Types of call centers

A CALL centre combines data and voice communication, data processing and, in the near future, video technology, to enable organizations to implement critical business functions, while targeting reduction of costs, or increasing revenues.

There are different types of call centers, namely—

Call Center may be divided into various types according to their functions and areas of operation. Most commonly call centers are divided into inbound call center and outbound call center. In an inbound call center, agents receive calls from customers who need to obtain information or report a mal function. In an outbound call center, agents initiate a call to a customer mostly to sell a product or a service. Please click on the links to find out more on Call Center Types.

Inbound call centers aid to handle calls coming from outside, mostly through toll free numbers. The services of inbound call centers are designed to handle catalog orders, and desk queries. They also incorporate customer care services, predict customer behavior and take action while the customers are still on the line. Inbound call centers employ teams of live operators, account representatives and program managers.

The success of outbound call centers depends on their extensive experience, technological solutions, quality assurance programs and commitment to customer service excellence. They ensure maximum results from direct marketing efforts. The integrated call management systems in outbound call centers systematically direct calls to consumers and transfer successful connections to a selected marketing representative (MR).

The use of web-enabled call centers are also on the increase these days. Web enabled call centers can fetch answers to questions or resolve customer service issues without having to disconnect from the Internet. A web enabled call center improves e-commerce initiatives by offering high quality customer service.

Telephone call centers offer flexible call routing and predictive dialing systems. Utilizing advanced telephony and Internet technology, the customer service representatives (CSR’s) at the phone call centers provide accurate and timely information for the most complex inbound or outbound programs. Phone call centers offer personalized call management by a team of professional operators who personally know about the client and his business.

Banks, airlines and telecom companies require large-scale data entry and revenue accounting work to be done. For this, documents or raw data is sent to remote locations, which are used for data entry and necessary reconciliation.

When they outsource back office and data processing operations to service providers, the main concern of these companies is 100 per cent availability of data and uptime of facilities.

The burgeoning remote processing industry has spawned a whole genre of companies. Primarily, it could be a dedicated unit set up by a MNC to meet its own needs, either on its own, or through a joint venture.

The latter is done for specific services and is a more common practice amongst the airlines and insurance companies.

The technology and infrastructure and manpower is often provided by the local partner while the MNC brings in its processes, expertise and systems.

Then, there are third party service providers who have trained workforce to cater to long-term overseas (and sometimes domestic) contracts. In between too, they take up a few short-term assignments.