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What is a Call Center?

A call center is an office where a company's inbound calls are received or

outbound calls are made. Call centers are increasingly popular in today's society,

where many companies have centralized customer service and support

functions. Call centers employ many staff in customer service, sales, and support

functions.

Call centers are often large offices staffed with representatives who either make

or receive phone calls. Depending on the size of the call center, a single office

could have anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of telephone staff.Depending on the needs of the company, call centers can make either incoming

or outgoing calls

Some call centers focus on answering inbound calls, such as a bank that gives

out a toll-free number for customers needing assistance. In this example, call

center representatives can give account balances and take loan applications

over the phone. Other call centers focus on outbound calls, such as a survey

company, where representatives make outbound calls to ask people to answer

survey questions over the phone.

Call centers can provide a number of advantages to companies. By centralizing

telephone-based service and support in one location, companies can easily

adjust staffing to match call volume. Call centers can be located almost

anywhere, allowing companies to take advantage of time zones and cheaper

labor rates in different states and countries. They also centralize the technology

needs of companies, allowing majortelecommunications setups to be installed in

a small handful of call centers instead of a number of smaller offices, making

upgrades and training easier.

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Many call centers use a number of different technologies to help improve

performance and customer experience. Inbound call centers often use automatic

call distribution, in which incoming calls are assigned to representatives in the

order in which they are received. Other call centers utilize call monitoring, in

which customer calls are randomly monitored by quality assurance staff to

ensure that phone representatives meet customer needs. Call center technology

evolves constantly, helping call center staff assist customers more efficiently and

effectively

Call centre

A very large collections call centre in Lakeland, Florida.

A call centre or call center[1] is a centralised office used for the purpose of

receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre

is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information

inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, product

services, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call centre, collective

handling ofletters, faxes, live chat, and e-mails at one location is known as a

contact centre.

A call centre is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call

centre agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a

telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more

supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with

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additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including

mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data

pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called

computer telephony integration (CTI).

Most major businesses use call centres to interact with their customers.

Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue retailers, and customer

support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service

internal functions through call centres. Examples of this include help desks, retail

financial support, and sales support.

A contact centre, also known as customer interaction centre is a central point of

any organization from which all customer contacts are managed. Through

contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate

people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally a part of

companys customer relationship management (CRM). Today, customers contact

companies by calling, emailing, chatting online, visiting websites, faxing, and

even instant messaging.

Technology

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An Indian call centre

Call centre technology is subject to improvements and innovations. Some of

these technologies include speech recognition software to allow computers to

handle first level of customer support, text mining and natural language

processing to allow better customer handling, agent training by automatic mining

of best practices from past interactions, support automation and many other

technologies to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction.[2]

Automatic lead selection or lead steering is also intended to improve efficiencies,

[3] both for inbound and outbound campaigns, whereby inbound calls are

intended to quickly land with the appropriate agent to handle the task, whilst

minimizing wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in, as

well as for outbound calls, where lead selection allows management to designate

what type of leads go to which agent based on factors including skill,

socioeconomic factors and past performance and percentage likelihood of

closing a sale per lead. The concept of the Universal Queue standardizes the

processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone,

and email whilst the concept of a Virtual queue provides callers with an

alternative to waiting on hold when no agents are available to handle inbound call

demand.Premise-based Call Centre Technology Historically, call centres have been built

on PBX equipment that is owned and hosted by the call centre operator. The

PBX might provide functions such as Automatic Call Distribution, Interactive

Voice Response, and skills-based routing. The call centre operator would be

responsible for the maintenance of the equipment and necessary software

upgrades as released by the vendor.

