Call center

What is a call center? 

A call center is an in-house department or external facility where a team of agents receives and makes calls to prospects and customers to provide customer service, technical assistance, sales or any other customer-related activity. A call center can also help an organization with functions like market research, outbound marketing and account management. The main objective of establishing a call center is to maintain direct communication with customers, offering solutions to their queries and requests. Benefits of call center include: - 

1. 24/7 customer service 
2. Multilingual support 
3. Cost efficiency 
4. Data collection 
5. Productivity and efficiency 

 What are the different types of call centers?  

There are different types of call centers based on their purpose and format: - 

1. Inbound call center It handles incoming calls from customers seeking support, service or product information. It is basically a company’s support hotline. 

2. Outbound call center It makes outgoing calls to customers or prospects for various purposes like customer surveys and telemarketing.  

3. Blended call center 

It handles both inbound and outbound calls. It can take support calls as well as do marketing outreach. 

4. Virtual call centers  

The online counterpart of the call center which leverages remote agents located around the globe to resolve customer queries. 

5. Automated call center 

These call centers leverage automated systems such as IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and chatbots to supplement live agents. 

6. Multichannel call center 

They can deflect calls to multiple channels such as phone, email, social media and SMS for cost savings and always-on support. 

7. Omnichannel call centers 

These call centers are all about unification as they integrate all customer interaction channels into a unified system, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience when customers switch channels.