What is Call Center?
Call Center is the switchboard center of the business. It is responsible for receiving calls from customers or making outgoing calls. Businesses rarely deploy Call Center themselves but often hire a unit specializing in this service.
Call Center Application.
With superior call support features, call centers are often used to:
- Customer care
- Sales: Telesales. telemarketing
- Call out customer surveys, market research.
- Delivery, ordering, logistics management support.
- Make an appointment.
Why is Call center popular?
Before Call Center was born, businesses had to receive and process customer calls manually. But imagine, every day businesses have thousands of incoming calls, at this time automation is needed to meet the huge workload, and that is also the main reason that Call Center appeared with a series of superior voice calling features.
Call Center Features.
- IVR: Automated voice interactive response.
- ACD: Smart call distribution software.
- Auto Dialing: Software to call out automatically without manual dialing.
- Storage customer information by CRM integrated
- Pop-up: Display customer information stored on the computer screen.
- Report: Feature to report in detail the indicators related to the quality of call center operations.
Call Center Setup.
To build a complete Call Center, two main platforms are needed: IT system and human resources.
IT systems
Hardware system, including: Computers, Phones, Headphones, Servers, Internet, Paired Devices.
Software system, including: Pre-programmed call center software, database, CRM.
Human resources.
Depending on the goals of the switchboard, there are different structures and staff sizes, but most call centers usually have the following staff structure.
Call Center Operation Process.
Call Center deployment forms.
In-House switchboard.
A form in which businesses build and operate their own Call Center.
Advantage.
- High level of initiative, system customization and operational process.
- Understanding of products, customers and corporate culture
Disadvantages.
- High initial setup costs.
- Operation is difficult if the business has no experience, because this is a specialized field.
- Waste of time and operating resources.
Suitable for: Enterprises with financial capacity and experienced personnel, capable of building a complete call center system and having reasonable operating methods.
Outsource switchboard.
Outsourcing to a specialized unit to build, operate the switchboard and report. The lessee only monitors, negotiates desired goals, and provides support when necessary.
Advantage.
- Save deployment time and operational resources.
- Proactively negotiate, set goals and the lessee commits to implementing them correctly.
- Ensure high quality, consistent service.
- Flexible to change scale at any time.
Disadvantages:
- Difficulty in managing and coordinating with suppliers
- Risks of information security and safety
- In addition, BPO providers also have differences in capacity, so businesses need to carefully evaluate when choosing.
Suitable for: Most businesses in multiple industries.
See also: International standard Contact Center outsourcing service.
Off-shore switchboard.
Outsourcing the Call Center to a unit located in another country, usually countries with cheap labor, stable politics and tax incentives.
Advantage.
- Cost savings (salary + tax)
Disadvantages.
- Language and cultural limitations are inevitable.
- Agents may lack product/service knowledge.
- Difficulty in coordination and control.
Suitable for: Businesses operating internationally or looking to expand their markets.
Measure Call Center Performance.
Businesses can measure Call Center performance through KPIs As previously stated, KPIs vary depending on the goals of the call center.
Some commonly used measurement indicators are: Customer care KPIs, telesales KPIs, survey KPIs,…
Call Centers are often deployed in the form of outsourcing and will measure performance based on:
- Cost per call
- Revenue & Profit Achieved
- Number of completed calls
- Customer waiting time
- Missed call
- Talk time,…
See also: Common standard indicators for Call center
Call Center of the future.
The popularity and rapid development of the Internet has led to the channels of contact between customers and businesses becoming more diverse and flexible. Therefore, businesses want their contact centers to be able to respond to many different channels. At this time, a new term was born called Contact Center, same ability multi-channel response: Voice calls, chat, Email, Social media, Website,.. Contact Center is rapidly developing and gradually becoming more and more popular because of its superior benefits.
However At present and in the near future, Call Center is still the most used switchboard platform, when telesales, telemarketing, and telesurvey are still effective.
