With over 3000 contact centers, France is Europe’s third-largest market after the United Kingdom and Germany. The industry employs more than 200,000 agents nationally, and the majority of these employees are in Paris and Lyon.
At a time when companies relocate some of their call center operations to low-cost locations like Asia or Northern Africa, France has garnered business from a variety of companies. Lastminute.com, Lycos, Telecom Italia, PTC, Yves Rocher, SAGE are some of the companies who chose France as the base for their national or European contact centres over the last two years. Investors are primarily American, followed by the British.
The French has one of the lowest agent turnover rates in Europe and government assistance for investors in the sector and tailored training programmes are widely available throughout France, with many of the regional authorities providing dedicated support.
With more than 150 call centers, Lyon and its region is France’s number one destination for the call centre industry after Paris. Lyon’s 8000 call centre employees account for 1.5% of the city’s working population.