What's In A Call: The Different Types Of Call Centers

By Author: Sonia Roody
Total Articles: 4
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Call centers, also known as "contact centers" are outsourcing firms that receive and make large volumes of telephone calls. They are often operated through an extensive workspace with stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and supervisor stations. Contrary to what many believe, call centers don't sound alike because each has different functions.

Inbound Call Centers

The primary goals of inbound call centers are to receive product orders, offer customer support, and answer inquiries 24/7. These services are critical to businesses like utility companies, mail-order catalog firms, and customer support for computer companies. Inbound call centers offer services which include but are not limited to order-taking, sales, lead generation, appointment setting, and market research. Big inbound centers accept thousands of calls per day.

Outbound Call Centers

An outbound call center specializes in making calls for the purpose of selling and/or promoting products or services, gathering bills, taking surveys, and a number of other customer contact-related ...
... tasks on behalf of a company or individual. Call centers usually assign 100 agents for this job to manually dial customers and do their business. Outbound call center services are critical for product promotion and improvement.

Telemarketing Call Centers

Telemarketing is a direct marketing method in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to purchase products or services over the phone. In a nutshell, you can say telemarketing call centers aim to promote sales and customer satisfaction. If there's a flipside to telemarketing, it's the fact it has received mostly negative perceptions because of various phone scams.

Web Enabled Centers

These call centers deal with online transactions and manage live chat interactions with customers. Businesses rely on web-enabled call centers to provide quick customer service to online customers. The main perk of web-enabled service is the reduction of telephone line traffic, which gives businesses with heavy customer demands a breather.

Regardless of the type, call centers use the same technologies. Some of these technologies incorporate speech recognition software to allow computers to handle the first level of customer support and to improve customer handling and agent training. It also leaves less work for agents so they can focus more on attending to the clients' needs.

Call centers can make or break a company's reputation. Choosing the right call center service can boost customer relationships manifold, and eventually income generation. To learn more about call center services, visit CallCenterResource.com for in-depth information.