Virtual Call Centre Technology[4] With the advent of the Software as a service

technology delivery model, the virtual call centre has emerged. In a virtual call

centre model, the call centres operator does not own, operate or host the

equipment that the call centre runs on. Instead, they subscribe to a service for a

monthly or annual fee with a service provider that hosts the call centre telephony

equipment in their own data centre. Such a vendor may host many call centres

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on their equipment. Agents connect to the vendor's equipment through traditional

PSTN telephone lines, or over Voice over IP. Calls to and from prospects or

contacts originate from or terminate at the vendor's data centre, rather than at the

call centre operator's premise. The vendor's telephony equipment then connects

the calls to the call centre operator's agents.

Virtual Call Centre Technology allows people to work from home, instead of in a

traditional, centralized, call centre location, which increasingly allows people with

physical or other disabilities that prevent them from leaving the house, to work.[5]

Cloud Computing for Call CentresCloud computing for call centres extends cloud

computing to Software as a service, or hosted, on-demand call centres by

providing application programming interfaces (APIs) on the call centre cloud

computing platform that allow call centre functionality to be integrated with cloud-

based Customer relationship management, such as Salesforce.com and leads

management and other applications.

The APIs typically provide programmatic access to two key groups of features in

the call centre platform:

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) APIs provide developers with access to

basic telephony controls and sophisticated call handling on the call centre

platform from a separate application.Configuration APIs provide programmatic control of administrative functions of

the call centre platform which are typically accessed by a human administrator

through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Patents

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Call centre floor during shift.

There is a large number of patents covering various aspects of call centreoperation, automation, and technology. One of the early inventors in this field,Ronald A. Katz, personally holds over 40 patents covering inventions related to

charge-free numbers, automated attendant, automated call distribution, voiceresponse unit, computer telephone integration and speech recognition.[6]

A report on the performance of an outbound call centre agent.

Customizable reports to measure call results at call centre, campaign and agentlevels

Dynamics

Types of calls are often divided into outbound and inbound. Inbound calls are

calls that are made by the consumer to obtain information, report a malfunction,

or ask for help. These calls are substantially different from outbound calls, where

agents place calls to potential customers mostly with intentions of selling or

service to the individual. (See telemarketing). It is possible to combine inbound

and outbound campaigns.[7]

Call centre staff are often organised into a multi-tier support system for a more

efficient handling of calls. The first tier in such a model consists of operators, who

direct inquiries to the appropriate department and provide general directory

information. If a caller requires more assistance, the call is forwarded to the

second tier, where most issues can be resolved. In some cases, there may be

three or more tiers of support staff. If a caller requires more assistance, the caller

is forwarded to the third tier of support; typically the third tier of support is formed

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by product engineers/developers or highly skilled technical support staff of the

product.

Call centres have their critics, some of which argue that the work atmosphere in

such an environment is de-humanising.[8] Others point to the low rates of pay

and restrictive working practices of some employers.[9][10] There has been

much controversy over such things as restricting the amount of time that an

employee can spend in the toilet.[11] Furthermore, call centres have been the

subject of complaints by callers who find the staff often do not have enough skill

or authority to resolve problems,[12] while the dehumanised workers very often

exhibit an attitude of apathy to even the most abusive customer.[13]

Owing to the highly technological nature of the operations in such offices, the

close monitoring of staff activities is easy and widespread.[14] This can be

argued to be beneficial,[15] to enable the company to better plan the workload

and time of its employees. Some people have argued that such close monitoring

breaches human rights to privacy.[16]

Varieties

Some variations [17] of call centre models are listed below:

Contact centre Supports interaction with customers over a variety of

media, including but not necessarily limited to telephony, e-mail and

internet chat.

Inbound call centre - Exclusively or predominantly handles inbound calls

(calls initiated by the customer).

Outbound call centre - One in which call centre agents make outbound

calls to customers or sales leads.

Blended call centre - Combining automatic call distribution for incoming

calls with predictive dialling for outbound calls, it makes more efficient use

of agent time as each type of agent (inbound or outbound) can handle the

overflow of the other.

