What is a call center?
A call center is a special company or an existing department in an organization that works to process customer phone calls, notify them of current information, ongoing promotions, order fulfillment status, and other data. A modern call center can provide consulting services, receive calls through a hotline, engage in marketing, provide information services, comprehensively contributing to the development of organization, business and customer satisfaction.
Qualified employees of the Call Center do important work: they solve commercial problems, search for buyers, suppliers, partners, distributors. At large enterprises and in large corporations, they open their own call-centers, since conventional communication devices do not cope with processing calls from customers. In addition, telephone customer service is one of the components of a positive image of the organization. And the quality of this work, which must meet the standard of etiquette, we can conclude about how much the organization values each of its clients.
Call Center Services
Properly organized call center increases customer loyalty, increases the company's popularity, its recognition among customers. The list of services provided by the Call Center includes:
- popular service "hot line";
- virtual office services;
- telephone marketing;
- conducting sociological, marketing surveys;
- advisory assistance;
- database creation.
Call centers are arranged either in the company itself, or use the services of third-party organizations - on an outsourcing basis. Call processing service is in demand by major online stores, supermarket chains, insurance companies, banks, travel agencies, taxi services, delivery, Internet service providers.
Call Center Structure
A call center is an office space of an impressive area where the workplaces of numerous employees who handle telephone calls are located. Each of them has a specially equipped place in the form of open-space, which includes a computer, headphones, a phone connected to a PC. It is noteworthy that incoming and outgoing calls process different groups of operators, but sometimes the work is organized in such a way that operators perform both functions.
For effective problem solving and quick call processing, the work involves a breakdown into stages:
- at the first level, the employees of the Call Center who own the basic data work, answer the most common questions;
- the second level brings together professionals who understand the nuances of issues of interest to subscribers, or are empowered to make important decisions;
- employees of the third-level Call Center are called upon to resolve difficult, narrow-profile issues, assisting clients.
For effective interaction with subscribers, the telecommunications system may include not only telephone lines, but also IP telephony, as well as an interactive voice menu that allows you to automate the process of servicing customers who address on basic issues. In addition to operators, managers, IT-personnel, and specialists conducting training also work in the Call-center.
Due to the high responsibility of the work of operators, in Call-centers there is a careful monitoring system for the performance of duties. Conversations with subscribers are often recorded to track the dynamics of interaction with customers, to analyze the effectiveness of dialogues. The call center management explains this control policy with a desire to more effectively plan the work of staff and improve service.