A call centre is operated through an extensive open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations which include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently networked or operated with additional centers, often linked to a corporate computer network which can include mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. The voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through technology known as computer telephony integration (CTI).
Many of the businesses use call centers to interact with their customers e.g. utility companies, mail order catalogue retailers, and customer support for computer software and hardware. Some businesses also service internal functions through call centers e.g. help desks, retail financial support, and sales support.
Success of any business involves staying in contact with clients as well as customers through telephone communications. There are a number of services related to call center services that can help the organization stay connected to customers and at the same time reach new ones. Whether one is looking for an answering service, tech support services, outsourced online chat, sales outsourcing, telemarketing, or appointment setting and lead generation services, the right call center solution can help the business get the results it's looking for.
STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE & CUSTOMER ALIGNMENT
Some of the key strategic elements, that should be taken into consideration for designing a call center, against which the operational practices of the call center should be designed are as given below:
1. Alignment of the operations with the company's vision, mission and goals.
2. Call center's capacity.
3. Volume of calls to be handled.
4. Better communication between the technical staff and the frontline staff.
Several standards should be taken into consideration when looking for the right call center. Accordingly, best possible fit will be delivered by these requirements for the business and will allow one to create and increase dividends on the whole. As one continues to increase ones profit margins, the right recipe will help the small business profit exponentially. The first criterion that must be considered by any business is the agency size. This in turn determines the capacity of the call center that one will use and determines the ability of this service to handle the volume of traffic coming through for the product.
In order to track the correct number of calls coming through to the business, total volume of calls can be looked on past phone bills and can be adjusted accordingly. If that is not possible, then the call volume can be projected through planned advertising. The account sales representative at an answering center should be able to assist in planning the call volume. Larger businesses mostly use larger call centers. The number of people on the phones should be able to take care of the application and a financially sound agency should be able to handle the calls. The call center must not only be ready to take the calls that are placed but must also monitor calls, as well. This leads to peace of mind in case of a conflict, and allows an organization to monitor certain benchmarks for their business.
LOCATION, HARDWARE & SOFTWARE
Location is also important when choosing a call center. This is because a client may be required to spend a lot of time there, although this is not of primary importance. Proximity is a facet that depends on the campaign of a business. The satellite centers of the call center could be in other states, countries, or continents. The other factor i.e. labor may be cheaper in these areas, and many times better.
Due to the great deal of technology the companies possess, a great number of companies are using call centers. And because of the expensive technology upgrades for small businesses, many find that call center outsourcing is financially a better choice. Clients with special requirements, custom applications, including dealer locator and mapping software and multiple database hosts require the flexibility of a client/server network infrastructure. Technological advances allow the call center to provide a faster, cheaper and more made-to-order work. This ultimately helps the agencies offer real time interaction with the clients. The standards for customer service and performance will increase as more call centers deploy new technology and thereby the customer will be benefited. Call centers without state-of-the-art technology will be at a loss, as they fail to meet the increasing demands of their clients and clients will go elsewhere.
When choosing an answering service, the sales representative should be asked about the account manager who will be handling the account. The call center service should help in providing an account manager who can respond to their concerns as well as setup issues that one might encounter. Some answering services refer their clients to a customer service center. An answering service should be chosen that will assign a specific account representative. The account representative should be familiar with the specific details of the particular account.
When one attains the services of a call center, one can see estimates for per minute and per call. As clients may not realize the time it will take to make a call, many call centers quote prices based on per minute foundation. This is because many callers are usually not to the point, and calls can become more than taking and recording information. Answering calls by a live person is more costly than using recordings and voicemail boxes or combining live operators with automated functions. Money on per call fees can be saved with the help of automated services. Various applications can be set up using the experience of the sales representatives and they should be able to automate one's account and still present a professional system that meets the needs of the company. Sales representative can help businesses choose an answering service to meet the needs of the business while staying within budget by having a basic understanding of the answering service process and relying on a knowledgeable answering service.
