The UK is among the most expensive location for onshore contact centre outsourcing, says research.

Analyst Datamonitor reports the UK, the Netherlands and France are three of the most costly destinations, in terms of price per agent per hour

Canada remains the most expensive offshore location, while Colombia, Philippines and India are viewed as low cost.

Peter Ryan, head of contact centre outsourcing analysis at Datamonitor, said several key trends are prevalent in established onshore markets and are creating higher costs for IT managers.

“It is clear that no matter whether in western Europe or the US, contact centre vendors are facing problems in terms of recruiting well-qualified contact centre agents," he said.

"Many vendors cite an inability to find contact centre agents of a high calibre and are frustrated at their unwillingness to stay in their role over an extended period of time.

"The result is an erosion of margin or higher costs being passed back to the client. Either way, the vendor’s competitive positioning is compromised.”