What is a call center? Definition, types, and how does it work

When you think of a call center, you might imagine busy agents answering phone calls all day. But today’s call centers are very different. Many businesses now have remote or mixed setups where agents help customers not just over the phone but also through emails, live chats, and social media.

Companies have learned that giving better training and a good work environment for agents makes them happier, which in turn makes customers happier too. When agents feel supported and empowered, it benefits everyone.

In this article, we’ll explore what is a call center, how modern call centers work, and what it takes to make them successful and focused on customers.

Let’s get started!!!

What is a call center?

A call center is a central place where people take calls from customers or make calls to them. Centers can be part of the company or run by another company that focuses on managing calls.

The volume of calls that come into a call center dealing with customer queries, problems, or any information related to the company products or services.

How Does Call Center Work?

Call centers help customers by using people and technology. When you begin a call, an automated system called Automated Call Distribution (ACD) directs it to the right department based on what you need. Once you’re connected, a trained agent helps you with your question or problem. 

After the call, they record details in a system that helps managers see how things are going and find ways to improve Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems use call centers, which give agents access to customer data, making it easier for them to provide personalized service.

What are the Types of Call Center?

Call centers differ in type, depending on their main purpose, operational structure, or kinds of interactions they handle. 

Each particular call center type was fitted to specific business needs answering customer queries, technical support, or even marketing campaigns. Let us look into the most common types of call centers:

1. Inbound Call Centers

An inbound call center mainly focuses on receiving calls from customers instead of making calls. These customers call for various reasons such as seeking product assistance, or to inquire about bills, correcting problems, or inquiries relating to service and policy.

Most businesses base their customer operations on inbound call centers, especially because some companies have huge volumes of customers who continuously need help.

The core role of an inbound call center is to provide effective and efficient solutions for 24/7 customer support. In the centers, agents are normally trained to solve issues in one call to avoid the customer having to make follow-up calls. 

2. Outbound Call Centers

Outbound call centers are all about making calls to customers. At the same time, inbound calls receive calls, and outbound calls focus on reaching out. They often work on specific campaigns, which are:

• Telemarketing: It refers to calling people and telling them about products or services that might interest them.
• Surveys: Asking customers for their opinions to learn what they think about a product or service.
• Debt Collection: Following up with customers who haven’t paid their bills yet.
• Sales Outreach: Contacting customers to encourage them to buy something or sign up for the service.

The main goal of outbound call centers is to help the business grow by actively reaching out to people. Agents need to be good in conversation and have the ability to convince people. They use software to manage their call lists, which helps them easier to talk to more customers without wasting time on dialing numbers. Overall, Outbound call centers play a vital role in connecting with customers and boosting sales.

3. Virtual Call Centers

A virtual call center is a place where agents work from home or other remote office. This type of call center has become more popular because of cloud-based software that lets agents access everything they need, like customer information, scripts, and call systems, from anywhere. 

Virtual call centers have several benefits, such as:

• Agents can work from anywhere they can and help businesses find talent from all over the world.
• Businesses can save money, which can be used for office purposes.
• Adjust the number of agents based on how they are, such as without worrying about the need for more physical space.
• Call centers also help agents work balance, which can lead to the satisfaction of employees and can cause less call center turnover. This flexibility means agents are more productive and customers are more satisfied.

4. Hybrid Call Centers

A hybrid call center combines both inbound and outbound calling. Agents can handle incoming queries and make out calls like marketing or sales. 

Hybrid call centers are common in e-commerce, banking, and healthcare, where they are needed for both customer support and reaching out to the customer. The main benefit of this model is the needs and goals of the customer without needing separate teams for each type of work.

For example, during busy hours, a hybrid call center might focus on answering customer support calls. When things are slower, agents can switch to make calls to promote sales. This flexibility helps to be more productive and allows businesses to manage both customer service and sales together.

5. Automated Call Centers

Many customer queries are answered by machines or AI instead of humans. These centers use tools like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, chatbots, or automated email responses to take care of simple tasks.

For example, an IVR system can help with things like:

• Checking account balances
• Giving updates on orders
• Walking customers through self-service troubleshooting steps

AI and chatbot AI tools are common in these centers. They can respond to customer inquiries through chat, text, or voice to solve the issue without the need for a human agent.

What are the Benefits of Call Center?