When looking to attain more business database management becomes useful for most companies. Call centers have a great asset in their ability to build custom databases or refine an existing database. Databases allow an organization to track information of the clients and consolidate data from different sources. The companies can then create profiles of consumers, allowing them to market items to individuals based on their specific preferences. This information can be used to run a targeted outbound campaign. Today most of the companies hire third-party database management firms, call centers with database management capabilities, or staff who can perform analysis functions. This can include modeling, profiling and forecasting. With the help of this relevant information at their fingertips, many businesses can easily generate major revenue for their organization.
IT & TELECOM (ICT) LINKAGE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
Technology
Call centre technology is subject to improvements and innovations. 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 agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Efficiency for both inbound and outbound campaigns can also be improved by automatic lead selection or lead steering. Here inbound calls are intended to quickly land with the appropriate agent to handle the task, whilst minimizing wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in. And for outbound calls the lead selection allows management to designate what type of leads goes to which agent. This is based on factors such as skill, socio-economic factors and past performance and percentage likelihood of closing a sale per lead.
The concept of the Universal Queue standardizes the processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone, and email whilst the concept of a Virtual queue provides callers with an alternative to waiting on hold when no agents are available to handle inbound call demand.
Premise-based Call Centre Technology
Previously, call centers have been built on PBX equipment which is owned and hosted by the call centre operator. The PBX might provide functions such as Automatic Call Distribution, Interactive Voice Response, and skills-based routing. The call centre operator would be responsible for the maintenance of the equipment and necessary software upgrades as released by the vendor.
Virtual Call Centre Technology
With the manifestation of the Software as a service technology delivery model, the virtual call centre has emerged. In a virtual call centre model, the call centers operator does not own, operate or host the equipment that the call centre runs on. Instead, they subscribe to a service for a monthly or annual fee with a service provider that hosts the call centre telephony equipment in their own data centre. This type of vendor may host many call centers on their equipment. Agents connect to the vendor's equipment with the help of traditional PSTN telephone lines, or through Voice over IP. Calls to and from prospects or contacts originate from or terminate at the data centre of the vendor, rather than at the premise of the call centre operator. The telephony equipment of the vendor then connects the calls to the agent of the call centre operator.
Virtual Call Centre Technology also allows people to work from home, instead of in a traditional, centralized, call centre location, which in turn allows people with physical or other disabilities that prevent them from leaving the house to work.
Cloud Computing for Call Centers
Cloud computing for call centers extends cloud computing to Software as a service, or hosted, on-demand call centers by providing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on the call centre cloud computing platform that allow call centre functionality to be integrated with cloud-based Customer Relationship Management and leads management and other applications. The APIs typically provide programmatic access to two key groups of features in the call centre platform:
 Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) APIs provide developers with access to basic telephony controls and sophisticated call handling on the call centre platform from a separate application.
 Configuration APIs provide programmatic control of administrative functions of the call centre platform which are typically accessed by a human administrator through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).
COMPUTER INTEGRATED TELEPHONY (CIT)
The process shown above is explained below:
1. An agent is requested by the IP Dialer (DLR) through the Media Routing (MR) interface.
2. A routing script is run by the Router (RTR) runs in order to select an available agent.
3. An available agent is returned through the Router.
4. The available agent is then reserved through the Peripheral Gateway (PG).
5. In order to maintain the reservation call, the IP Dialer places a call to the agent line 1.
6. The call to the customer is placed through the IP Dialer.
7. The incoming Real Time Protocol (RTP) stream is analyzed with the help of the IP Dialer and a live person is detected.
8. The customer call arrives at the second line on the phone of the agent. The Dialer Reservation then answers the customer call through the Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Server.
PEOPLE, COMPETENCIES, TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
People
Working in a call center is a good option for people who need to make a few quick bucks. Even if the prospects of growth are rather meek in call centers, tt offers stability. There are a few requirements that each individual needs to satisfy in order to work in a call center.
Call Center Job Description Requirements
In order to work at a call center, an individual needs to satisfy a few basic requirements. These may be asked by the organization, or may not. However, these requirements need to be met in order to survive working in a call center and succeed there in.
