It’s the healthy competition in business world which helps you raise the standard of your processes. And when it comes to call center business, examining the business of other players in the market definitely helps in making the business more efficient by streamlining multiple processes.

Competitive analysis is basically defined as a process of examining the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors in the market and comparing them with your own services or company.

The call center market is filled with multiple small and big players which are always active to modify their processes as per the changing needs. So, competitive analysis becomes inevitable to survive and thrive in call center world.

Some major questions which must be answered by a call center while conducting competitive analysis include:

• Who are the present competitors
• What type of call center services are offered by them?
• What is the market share of every competitor?
• What are the weaknesses and strengths of each competitor?
• What technology is utilized by each competitor?
• What market threats are posed by the competitors on you?

SWOT Analysis

Normally, performing the SWOT analysis is an integral part of competitive analysis in which strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of all the competitors are prepared. This helps in giving insights of the competitor’s business in a structured manner.

Let’s take an example of a hypothetical firm ‘Welcome Call Center,’ a New Jersey-based call center service provider.
After its SWOT analysis following were the results.

STRENGTHS

• Shared agents model
• Availability of self-service functionality
• Multilingual support for clients
• Omnichannel customer support

WEAKNESSES

• Lack of quality management personnel
• Lack of robust marketing strategies
• Less experience in market

OPPORTUNITIES

• Merger with renowned IT Company ‘AAA.’
• Plan to establish a center in Texas

THREATS

• Better technologies are used by competitors
• 2 newly opened call centers in New Jersey

Just like this example, you can perform SWOT analysis of every competitor from your domain which helps in effective competitive analysis.

Outsourcing Competitive Analysis Process

Normally, a thorough competitive analysis might be difficult to perform if the company lacks the knowledge required for the same. In this scenario, the call center firm can take support of external agencies which offer competitive analysis.
These external agencies have hired management experts, statisticians and researchers which are well-versed in performing analysis of your competitors.

Benefits of Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis carries multiple benefits which can result in boosting the quality of services to make sure that the company is transformed into a renowned brand. Some of the benefits include:

1. Technology Trends in Market

By analyzing the competitors, one can identify what technologies are being utilized by other companies in the market for their call center process. This will help the company in recognizing minimum technological requirements which are needed to survive in the market.

2. Ability to Analyze Marketing Trends

The companies can analyze marketing strategies which give an idea of marketing channels focused by competitors like online advertising, cold calling and social media presence etc.

Also, it will help in examining which marketing channels are missed by the competitors. These channels can become an opportunity to reach the target clients.

3. Examining Company Culture

Culture of the company creates a huge impact on employees but there is need of proper balance between and fun and work to ensure optimum productivity especially in call center which is an employee-oriented sector. Examining the culture of other call centers will definitely help the company to modify its own for smooth running of both voice and non-voice process.

4. Helps in Avoiding Wrong Assumptions

Having a wrong assumptions related to the competitors can result in developing strategies which are not feasible for the company. This will ultimately lead to wastage of resources, money and energy. Also, the final result will not be as per the expectations.

Therefore, competitive analysis is a must to avoid any false assumptions.

5. Analysis Before Launching a New Service

Whenever a call center company plans to start a new service in the company, then performing the competitive analysis will help in examining if strategies used for launching the service are up to the mark or not.

Also, studying the business of competitor will help in marketing the new service in much more efficient manner.

Just like strategic planning of every business type in the world, firms in Call Center Industry also need a robust competitive analytics to remain ahead of the pack.