Setting up a call center can bring many valuable benefits that help businesses run better and improve customer experiences in call centers. Here are the benefits of a call center:

1. Enhanced Customer Service

The call center has a team that helps customers to make them happier. With special systems, agents can see each customer’s history and solve issues quickly. This means customers get quick answers, without having to call back. When issues are resolved efficiently, customers feel valued and stay more loyal.

2. Increased Efficiency

Call center technology helps a business make a lot of calls without stressing out their employee. Tools like Automated Call Distribution (ACD) make sure each call goes to the right agent based on what the customer needs.

It helps to reduce time and prevents agents from getting based on the customer’s needs. By handling more calls quickly, businesses boost productivity and keep service quality high.

3. Data-Driven Insights

Call centers use call center analytics to track performance, measure agent productivity, and even identify trends in customer queries. This data helps managers see how agents are performing and find ways to improve. 

For example, if a certain problem keeps coming up, the business can change its products or service processes to fix it.

4. Cost Reduction

Outsourcing to a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) or implementing a virtual call center can reduce costs related to infrastructure, equipment, and staffing. Virtual call centers allow agents to work from home, which lowers the costs. This can be helpful for small businesses or startups that want to offer good customer support without a big initial investment.

You may also like: Customer Service Etiquette: Rules for Phone, Live Chat, and Email

How to measure call center success?

Ensuring that a call center is operating at peak efficiency requires tracking various metrics. Here are some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success:

1. First Call Resolution (FCR)

FCR is the most critical indicator regarding the call center’s effectiveness. A high FCR means that agents resolve customer issues faster and without the customer needing to contact them multiple times. 

The higher the FCR, the better customer satisfaction, and the lesser the operation cost because the fewer follow-up calls decrease the workload.

2. Average Handling Time (AHT)

Average Handling Time (AHT) is the measure of how long an agent takes to solve a customer’s problem, from when the call starts until it ends. While it’s good to try to reduce AHT to make things more efficient, it’s important to find a balance. 

If agents focus only on finishing calls quickly, they might rush through and not provide complete help, which can make customers unhappy. The goal should be to solve customer questions fully while keeping AHT at a reasonable level.

3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

In the CSAT survey, customers are asked to give a grade on a scale-usually 1 to 5 on their experience. These scores directly represent how well agents meet the needs of the customer. 

Businesses can see where they might want to make improvements and measure the effectiveness of changes in training or new processes in the call center by considering the CSAT scores over time.

4. Abandonment Rate

The abandonment rate is the number of callers hanging up before having their queries answered, basically due to the long wait time. The abandonment rate is too high and the problem might be either with the staffing level or how calls are managed. To lower this rate, companies can work toward agent availability, route calls better or alternative routes such as callbacks if the time is busy. 

5. Agent Turnover Rate

Agent turnover rate is the high rate among the agents, which affects how smoothly a call center works and decreases the quality of service provided. In low-turnover call centers, agents are mostly engaged in warm work environments, management, and support agents with a very strong desire to help and assist customers. 

The monitoring of turnover with its effective minimization by offering improved training, rewards, and work-life balance.

Final Words

It is also essential, whether as a business executive or even an individual interested in a call center career, to grasp the inner details of how call centers work. They are vital in customer service and can greatly affect customers’ loyalty and reputation.

Read also: How to train contact center agents for quality assurance?

FAQs

1. What is call center or BPO?

A Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a company that runs operations such as call centers for another business. While a call center focuses on handling customer inquiries, BPOs handle a wider range of business processes, including human resources, accounting, and IT services.

2. What is the difference between customer service and a call center?

Customer service represents a company’s experience when any customers have contact with it through calling, e-mailing, chatting, or social networking. A call center only calls and works either inbound or outbound.

3. What is a call center as a service?

Call center as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based service that empowers the business to operate customer support solutions with no investments in physical infrastructure. This type of call center operates via the internet, and scaling up or down is quite easy, according to business needs.

4. What are the top 5 skills you need to work at a call center?

These are the top 5 important call center skills you need to work at a call center:

• Excellent communication skills
• Problem-solving ability
• Patience and emotional intelligence
• Adaptability to changing situations
• Technical proficiency with call center software

5. How to handle a call from an angry customer?

First, to Stay calm, listen carefully, show empathy, and try to resolve their issue by offering practical solutions. If needed, escalate the call to a supervisor to ensure the problem is addressed effectively.