Satisfaction 

Customer support is an essential part of providing a quality service, and companies need to pay close attention to customer satisfaction in this area. The following stats tell us more about customer preferences regarding call centers and support.

77% of customers appreciate proactive customer service.

(Zippia)

On top of wanting instant support, customers also expect customer representatives and sales reps to anticipate their needs and address them accordingly. Companies that can do that are much more popular with customers.

76% of customers prefer using different support channels depending on context.

(Salesforce)

According to the call center analysis by Salesforce, email is still the most popular customer support channel, followed by phone and in-person support. Online chat and mobile apps take fourth and fifth place, respectively.

78% of customers don’t like support agents that sound like they are reading from a script.

(Zippia)

Personalized sales and support communication has been the key for a while now. 52% of customers expect custom-tailored offers at all times, and 66% want the companies “to understand their unique needs and expectations.” 

This is no small feat, especially for the largest call center companies serving thousands of customers. Ensuring your company uses good call center software is only half the battle. You’ll still need quality support agents who can convince your customers that their needs are important to your company.

50% of customers believe that the customer service and support from most companies need a major overhaul.

(Salesforce)

While half of the customers expect better customer support, 60% agree that companies need to improve their trustworthiness, and 55% think companies should work more on their environmental practices.

Statistics show that companies focusing on “making the world a better place” always do well. Surprisingly, improving the product was ranked lower, as was using better technology and working on the overall business model.

35% of customers want customer support agents to help them resolve issues in one interaction.

(Microsoft’s 2020 Report)

Quick problem resolution should be one of the most important call center metrics. Over a third of customers in a Microsoft survey from 2019 said that resolving issues in one interaction should be a priority for the customer support team.

31% claimed that getting a knowledgeable agent is the most important, and 20% said that not having to repeat the same information is crucial. The latter seems like a growing problem, as more than half of customers felt that the departments providing support are not always in sync. 

These are definitely the key call center metrics that every company should pay attention to.

92% of consumers hesitate when buying a product if it has no customer reviews.

(Fan & Fuel)

Worse still, 35% might not buy a product at all after reading just one negative review. According to Zendesk, word of mouth is also extremely powerful: 95% of customers will tell others about a bad experience, and 87% will share good ones. 

Unfortunately, another survey shows that 79% of consumers who shared their poor online experience with customer support got ignored. Companies making this mistake should consider hiring a good reputation management service, as it will help improve their sales in the long run. 
Must-Know Information About Call Center Workers 
Despite the push toward automatization, live agents are still the pillars of any good customer support team. Here are some stats about the call center workforce.

There were approximately 286,696 call center agents employed in the US in 2021.

(Zippia)

The majority of call centers are located in Texas, or more specifically in Dallas and Houston. The average age of a call center employee is 40 years. Furthermore, 67.2% of all agents are women, while 27.9% are men.

87% of employees in call centers report high stress levels at their job.

(Cornell University)

Handling customer requests every day is not an easy job. Customer support agents are typically the first line of defense against angry customers, leading to very alarming call center stress statistics. 80% of agents experience angry customers blaming them for things out of their control. 

Undefined expectations, lack of incentives, and boredom with mundane, repetitive tasks cause agents to be miserable at work, which, in return, translates into poorer customer experience stats across the board.

The average salary of a call center employee is $27,765 per year.

(Zippia)

Salaries for new agents start at around $20,000 per annum. Those of the 10% top-performing agents can go up to $36,000 or more.

The turnover rate for call center agents is over 40% globally.

(ICMI) (Mercer)

When these call center turnover statistics are compared to the 22% average turnover rate across all industries in the US, it’s easy to see that job satisfaction levels in call centers are troublingly low.

Companies need to look into ways of making the job less stressful for their employees and using modern technologies such as AI bots to help facilitate communication with customers.

Call Center Technology Trends

Good implementation of modern technologies is essential for improving call center statistics and metrics. Let’s check how big of a role software plays in customer support these days.  

90% of businesses that use it find live chat software helpful for streamlining call center operations. 

(Zippia)

According to Zippia’s findings published in December 2021, 29% of all businesses and 61% of those in the B2B sector already use live chat software.

32% of businesses are implementing CRM systems to boost sales and enhance customer relationships.

(Zippia)

Customer Relationship Management software has an excellent track record of increasing customer engagement. Unfortunately, according to customer service and call center metrics, only a third of businesses make use of it currently. Considering that 31% of customer support teams think that their companies see their work as an expense rather than an opportunity to increase sales, this is not all that surprising.

87% of global organizations that implemented AI did so believing it would give them an advantage over the competition.

(Statista)

According to Statista, almost 90% of the organizations that implemented AI did so to keep up with the competition, while only 63% did so due to customer demand. Pressure to reduce costs was also a major factor (72%), along with the ability to move into new business spheres (78%).

In 2020, 37% of all messages to brand social media accounts were related to customer service issues.

(Sprout Social) (Statista)

However, most messages (59%) were positive, as customers wished to express their happiness with an excellent experience they’ve had with the brand. 

Call center statistics show that in 2020, 75% more customers used  Instagram to message businesses, while Facebook saw a 20% growth in this category.

If you are considering implementing social media into customer support options, keep in mind that 18% of customers expect an immediate response; it might be worth investing in social media management tools to help your support team out.