A call center is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call center is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers.
The technological advances for call centers have grown passing the benefits to the company that employs them. Some of these technologies include: speech recognition software to allow computers to handle first level of customer support, text mining and natural language processing to allow better customer handling, agent training by automatic mining of best practices from past interactions, support automation and many other technologies to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
A call center’s staff is organized into a multi-tier support system. The first tier consists of operators who direct inquiries to the appropriate department and provide general directory information. If a caller requires more assistance, the call is forwarded to the second tier, where most issues can be resolved.
Employing a call center can greatly reduce incoming calls to a small company that cannot handle the high volume of customer calls. It can also eliminate the need for a front-house secretary, ultimately reducing costs but keeping a knowledgeable staff to handle the customers inquires.
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