What Is Call Center ?

Author: Hani Masgidi
A Call Center is simply a place where a group of highly trained agents sit and interact with customers using a telephone.
Call Center is where agents are making and/or receiving calls to and from customers for different purposes like
- Customer Service,
- Sales,
- Telemarketing,
- Technical support,… etc.
Call Center is a genetic or umbrella term that refers to Reservation Centers, Help Desks, Telemarketing Centers or Customer Service Centers, regardless of how they are organized or what type of transactions they handle. For example:
- Airline Reservation Center,
- Catalog Ordering companies,
- Problem solvers such as Microsoft Window's Customer support services.

So, the Call Center functions vary from one center to another, according to the nature of business and objective of Call Center. The Call Center could be a place for receiving customer enquiries and complaints or to place an order or to get help. It could also be a place from where customers are contacted for surveys, marketing or selling products.
The Call Center is equipped with various advance technologies that qualify it to handle high volume of calls promptly and efficiently.
The technologies are such as:
- Automatic Call Distributor (ACD),
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
- Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
- Centralized Database System
Nowadays the Call Center has been recognized for its importance in both
- Increasing customer service and customer retention.
- For revenue generation.

Call Centers have become a business enabler or engine that allows customers to access the business when it best suits the customer, rather than the business contacting the customer when convenient to the business.
This new business concept has become possible due to acceptance of business telephony that improves customer service and provides for both inbound and outbound customer contacts. However, to improve business efficiency and increase profitability, Call Centers require good support systems and services.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com