Statistics about call centers are generally very hard to find, and hard to make sense of when you see them in a vacuum. For some time I ve been collecting the numbers and statistical assertions put forward by various groups, including vendors, researchers, analysts and others.

I believe that in all these stats there is a grain of truth, but that actual meaning is hard to glean; many of these numbers are promoted by people with particular axes to grind. Statistics can, after all, be twisted to mean anything.

Therefore I decline to interpret these stats, and relay them to the readers as I find them. I have edited them to remove loaded words: skyrocket , amazing , boom , etc.

In some cases you will see stats that flat out contradict each other; that has a lot to do with the different methodologies that are used to gather information, as well as sometimes deliberate vaguenesses used in describing research results.

I do not vouch for the accuracy of any of the information here. Where possible, I have sourced information back to its originator; in some cases, I have only been able to trace it to the person or group that I heard it from. I ve have tried to group information on similar subjects, so that some context may emerge in the reading, but that s not always possible.

If you read all these sections straight through, you ll notice that I ve repeated some of the stats in several sections. That s because they sometimes relate to...