From the new industry research of Inspire shows that more than 25% of the respondents are already working with chatbot and/or virtual assistant technology. More than 22% are considering it and almost 5% are in the pilot phase. More than 52% of the respondents are already (partially or otherwise) automating customer contact.

62% of respondents expect growth across all customer contact channels; it is striking that the share of digital contacts via chat and social media is expected to grow more strongly than the share of telephony. Telephony and e-mail are also the most used customer contact channels in 2020. Almost 40% expect a contraction in telephony in 2021 and 38% in e-mail.

Working in customer contact

Employment in the customer contact sector remains difficult to measure for the time being, earlier publications by Statistics Netherlands (up to 2019) on this subject are inconclusive. Temporary employment agency Inspire has raised this subject with the Customer Service Federation. Based on a new calculation and measurement method, a think tank has estimated that the sector comprises approximately 330.000 employees who work in a customer contact profession and/or work in a customer contact department.

For 80% of the participants, the vision of working from home has changed positively. Less bonding with staff and noise on the line are seen as the biggest disadvantages, while a more flexible organization and better motivation of staff are seen as the biggest advantages. Nearly 70% of respondents say working from home between 25% and 75% of the workforce will become the norm.

Labor market shortages appear to be declining

The Balanced Work Act does not seem to have the desired effect: 93% of the participating organizations indicate that new employees start under a temporary/flexible contract. More than 60% subsequently indicate that they will only provide a permanent employment contract after a period of 1 to 2 years and if they function well. A fallback to outsourcing is also mentioned.

Labor market shortages specifically for customer contact employees are no longer an issue for about two-thirds of the respondents. The education requirement for MBO4 has increased by 20% compared to 2019, while that for HBO has decreased by 13%.

The Sector Research of Inspire Sourcing Solutions (Inspire), in collaboration with OBI4wan, focuses basically on the experiences, vision, strategy and decision-making of customer contact professionals on current issues within the sector. In this (2020) edition of the sector survey, we approached more than 375 HR and customer contact professionals for participation (panel members).

Customer Experience