Following the pandemic shutdowns in 2020, the global outsourced customer experience management (CXM) market spiked in 2021, with the fastest year-on-year growth (12-14%) in recent history.
Everest Group noted that the growth of the customer experience management (CXM) outsourcing market, which currently stands at 31% of overall global CXM spend including in-house contact centres, outpaced GDP growth in all economies in 2021 after a decline in 2020.
It forecasts that the CXM outsourcing market will continue to grow, albeit at a more normalised rate (7-9%), despite the uncertainty presented by a looming recession. In fact, the recession will act as an indirect market driver; to compensate for low buying sentiment, enterprises will focus on customer service and retention, thereby spurring continued growth in CXM outsourcing over the next few years.
Growth drivers
A considerable shift of contact centre operations toward a hybrid delivery model, with greater emphasis on gig and work-at-home (WAH) workers to enhance delivery capabilities
The increasing use of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to decrease reliance on full-time equivalent (FTE) employees while delivering better CX outcomes
A foray of first-time outsourcers into the CXM market, especially driven by the small and midsize business (SMB) segment, which will continue to grow rapidly.
“The future of CXM service delivery will be defined by a combination of locations, technology and delivery models to create unique solutions that are flexible, scalable and tailored, based on each enterprise’s requirements,” said Shirley Hung, a partner at Everest Group.
“The service providers who are growing faster than the market average are those who offer end-to-end CXM solutions that include advanced digital tools, front- and back-office services, and advisory and consulting services to provide bespoke solutions tailored to their clients’ requirements.”
Shirley Hung
CXM in Southeast Asia
Everest Group says numerous mergers and acquisitions primarily focused on expanding geographic presence, with the linguistically diverse ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region being considered for Asian language capabilities.
A potential threat to providers in the region is Africa which is experiencing increasing demand from customers in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region to provide quality CXM and from other enterprises that want to diversify their service delivery footprint by shifting work away from India and the Philippines.
