Research shows that the call centre outsourcing market is expected to advance at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2021–2031. Part of this expected growth has to do with the pandemic’s long-reaching effects. The shift from in-office work to hybrid or entirely work-from-home setups means that companies have become decidedly more open to outsourcing. After all, what is the difference between your employee doing a job and another company’s employee doing the job if they are both doing it from afar? One sub-industry within this industry, customer service outsourcing, is expected to see even more growth. Companies farm out these jobs because they are often unpleasant; moreover, they can distract from the core mission of a company. As customers get more demanding, we expect more and more companies to use customer service outsourcing.
The Aussie Dilemma
Andrew Hume took the helm of Probe CX seven years ago, and much has changed since then. Not only because of the pandemic, the recession, or the war, but also because Mr Hume has been an ambitious CEO from day 1. As the leader of an Australian company, he had much bigger plans than other companies had in that era. At that time, Australian firms in the customer service outsourcing industry were drastically under-represented. Mostly, it was big, international players that were dominating the game, but under Hume’s leadership, Probe CX has been able to make impressive inroads.
As Mr Hume put it, “Local players were being squeezed out. Some had gone bust, pushed out of the market by the big global players. I had a dream that this country deserved to have a world-class, Australian-owned local provider”. But being a world-class company meant having world-class resources, talent, and technology to compete. If Probe CX did not rise up to meet that challenge, Australian companies would have no local choice, no ability to hire an Australian company to do this work for them. On the flip side, Mr Hume also aimed to be a destination for young Australian talent. Instead of having to go to work for massive multinationals whose commitment to the country was not necessarily guaranteed, he wanted to provide strong, viable career paths for Australian talent.
Execution
There are a lot of ambitious people out there, but not everybody can execute. Thankfully for Probe CX, that has not been the case for Mr Hume and his team. As a result of the company’s efforts to compete at the global level, they have seen staggering growth as a result. Over the past six years, the company has gone from employing 300 people to more than 18,000. Where it previously had its modest operation primarily based in Melbourne, it now has 33 centres spread across five countries.
Now, the company is seeing itself as the big player moving into other markets. The company has made inroads into the Philippines, India, New Zealand, and the United States.
When asked about the company’s future, Mr Hume is still set on seeing Australian companies succeed. “We see ourselves playing a very meaningful role in helping Australian businesses access that talent overseas”.