Automation and Artificial Intelligence Fuel Japan’s Customer Experience Outsourcing Services Market, 2020–2026

Brands use outsourcing as a competitive strategy to get a multitude of benefits, including cost savings, best-in-class technology, business flexibility, access to skilled talent, and a blend of locations and delivery models. Customer experience (CX) outsourcing vendors partner with clients to understand their business challenges and offer solutions and services that help them to achieve business goals. The priority of CX outsourcers has recently shifted away from a task-based focus and toward achieving top-line outcomes.

COVID-19 has disrupted the outsourcing industry in multiple ways. As governments in several places restricted movement, thousands of agents were forced to work remotely. Customer experience service providers quickly adopted hybrid delivery models to offer voice and non-voice services in the work-at-home environment.

Digital channels have experienced strong uptake in the last few years as customers are going online and their interaction is moving toward messaging channels, such as in-app chat, webchat, and social media. During the pandemic, messaging was more widely adopted in the WAHA model, as it requires less bandwidth and overcomes challenges including background noises and privacy concerns.

As the outsourcing market matures, service providers face multiple challenges in delivering optimum levels of customer experience, including controlling costs, reducing inefficiencies, and responding to evolving customer preferences. Service providers need to achieve flexibility and speed, and offer highly-customized solutions that cater to clients' needs and expectations.

In 2019, Japan reported a growth of 3.2% in its customer experience market revenue. Frost and Sullivan estimates that Japan’s customer experience market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.9% during the 2019–2026 period. This study provides forecasts for the customer experience outsourcing market by industry vertical, namely banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), consumer retail, information and communication technology, telecommunications, travel and hospitality, and others.

This study also highlights the customer experience market revenue based on domestic outsourcing and offshore outsourcing forecasts. It covers market sizing based on forecasts for seats for the 2017–2026 time period. Various market drivers and restraints and their impact on the short-term and long-term growth of the market are also discussed in this study.