 Outgoing and Energetic Personality: Shy people often tend to face difficulty in talking to people for the first time. Therefore, a call center executive or representative is required to have an outgoing personality. Hence, one needs to be able to talk to people and sell or explain without feeling shy or conscious.
 Phone Etiquette: Considering the fact that a person working in a call center communicates with target clientele over the telephone, it is vital that they have proper phone etiquette. This will not only give out a good reputation of the company, but also prove to be successful at getting results.
 High School Degree: For most call centers, a high school degree is a compulsion. But not all call centers require a college degree for an individual to be able to work there.
 Good Memory: One does not really require a representational memory to work in a call center. However, one needs to be able to remember some of the client details, and recollect it when required. Absent-mindedness can usually prove to be fatal for a call center career.
 Multitasking: Multitasking is a part of the call center job. For instance, a person should be able to talk on the phone, make notes in the computer, as well as check out details at the same time. For the same pupose, they need to be able to multitask.
Inbound Call Center Job Description Requirement
The requirements for an inbound call center job are:
• Responding to customer inquiries
• Research required information using available resources
• Handling and resolving customer complaints
• Providing customers with product and service information
• Processing orders, forms and applications
• Identifying and escalating priority issues
• Routing calls to appropriate departments
• Following up customer calls where necessary
• Completing call logs
• Completing call reports
An agent is trained to perform these tasks during the training and induction. These are the main tasks of any person working in an inbound call center.
Outbound Call Center Job Description Requirement
Out bound call centers have different job description requirement as compared to their inbound counter parts. Some of them are as follows:
 Contacting businesses or private individuals by phone
 Delivering prepared sales scripts to persuade potential customers to purchase a product or service or make a donation
 Describing products and services
 Responding to questions
 Obtaining customer information
 Obtaining possible customer leads
 Data entry and maintenance of customer/potential customer data bases
 Following up on initial contacts
 Maintaining records of telephonic interactions, orders and accounts
Four main factors influence whether individuals will become great call center agents or not. They are competencies, motivational fit, personality, and external factors. The more of these factors that are aligned, the more likely the agent will be successful.
These factors and the issues that they cover can be compared to Rubik's cube. They can be interrelated in numerous ways, but with the proper perspective and a framework for evaluating prospective employees, the puzzle becomes much easier to solve. These are all important but the degree to which they affect an individual's likelihood of success varies. This is shown in the following diagram.
1. Competencies: The competencies factor has the greatest impact on overall job performance. It indicates whether an agent has the skills, knowledge, and ability required for the job. This includes technical knowledge of the product or services the company offers as well as knowledge of various call center systems, such as computers, CRM databases and telephony systems. All of these can be easily taught and tested for.
Competencies also reflect a person's ability to speak clearly and articulate a passion to meet and exceed customer expectations, along with the ability to develop rapport with every caller. It involves solving problems and managing difficult situations to end every call positively. It also means turning even complaints into additional sales. Lastly, competencies include navigating multiple software applications.
2. Motivational Fit: As the name suggests, this factor indicates how well the job characteristics match with the personal motivators of call center agents. This factor consists of three elements:
 Job Fit: Does the job motivate the person? Is the nature of the challenging call center work fitting (constant monitoring, demands for promptness, endless pressure to perform, confinements to space, and so forth)? Environmental factors, such as seating arrangements, also come into play, as do ergonomic characteristics of the center, like general noise levels and lighting.
 Culture Fit: Does the culture of the company and call center match the individual's priorities and interests? This includes the type of people who work there, company values, how call center management leads, and company commitment to employee development and training.
 Personal Interest: Does the company offer what the person wants? For example, if a person has loved working in a fast-paced, high-energy retail environment, it's not likely he or she will enjoy working in a sedentary call center job.
3. Personality: Personality type impacts how call center agents will respond to the other factors as well as many aspects of fit and success potential. However there is no single personality type that will be more successful than another in a call center.
4. External Factors: External factors are those factors which are beyond the control of the agents and call center management. They include competitive compensation, location, and transportation availability. All of these factors can strongly impact the ability and willingness of a person to do the job, as well as productivity and quality levels.
