South Africa is an up-and-coming destination for call centers, and for good reason: a large, highly skilled workforce combines scalability and quality alongside affordability for a high-value combination that’s tough to find. Our ROI CX Solutions’ team in South Africa is here to bring you the best service alongside accessible and affordable solutions for large or small outsourcing needs.
Why Choose a Call Center in South Africa?
Stability and infrastructure
South Africa has excellent connectivity and infrastructure. Not only is it the African AWS server hub—meaning insanely fast speeds and infrastructure for clients using AWS—but it’s also relatively unaffected by major storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters, providing strong year-round stability.
Highly skilled labor
South Africa has a large population and workforce, meaning high numbers of skilled labor and excellent scalability. As Cape Town is home to some of Africa’s top universities, there are plenty of young, educated workers. In addition, many call center agents have backgrounds in other fields, such as bookkeeping, legal and so on. Not only will your call center agents have a strong understanding of your industry, but you can also outsource other skilled labor positions as well.
Cultural alignment
South Africa is extremely Westernized, and very aligned to US & UK cultures. English accents are very neutral—some describe them as having a “British-like charm.” In addition, strong familiarity with Western cultures means your customers will have no problem understanding or connecting with your call center agents.
Cost-effective accessibility
South African call centers can be as much as 25% cheaper than common nearshoring locations, while still offering much more accessibility and collaboration than offshoring locations. For example, Johannesburg offers direct flights from the US and most South African call centers work on similar time zones to Europe.
Background
The ROI CX Solutions’ South Africa call center is designed for effortless collaboration, innovation and scalability, allowing your business to achieve goals and provide a high level of customer service, while still maintaining affordability.
Our call center is headquartered in Johannesburg, a key location for South African call centers. Not only does Johannesburg offer direct flights to and from the US & UK, offering increased accessibility, but it’s also a major business hub and the economic and financial powerhouse of South Africa.
Johannesburg is also home to one of the largest skilled workforces—and regrettably, one of the highest unemployment rates—in South Africa. These two factors allow our call centers to hire some of the best talent available while also enjoying low attrition rates. And, due to cheaper property prices and less BPO competition, Johannesburg is more cost-effective than other South African cities: labor costs $1-$2 per-hour less than Durban and Cape Town. This makes outsourcing more cost-effective for clients.
Overall, our call centers in South Africa offer significant benefits to improve customer service and CX for clients. South African culture is known to be very respectful and empathetic, creating a ripe environment for successful healthcare, medical, legal and e-commerce call centers. At the same time, familiar and easy-to-understand accents and a Westernized culture makes connection and alignment easier in South African call centers compared to other offshore locations.
We also have break rooms, a food marketplace and comfortable and enjoyable workspaces that ensure employees are able to both work and recharge in safe, clean and enjoyable areas, enhancing employee satisfaction and empowering agents to do their best work. The ROI CX Solutions South Africa team also provides work transportation services that make commuting easier, safer and more reliable, ensuring consistent and adequate staffing for our clients.
South Africa Call Center Services
The ROI CX Solutions’ South Africa call center offers a variety of services to suit your business needs. For example, we offer:
Customer Service / Care
Give your customers five-star service for any inbound questions, concerns, complaints and so on.
Order Taking / Appointment Setting
Improve the customer experience with dedicated support for setting appointments, taking orders or other small customer care tasks.
How To Choose The Right South African Call Center
As in real estate, when it comes to finding the right call center, location matters. That said, location isn’t the only thing that matters. When it comes to finding the right call center partner, make sure you consider:
Flexibility and scalability
Great call centers offer both short-term flexibility and long-term scalability. Whether you need to scale up to meet the demand of a busy season or new product launch, scale back for a slower period, or scale up your team consistently as you expand your business, partner with a call center who can offer you flexibility and scalability for your future needs.
Technology and infrastructure
Best-in-class technology and modern infrastructure ensure your call center stays up and running. South Africa has excellent connectivity and infrastructure, as well as governmental backing to provide additional support and resources.
Demonstrable results
Ultimately, a great call center needs to be able to deliver results. Look for case studies, client reviews, testimonials, a portfolio, or other clear examples that your prospective call centers can achieve the goals and outcomes you’re looking for.
Experience and expertise
A good call center partner should have not only general experience with customer service and CX, but also expertise within your industry or audience segment. Look at past clients and a portfolio to determine if your prospective call center will have the expertise you need.
Communication
At the end of the day, great communication is simply a must for call centers. A good partnership is founded on great communication, and call centers that have great communication processes often have exceptional customer communication as well.
How do South African Call Centers Compare?
