INTRODUCTION TO THE CALLCENTER INDUSTRY

DESCRIPTION OF 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 company 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 that case, 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. In that case, survey representatives make outbound calls to ask people to answer survey questions over the phone.
Call centers 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. Call centers also centralize the technology needs of companies, allowing major telecommunications setups to be installed in a small handful of call centers instead of a number of smaller offices, making upgrades and training easier to complete.
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 on the order 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 centers have been increasingly popular as outsourcing increases. With outsourcing, companies contract out some functions to other companies. As it can be expensive to maintain call center equipment and staff, some companies choose to outsource their telephone functions to an external call center. In this case, external call center staff can be trained to answer phone calls from a number of different companies.
What is a CALL CENTER?
A call center is what handles customer calls on a massive level. Call centers are responsible for taking customer calls and forwarding them to the proper place. Call centers are sometimes replaced or work in conjunction with computers to expedite service.
Call centers are usually used to cut costs to the company. Many different forms of call center software are available and they all have something unique about them. Inbound call centers are used by companies to handle calls coming in, and outbound call centers are used by companies as a way to reach potential customers.
A call center is traditionally defined as a physical location where calls are placed, or received, in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support, or other specialized business activity.
One early definition described a call center as a place of doing business by phone that combines a centralized database with an automatic call distribution system
A call center is a roomful of people, devoted to the task of making and or receiving calls to and from the customers. It is a place where these calls are handled, and the accumulation of technologies that assist – phone lines, switches, software, and human experts.
TYPES OF CALL CENTERS
Merchant Call Center - Provides services for fulfillment of its client’s clients; these call centers provide its client services like customer service, or inquiries from its client’s clients.
Captive Call Center - Works within companies like banks, paging or telephone companies; these call centers are part of the company itself.
Web Centers - Internet-based customer services; call centers that use the internet to provide customer service or even order taking services.
Two Types of Call Centers in the Philippines
In-House - Are call centers that are owned and operated by a company for the sake of company’s clients.
Outsourcing - Are call centers that take calls for client’s clients.
WHY ARE CALL CENTERS IMPORTANT?
It is a powerful and strategic tool in the fight to gain and keep customers.
It is a “place” where the customers can go to complain, to place an order, or to get help.
It is a collection of people and technologies whose role is to provide quality customer service.
What is a Call?
CALL is a term referring to telephone calls, video calls, Web calls and other type of contacts between two people or more. It is a transaction or interaction between two parties, the call center agent and the customer. Also called Transaction and Customer Contact.
TYPES OF CALLS
CATALOG REQUEST – This is a call wherein a customer requests or orders for a catalog for the company’s products.
ORDER ENTRY – This is a call wherein a customer places an order for a product.
CANCELLATION – This is a call where the customer asks either to be removed from a mailing list, or a subscription for a product or service.
UPSELLING/TELEMARKETING – This is a call wherein the call center agent tried to persuade the customer to order additional items aside from the product that he has already ordered.
CUSTOMER SERVICE – A customer service call is an all-encompassing category wherein a customer can inquire about an order, request for a catalog, order for a product, cancel a service, re-order, etc.
WHAT IS A CALL CENTER AGENT?
A Call Center Agent is a person who handles the calls, whether inbound or outbound calls. He is the solution-provider to whatever the customer’s concern is.
An inbound call is a call that is made by the customer to the call center and the call center agent receives them.
An outbound call is a call that the call center agent places to a customer, whether to offer him a promotion, verify some information, or handle customer’s concern.