Key Competencies Required
A person, in order to perform well at a call center will require the following key competencies:
 Listening skills
 Problem analysis
 Problem solving
 Organizational skills
 Attention to detail
 Team work
 Stress tolerance
 Resilience
 Initiative
 High energy level
 Planning skills
 Verbal and written communication skills
 Judgment
 Adaptability
 Persuasiveness, negotiation skills
 Work under pressure
 Customer service orientation
These competencies are required for anyone working in a call center, whether inbound or outbound.
Training & Development
It is important that training should be considered as an important factor, and that the business feels the benefits of taking people off the phones and the disruption that may cause. In order to build competence, telephone skills and manners, good practice for customer service call center training will need to
 include attitudinal training, early on in their employment, to help people understand the importance of the customer and what they do for the customer
 include call handling skills training during the induction period, so that people can understand how communication over the telephone works, and the vital skills of questioning, listening and summarizing for call control
 include customer service simulation where people concentrate on a variety of situations and learn the best practice for dealing with them. This also enables people to start to understand how they will use your system when they are dealing with customers
 have high impact sessions, from time to time, which everyone attends to give a focus to key business or attitudinal issues, for instance customer focus. This is highly effective when a new strategy within the business needs to be implemented.
 have short sharp sessions which can be run in team meetings
 involve floorwalkers - the practice of having experienced members of staff on hand to answer questions about products, services, systems or policies.
 include coaching on live calls. It is important that the people here understand the difference between problem solving and coaching. This is different to floor walking, and concentrates on what the employee can do differently which will improve their skills and confidence when dealing with customers
 by having a customer service competency framework, helps people to understand the behaviors associated with good customer service.
BRICK & MORTAR
The call center needs to be constructed for 200 workstations. So an appropriate area should be selected for the construction of the same.
MEASUREMENTS, CONTROL & CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Performance Measurement in a Call center
The productivity of a call center greatly depends on its performance measurement system.
The performance management system or the quality assurance (QA) program analyses the calls attended by the center and thereby suggests areas of development for the agents, managers and the center as a whole. The implementation of these QA programs is demanded by many customers to regularly evaluate the service quality provided by the outsourcing vendor.
Clients and vendors should also use clearly defined parameters that do not involve complicated measurements and thus reduce the possibility of disputes over service quality. Using parameters that enable performance measurement on an objective basis is the best way to avoid complicated measurements.
Some commonly used service evaluation parameters are following:
• Average talk time: Average talk time is the average time a customer is connected with the agent. It is obtained from the ACD. Lower talk time ensures customer satisfaction and guarantees efficient call handling.
• Average speed of answer: When customers make calls to the customer service center, the ACD picks up the calls and distributes them to different agents. The average time required by the ACD to carry out this process is called the average speed of answer of a call. A lower speed of answer ensures higher customer satisfaction.
• Hold time: Hold time is the average time an agent keeps the customer on hold to obtain data from the database. It is obtained from the ACD. This includes initial hold time, before the call is answered and the time the customer is kept on hold by the agent while accessing data. As longer hold time leads to customer dissatisfaction, contact centers try to reduce the hold time as much as possible.
• Calls per hour: The average number of calls attended by an agent in an hour is obtained from the ACD and gives the calls per hour. Higher agent efficiency is depicted through higher calls per hour.
• Average time in queue: The total time required to reach an agent divided by the number of calls attended by the center is the Average time in queue. In order to increase customer satisfaction, the average time in queue should be lowered.
• Occupancy: The average time an agent spends on his/her seat and is ready to answer calls is also obtained from the ACD and gives the occupancy. Clients who pay the outsourcing vendor for the number of agents employed demand a specified occupancy rate. This in turn ensures that the vendor has not overcharged the client.
• Percentage of calls answered: The vendor is demanded to answer at least a fixed percentage of incoming calls by many clients. By decreasing the rate of abandoned calls, clients strive to increase customer satisfaction.
