The term call center describes a dedicated department within a company that has a specialized telephone system for high-volume inbound call response and outbound call placement. Call center agents are specially trained to support clients and/or sell products. Typically, a call center requires a special telecommunications network that has the bandwidth to support many agents. Labor (the call center agents) and telecommunications services are usually the two highest costs for operating a call center. Specialized workforce management and call center applications are often used to schedule, manage, and report on the performance of call center systems and staff.
While many enterprises operate internal call centers for helpdesk and client-support functions, new companies have evolved that offer outsourced call center functions. These companies build and operate large call centers around the world, especially in markets with lower labor costs.
The term contact center represents an evolution of the call center to include the use of multimedia interaction with staff or clients. Due to the Internet, some clients prefer to interact via email, chat, posting to forums, or “contact us” forms. Many call center systems now incorporate all of these communications channels. In some cases, traditional call centers are able to adopt these new channels and reduce the cost per client interaction while increasing client throughput without increasing staff. This evolution is technically complex, calling for detailed requirements, a business and technical plan, and often the use of outside experts.
Telecommunications solutions from Advocate Networks offer your company significant expertise in the assessment, troubleshooting, planning, sourcing and implementation of call and contact centers.