How Does a Call Center Work

Call centers mainly represent their clients, that are companies which provide diversified services in health care, education and business outsourcing counterparts. The designation of a person working in such an organization is that of a C.S.A. (Customer Service Executive) or of an agent who works with a team headed by the T.L. (Team leader).

Each agent operates from a cubicle equipped with a computer and a headset. The agent attends to calls from customers and provides solutions to their queries.

Call center professions, often underrated, have helped generate massive job opportunities. They are beneficial to both developed and developing countries and are major drivers of globalism. With this outlook, let's take a look at the working of call centers.

» Outsourcing simply means locating a certain business to other counterparts in various locations. It has a good advantage for service providers who establish these centers and assist direct clients based on specific needs.

» At times, employing people at their location is costly and complicated in certain countries. For this reason, the business is relocated to other countries with better prospects in terms of labor availability and cost-effectiveness.

» Also, the call centers may be located in various places and can be networked together working in unison. They are very popular in developing countries like India where the labor is cheap.

» Customer satisfaction is the mantra for commencing business. The call center agents are organized in multi-tiers. When a customer calls, the call is received by the first-tier employee who inquires and understands what service the customer wants.

» Certain issues can be resolved by the first-tier employees itself. If the customer is unhappy with the response from the first agent, the call then escalates to the team leader who then facilitates it further.
» In certain technical cases, the customer is directed to the next tier, which comprises development staff and engineers.

» The I.V.R. (Interactive Voice Response) is also a popular system of adhering to the customers' queries, but lacks personal touch.

» Also, at times, the accents of the agents influenced by their mother tongues, when located in different countries is difficult for us, customers, to comprehend. For this, the agents go through appropriate Voice and Accent training before they start working on calls.

» The efficiency of call centers are determined by various metrics. Some of the important metrics which are measured are:
➙ Dialing time
➙ Average talk time
➙ Average handling time
➙ Service level percentages
➙ Number of calls handled by an agent

» Different companies use different parameters to measure their performances. Numerous metrics have been developed and it is obligatory for the call centers to determine which metrics can be used to measure their performance.

» Management of calls are based on queuing models. When the call flow is heavy, the customers are enqueued in the system.
» The queuing model estimates various parameters such as waiting time, hold time, and so on.

» Agents are patient as they have to handle customers with varying moods. A customer placed on hold for long eventually does get irate and either speaks rudely or hangs up immediately, resulting in dissatisfied customers. For this reason, the agents are monitored closely by the management who direct them in accordance.

The cost of handling customers for big business companies has drastically reduced due to the presence of call centers. The agents are paid well and the companies pay attention to keep the employees happy, whilst swiftly resulting in satisfied customers.