Clients and vendors also use additional parameters such as number of blocked calls i.e. call handling errors, number of dropped calls i.e. calls that were dropped due to system failure, number of misdirected calls i.e. calls directed to a different division and database access i.e. slow access of database leads to customers disconnecting the calls.
Continuous Improvement in a Call Center
Many processes and supporting functions operate in call center's planning, staff scheduling, call routing, after-call processing and reporting. However, the single most important process in a call center, which is repeated thousands of times a day and the one most in need of improvement, is an agent handling an inbound or outbound call.
It is perfectly appropriate to apply Lean Six Sigma process improvement techniques to ancillary call center processes. However, a key Six Sigma principle is to apply improvement resources to the high-leverage opportunities. There is no bigger improvement opportunity in a call center than the agent call handling process.
Improving call Handling
Improving the agent call handling process is a difficult task. The basic challenge is that even for a single call type, there is not only one process to improve. In call centers, the agents are the process and therefore a company must have at least as many processes to improve as it has agents, and probably more.
For example, if a company has 50 agents handling a particular kind of call, it not only has variation across the 50 agents (each agent does it differently), there also is variability within the agents themselves (they handle the same call type differently each time). Thus a company does not have one process to improve; it has hundreds or thousands, just for one simple call type.
Understanding that 'the Agent Is the Process'
Reducing this agent variation requires three things:
1. Agents have to have a process to follow i.e. standardization of the process.
2. They have to follow the exact process because it allows them to deliver quality service and makes their work life easier.
3. Management has to complete visibility into agent-by-agent and call-by-call performance so that it can be improved continuously.
Moreover to keep costs down, the following things need to be accomplished without using expensive call recording or having quality monitors to listen to every call. An improvement strategy built around inspecting quality (i.e. call recording or call monitoring) is very expensive. Further, it is not nearly as effective and sustainable as the techniques that have proved so successful in manufacturing. These are error proofing, process standardization and complete transparency into performance.
Software solutions can address all the above challenges. Call flows can be built for the agents to follow in a tool on their desktop. Pre-recorded audio files can be attached to this call flow that the agent can control/play during the call with the keyboard. Moreover, such software can be integrated with CRM software to pass relevant information back and forth as required.
This type of call center system is not a fully automated solution in the way as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. The agent remains on the call with the customer the full time. It is an ideal combination of the consistency and accuracy of a computer blended with the intelligence, sensitivity and flexibility of a human.
If something occurs during the call that is outside the normal process, the agent simply interjects with his/her live voice. And though these voice recordings are in a voice other than the agents, customers completely accept the system because they are getting the exact information they need in a clear and efficient fashion.
Essential First Step: Standardize the Process
A key Lean principle is to build standardized processes. This is often the first challenge. If a call center wants to improve call handling, it has to define and standardize the processes it wants to improve. Until that is done, the whole call handling operation is, de facto, sub-optimized.
Second Step: Optimizing the Process: Eliminating Waste
Standardizing a process does not mean that the process is optimized. Processes have several kinds of waste associated with them that can include waste from having the product or people waiting around, waste from excessive steps or movement, waste from rework, etc. A call center can apply a Kaizen or continuous improvement approach to eliminate waste using a right software platform.
 Eliminating Wait Times: Lean manufacturing stresses on continuous flow. When work in process is waiting, there is no value being added and it represents expensive excess inventory. It is the same with a phone call. Anytime there is silence during the call, no value is being added and resources including telecom and people are tied up.
 Eliminating Unnecessary Steps: A Kaizen approach to process improvement involves applying a critical eye to every step in the process and asking questions such as: Is the step important to the customer? Is it absolutely necessary?
 Improving the Efficiency of Necessary Steps: On the steps that were necessary, each statement was closely examined with an eye toward finding a way to convey the information more efficiently. The call center team looks for sentences, phrases and even words that could be eliminated while clearly communicating the message.
 Mistake Proofing: To mistake proof the process is another key Lean manufacturing principle. For many different types of phone calls, there are certain disclosures that often must be read to the customer. Many of these are required by law while others are best practices that management wants their agents to follow. Management can ensure that all required disclosures/best practices are included exactly where they want them by building the ideal call flow. Quality is built in. While the agents can technically avoid playing the required recordings, they would have to work hard to bypass the process and it would be readily apparent that they had done so.
