Today’s business environment can only be described as volatile and unpredictable. Changes take place so fast that they could make even the heads of the most seasoned businessmen and strategists turn. In order to adapt to these fast-paced changes, business organizations have to employ various tools and methodologies.
One of the current trends that businesses find themselves adhering to is the increasing importance of call centers. If you look at the number of call centers all over the world and compare it to that of, say, ten, twenty, years ago, you will notice a drastic increase. This alone denotes how call centers are becoming more and more indispensable for business processes across industries.
Today, you’ll learn about a simple definition of a call center.
DEFINING THE “CALL CENTER”
A call center is essentially a physical centralized division, office or facility specially designed – and equipped with all the necessary resources, technologies and tools – to receive, manage and process large numbers of customer requests, queries or concerns over the telephone. Their tasks cover both inbound and outbound calls, covering a wide area that includes marketing, sales, customer service, technical support, telemarketing and financial management. The most common examples of call centers today include telephone service facilities set up to provide assistance in technical matters, sales promotions and marketing campaigns.
Call centers have definitely come a long way from the earliest on record, which was said to be the call center belonging to the Birmingham Press and Mail in the UK. This was in 1965 and, at that time, the call centers were called “Private Automated Business Exchanges”. It was only in recent years that the name became “call center” and caught on.
The fast pace at which technology advanced in the recent decade also meant that the call center industry evolved just as quickly. Today, call centers have become more automated than ever. Their reach has also widened because, thanks to virtual centers, they can now set up satellite offices in different areas all over the globe.
In the past, call centers were tasked with performing only one function: to handle calls. Nowadays, call centers have turned into contact centers, performing various roles and responsibilities. They also handle other forms of correspondence or communication, on top of telephone calls. Some BPOs even offer dispatch and remote diagnostics services.
Another significant change in how call centers work is that they now operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The usual setup was assigning people on shifts, or choosing only certain hours in a day for calls to be entertained. Today, customers can make their call at any time of the day or night.
Roles of a Call Center
If we are to put things in general terms, the main operation of all call centers is “Customer support”, and that can be further broken down into “customer service” and “technical support”. We have briefly touched on what call centers usually do. Let us take a more in-depth look at the roles or functions of call centers today.
- Handle outgoing calls for the sale of products and services
- Handle outgoing calls for debt management (collection, mainly)
- Handle inbound calls for assistance and inquiries regarding products and services
- Handle massive volumes of correspondence such as letters, faxes, emails and live chat conversations
- Perform remote diagnostics activities
- Perform dispatching activities
Taking all these, by acting as the direct representative between a business and the customers, the call center is given the ultimate role of serving as the bridge between the two, actively cultivating a harmonious, productive and profitable business-customer relationship. Customer satisfaction is definitely high on the list of priorities, as this will result to customer loyalty and, naturally, retention.
Components of a Call Center
- Specialized management. Automated processes, skilled and highly qualified manpower, and other cultural components will all be for nothing without quality leadership. Call center management shares many similarities to other business or organizational setups, but the workflow within the company calls for specialized forms and styles of management of people, processes, and resources.
- Agents with specialized skills. Call center agents undergo rigid training before they can be certified to deliver call center service to clients. Having certified professional call center agents increases the level of trust that customers have in businesses that utilize their services.
- Call Center automated processes and technologies. Call centers do not rely on their agents alone. They also make sure they are equipped with the proper technology in order to optimize their functions and their workflow. There are no standardized technologies, however, since they are made to be adaptable to different types of businesses, depending on the industry or field that the business’ operations fall under.
- Support and integration. This is the actual operation of the call center. Customer service refers to the efforts and activities provided by the call center in order to cultivate relationships with customers and subsequently maintain and preserve them. Technical support, on the other hand, involves the rendering of hardware or software support, especially in the face of increasing automation across industries. These two are then integrated into the business operations in order to maximize results.