South Africa is growing in popularity for outsourcing, but how does it compare to other popular outsourcing locations?
| MEXICO | US | PUERTO RICO | INDIA | SOUTH AFRICA | TUNISIA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market Size | Large labor market makes scaling and flexible solutions easy | Subject to ebbs and flows of US labor market and demands | Smaller labor market due to geographic size can limit scalability and flexibility | Large labor market makes it possible to scale quickly, but with some quality issues | Large population with diverse and skilled workforce | Large labor market makes scaling easy and cost-effective |
| Infrastructure and technology | Strong infrastructure and technology caters to a US market | Infrastructure and technology is on par for US norms | Infrastructure may be less sophisticated or consistent compared to other nearshoring locations | Infrastructure is often less sophisticated or consistent compared to other outsourcing locations | Infrastructure is one of the strongest in Africa, with excellent connectivity and low impact from storms or natural disasters | Cultural focus on technology and innovation supports infrastructure and modern tech |
| Cultural or Linguistic Compatibility | Proximity to the US means cultural or linguistic barriers rarely exist | Cultural or linguistic issues are rarely problems | Proximity to the US means cultural or linguistic barriers rarely exist | Cultural and linguistic barriers are common issues, especially in customer-facing roles | Extremely Westernized culture allows for high cultural and linguistic overlap | Proximity to Europe heightens familiarity with Western cultures and languages |
| Taxes and Business | Tax incentives and exchanges rates in Mexico are favorable for US businesses | US-based outsourcing offers familiar tax and legal systems, but at a premium price | As a US territory, taxes and legal systems don’t offer any unique benefits, and have additional complications since Puerto Rico is not an official state. | No specific tax benefits or legal incentives | Creating jobs in Africa can contribute to US-based businesses’ ESG scores | No specific tax benefits or legal incentives, though proximity to Europe increases familiarity with Western business models |
| Multilingual Availability | Multilingual agents are very common, typically fluent in Spanish and English | Multilingual or bilingual agents are rarer and more expensive | Multilingual agents are very common, typically fluent in Spanish and English | Many multilingual agents, but may not be fluent in relevant languages | Many agents are multilingual, with French and Portuguese being common | Multilingual agents often speak French and English |
| Proximity | Geographic proximity makes accessibility, collaboration and communication easy | Nearby call centers invite accessibility and collaboration | Geographic proximity makes accessibility, collaboration and communication easy | Geographic distance creates barriers to accessibility and collaboration | Direct flights from US and Europe make visiting accessible | Proximity to Europe makes call centers more accessible for clients |
| Cost & Quality | Very cost-effective option with a good balance of affordability and quality | High service quality, but more expensive services | Cost-effective option with a good balance of affordability and quality | Very affordable services, but often with a lower service quality | Very cost-effective, up to 25% cheaper than nearshore locations | Very affordable services with a high service quality |
See results from our South African Call Centers
Want to see how ROI CX Solutions can provide results for your business?
Consider some of our client stories or connect with an expert today to see how outsourcing to South Africa can help you cost-effectively scale your team.
South Africa Call Center FAQs
Where is the best place in South Africa to outsource?
South Africa has three major cities for outsourcing locations: Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Johannesburg is a popular choice, as it has the largest available talent and workforce, along with a central location, strong infrastructure and existing business hub. However, Cape Town also has a strong workforce, and as home to many top South African universities, it’s an ideal place for recruiting and attracting young, educated talent. Durban has a diverse workforce and is a major port for South Africa, so it’s ideal for call centers catering to Logistics and Transportation.
What is the biggest advantage of outsourcing to South Africa?
South Africa offers high value alongside cost-effective and scalable outsourcing. Our South African call centers are about 25% cheaper than common nearshore destinations, but South Africa’s westernized culture and easy-to-understand accents make it much more culturally and linguistically aligned than offshoring. As such, outsourcing to South Africa gives you access to a highly skilled and educated workforce while still maintaining affordable pricing.
Are call centers in South Africa or the Philippines better?
While the Philippines are often said to be “the call center capital of the world,” South Africa is a growing destination for outsourced call centers, and has the quality and infrastructure to back up its popularity. The Philippines have abundant options, an enormous workforce and affordable options, while South Africa offers a very skilled workforce, high quality and almost-unlimited scalability.
Does South Africa have good infrastructure for outsourcing?
South Africa has excellent infrastructure for outsourcing. With excellent connectivity and strong government backing, the infrastructure for call centers is as strong as nearshore or onshore locations. South Africa is also the African AWS server hub, so companies working off of AWS will have access to the fastest infrastructure and speeds.
