Call centers are places where caller agents or telephone operators make outgoing calls or file incoming calls to sales leads and customers. However, there are several types of call center.
Types of Call Center
Inbound Call Centers
Inbound call centers typically have agents tasked with the responsibility or receiving calls from people, say for customer service-related queries. Most inbound call centers have a toll-free number.
Outbound Call Centers
Outbound call centers have agents who make outgoing calls. They may be sales or telemarketing calls but also involve calls to existing customers. Other types of outbound calls involve welcome calls, bill explanation calls and service-related calls for resolving complaints previously lodged by customers.
Domestic Call Centers
This type of call center makes and receives calls from people within the same country. In diverse countries, this type of call center will allow locals to communicate in their local dialects.
International Call Center
This type of call center serves international clients. For instance, a call center based in the Philippines that receives or makes calls for overseas clients is an international call center.
Classification Based on Ownership of the Call Center
In-House Call Center
This type of call centers is owned and operated by the company usually for telemarketing or to provide customer services to existing clients. They’re usually located within close proximity the core business, allowing for better communication between people running the business and call center staff.
Outsourced Call Centers
This is an alternative to in-house call centers where the company outsources the call center function to a call center company. The outsourced call center may be domestic or international.
Classification Based on the Size of Operations
Virtual or Home-Based Call Centers
A home-based call center is often operated by a single person working from home. It often involves making outgoing calls to company-provided list of people, for service-related calls or telemarketing on behalf of the company.
Small, Medium and Large Call Centers
Call centers can also be categorized based on the number of call center agents they have for making and receiving calls. This is usually determined based on the number of agents that can make simultaneous calls at a go. As such, a small call center will have about 5-10 agents while a medium sized call center will have a capacity of about 30-50 seats. Larger call centers, on the other hand, typically have over 500 agents, often working 24 hours a day having diversified operations and working on several processes at a time.
Classification Based on the Communication Method
Web-Enabled and Telephonic Calls
In today’s world of the internet, call centers are not restricted to telephonic calls. There’s also online communication via emails or real-time chats. This explains why call centers are today referred to as contact centers, which is more of a generalized term.
Nonetheless, call centers who only speak on telephone lines are commonly referred to as ‘Telephonic call centers’ while those that use the internet to provide support are known as ‘Web-enabled call centers.’ So, those are the different types of call center.
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