The quality of the interaction – it’s something every contact center tries to make a priority in order to ensure the dominance of an industry.

In a market where products and even services are commoditized, the quality of the customer interaction can make the difference between customer loyalty and customer churn. To ensure the former, Latin American contact centers are implementing IVR (Interactive Voice Response) on a consistent basis.

In fact, a recent Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) report found that the applications market – covering value-adds such as IVR in the Southern Cone and Andean regions – will grow 9.8 percent and 10.3 percent respectively until the year 2018. Additionally, Brazil is expected to lead the region in terms of revenue with 51.6 percent share of the market. Altogether, with an earned revenue of $407.1 million in 2011, the market is expected to hit a whopping $757.9 million in 2018.

"Market expansion in Latin America will lead to substantial contact center application development to ensure efficient customer interaction," saidFrost & Sullivan Research Analyst Martin Ramirez, in the release. "Proactive tools will also be in high demand as contact centers will be focusing on business intelligence in order to implement a personalized approach to customer relationships."

While agent performance optimization (APO) is expected to be the most sought-after application, IVR tools are also popular in industries such as telecommunications and banking, as they help to simplify otherwise complex processes. End users seeking self-service interaction have also started to prefer IVR as they have become accustomed to the process.

As we examine the growth in Latin America, there are a number of elements that point to this region as the next hot spot in BPO. For one, the region has a unique ability to provide dynamic, multilingual contact center services, including IVR, for a wide range of global markets. The U.S. prefers the similar culture, close proximity and comparable time zones; Spanish-speaking customer interactions are increasingly high in demand; and global businesses are seeking to diversify their customer care interaction teams beyond India and the Philippines.

IVR is expected to see significant adoption in the Latin American markets as contact centers recognize the value the application brings in terms of call resolution. A recent Research and Markets report further found that IVR, analytics solutions, workforce management, quality monitoring and social media are set for broad adoption in the market.

The report answers key questions such as the growth of the market and the longevity of that growth; the status of the industry within Latin American countries and if current structure will support continued growth; the key drivers and restraints in these markets; the changes to anticipate in market structure; whether or not the applications available today will meet the needs of the customer; if new applications will arise; and whether or not the applications markets will continue to evolve.

As Latin American contact centers continue to evolve and grow, the demand for integrated services and applications – including IVR – will no doubt continue to expand to meet the discerning needs of the busy customer.

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