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Criticism and performance

Criticisms of call centres generally follow a number of common themes, from

both callers and call centre staff. From callers, common criticisms include: [18]

Operators working from a script

Non-expert operators (call screening)

Incompetent or untrained operators incapable of processing customers'

requests effectively[19]

Overseas location, with language and accent problems

Touch tone menu systems and automated queuing systems

Excessive waiting times to be connected to an operator

Complaints that departments of companies do not engage in

communication with one another

Deceit over location of call centre (such as allocating overseas workers

false English names)

Requiring the caller to repeat the same information multiple times

Common criticisms from staff include:[20]

Close scrutiny by management (e.g. frequent random call monitoring)

Low compensation (pay and bonuses)

Restrictive working practices (some operators are required to follow a pre-

written script)

High stress: a common problem associated with front-end jobs where

employees deal directly with customers

Repetitive job task

Poor working conditions (e.g. poor facilities, poor maintenance and

cleaning, cramped working conditions, management interference, lack of

privacy and noisy)

Impaired vision and hearing problems

Rude and abusive customers

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The net-net of these concerns is that call centres as a business process exhibit

levels of variability. The experience a customer gets and the results a company

achieves on a given call are almost totally dependent on the quality of the agent

answering that call.[21] Call centres are beginning to address this by using agent-

assisted voice solutions to standardise the process all agents use. [22] Anton and

Phelps have provided a detailed HOWTO to conduct the performance evaluation

of the business,[23] whereas others are using various scientific technologies to do

the jobs.[24][25][26] However more popular alternatives are using personality and skill

based approaches.[27][28] The various challenges encountered by call operators

are discussed by several authors.[29][30][31][32][33]

Outsourced Bureau Contact Centres

Outsourced bureau contact centres are a model of contact centre that provide

services on a "pay per use" model. The overheads of the contact centre are

shared by many clients thereby supporting a very cost effecive model especially

for low volumes of calls.

Bureau contact centres provide an opportunity for:

Pilot schemes - perform test of concept for new models for

communications, sales or customer services before investing in staff and

infrastructure

Flexible solutions for SME's - small or medium-size enterprises can benefit

from a flexible service that can evolve with the businss

Best of breed systems/technology - clients can benefit from considerable

investment into communications technology, leveraging benefits without

having to invest in large cap-ex projects.

Unionisation

Unions in North America have made some effort to gain members from this

sector,[34] including the Communications Workers of America[35] and the United

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Steelworkers. InAustralia, the Call Centre Workers Union represents unionised

workers; their activities form part of the Australian labour movement.[36] In

Europe, Uni Global Union ofSwitzerland is involved in assisting unionisation in

this realm.[37]

Standardisation

Currently, there are no universally bracketable international standards, other than

ISO 9000 series, available for the industry to follow up. However, some of the

relevant standards are loosely published by ISO with the division of ICS

33.040.35.[38] Most of the standards under this division have not been reviewed

thoroughly, but there are some guidelines and standing operating procedures

available on the internet.[39]

Mathematical theory

Queuing theory is a branch of mathematics in which models of queuing systems

have been developed. A call centre can be seen as a queuing network. [40][41] The

models can be applied to answer queueing questions for call centres. The most

widespread queueing model used is the Erlang C Formula.

Call centre operations have been supported by mathematical models beyond

queueing, with operations research, which considers a wide range ofoptimisation

problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Steelworkershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-35%23cite_note-35http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-35%23cite_note-35http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerlandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-36%23cite_note-36http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-tn-37%23cite_note-tn-37http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_operating_procedurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-iccsop-38%23cite_note-iccsop-38http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_modelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-39%23cite_note-39http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-40%23cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(mathematics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(mathematics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Steelworkershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-35%23cite_note-35http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerlandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-36%23cite_note-36http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-tn-37%23cite_note-tn-37http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_operating_procedurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-iccsop-38%23cite_note-iccsop-38http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_modelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-39%23cite_note-39http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre#cite_note-40%23cite_note-40http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_researchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(mathematics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(mathematics)