The Portuguese Association of Contact Centers (APCC) developed, based on a study by the consultancy Deloitte in December 2023, an assessment of the impact of the contact center industry on the Portuguese economy, which concluded that Portugal is growing three times more than in Europe.
The study, carried out with data relating to 2022, includes the analysis of economic variables (such as gross value added, turnover and exports), social variables (including employment generated and its evolution) and technological variables.
“The results of the study are unequivocal regarding the strategic importance of this industry for Portugal, revealing the importance of investment in technology and contact center services by companies in various business sectors”, says APCC in a press release.
According to APCC, companies providing contact center services are those that contribute most to the volume and growth of this industry with around 79% of the total. Technology suppliers and integrators/trainers share the remaining market, with a weight of 12% and 9% respectively.
The sector, says the Association, represents around 393 billion euros in turnover worldwide in 2024, which means an average annual growth of 4.5% since 2019.
Although Europe represents only 7% of the sector’s total worldwide and is also growing below that average, Portugal is growing around three times more.
“The technological capacity, the ability to attract qualified people, national and foreign, who can complement their studies in Portugal, which has more and more internationally recognized Universities, as well as the organization capacity of the sector itself, explain this good performance”, advances APCC.
In 2022, the contact center industry produced total wealth (gross value added) of more than 2.4 billion euros (~1% of national GDP), which is divided into 2.1 billion euros of direct impact ( in the industry itself and additionally considering the proportional impact of the downstream value chain) and 255 million euros of indirect impact (in the upstream value chain), explains the press release.
According to APCC, companies providing contact center services are those that contribute most to the volume and growth of this industry with around 79% of the total. Technology suppliers and integrators/trainers share the remaining market, with a weight of 12% and 9% respectively.
With regard to employment, the APCC concluded that players in the sector were responsible, in 2022, for more than 143 thousand jobs nationally, with 59% of the total being registered in Lisbon and 15% in the Porto region.
In relation to the turnover generated by cluster of contact centers, stands at 3.7 billion euros, constituting a direct impact on the sector of 2.9 billion euros and an indirect impact of 735 million euros.
In this sense, companies providing Contact Center services are those that contribute most to business volume, accounting for around 79% of the total. Technology suppliers and integrators/trainers share the remaining market, with a weight of 11% and 10% respectively.
With regard to employment, the APCC concluded that players in the sector were responsible, in 2022, for more than 143 thousand jobs nationally, with 59% of the total being registered in Lisbon and 15% in the Porto region.
In relation to communication channels, the telephone continues to be the main means, although around half of contact centers already provide channels such as social networks (54%), chat (51%) or websites/apps (48%), says the Portuguese Association of Contact Centers.
Regarding the value of exports, the Association reports that it amounted to 767 million euros in 2022, with contact center service providers being those who contributed most to this reality (65% of the total).
In relation to communication channels, the telephone continues to be the main means, although around half of contact centers already provide channels such as social networks (54%), chat (51%) or websites/apps (48%), says the Portuguese Association of Contact Centers.
“Finally, a note that several players of Portuguese Industry demonstrated that they have already started project pilots to adopt Gen AI, as a tool to provide customer service teams with a richer discourse and more complete information about the processes of their customers and prospects”, reads the note sent to the newsrooms.
Don’t miss information: Subscribe to our Newsletters
Subscribe