 Stopping the Line: Another component of Lean, or Japanese manufacturing principles, that can be leveraged is what is known as "stopping the line" when a problem is detected. Stopping the line allows teams to immediately correct the problem condition and investigate the root cause so that a counter-measure can be built to prevent the problem in the future.
FINANCIALS & BUSINESS VIABILITY
Due to the additional expenditures that the project may have encountered on the way, the budget of a call center is often cut down. According to the money designated for a campaign, call centers have to work out their expenditures. Because of rising inflation, the cost of production in outsourcing call centers also shoots up. But the unit cannot hike up their price tag on call center services because the competitive market would not allow that. If they offer the same services at a raised price, it will only mean that the clients will go for outsourcing call centers that meet their own budgets. Consequently, it means how the financial aspect of the call center department can be handled for maximum optimization of financial resources. There are some vulnerable areas that bear the brunt immediately.
The first aspect that receives importance is the training module. Call centers feel that when financial back-up is not really able to take care of all the expenses, they cut short the days designated for training. Days spent in training don't offer any productive input in terms of numbers. Getting the agents on the call center floors means that the production starts off. On the other hand, if the call center outsourcing units decide that the agents will not be trained for the usual cycle, they are taking a risk. Untrained agents on the inbound call center can be harmful for the brand reputation of the client. They may not have the answers for the callers. They may hunt around for information, keeping the caller on a long hold time. That is not how an ideal call center outsourcing unit is run.
The next department that gets a flavor of the budgeting efforts is the inbound call center team itself. The agents working here are downsized and shifted to the outbound call center team. That is one way of how the call center combats with a workforce that they cannot pay for. This is not the call centers should function usually. A requisite number of agents are needed by the inbound call center at all times. None of the calls coming to this desk must be missed. Simultaneously, a lack of agents would mean that the ones on the job will rush their way through the calls. Callers need some time to understand and absorb the instructions. If the outsourcing call center agents hurry things, the caller may make mistakes and that will result in further complications for the call center.
BUSINESS SUPPORT & BRAND VALUE CREATION
Brand Value Creation
Consumers love brands because they offer an extra value that is, one in addition to the core product or service. This value becomes the major motivation for consumers to buy or use the product.
Advertising professionals say it is advertising that how precisely is this value being added and incorporated into the brand. Consumers love the advertisement so in turn they'll love the brand. Other marketing experts are suggesting that a consistent and total brand experience is the key.
Brands are not human-like and they do not have a life of their own outside the consumer's mind. They are instruments, simply means to achieve ends. Emotions cannot be glued to them. They arouse emotions when they are perceived as a source of something beneficial. The positive emotions are direct outcomes of these anticipations. Their various symbolizations (name, logo, font, emblem and so on) have little impact on their own; their importance is mainly as identifiers of sources of already attributed and anticipated benefits.
The act of branding has different meanings, which translate into different ways to create instrumentality or usefulness beyond the tangible benefits of a product/service:
1. Creating a Conceived Linkage to a Tangible Benefit
This means to create a conceived linkage between the brand name and other identifiers and a tangible benefit (a result in the physical world or an experience). That benefit is provided by the product itself or any component of the marketing mix.
2. Forming a Mental Context
It is a concept or an organizing principle that allows the consumer to connect unrelated facts by guiding intent or by some other common factor. In these cases, the main benefit of the brand to its customers originates in the mental context.
3. Directing an Experience
The branding here is the creation of an expectation that allows an experience richer than what the product alone can offer.
4. Creating a Means of Self-Presentation
Branding creates a symbol with a meaning that is well known to everybody in a relevant group. It enables the consumer to characterize himself and is used by him for inner communication, for interpersonal communication and for public communication.
5. Creating a Means to Deliver a Message
The branding role in this approach is to create a symbol of another kind, its meaning widely known as well. That kind of symbol enables the consumer to make a very specific statement and/or express a very specific emotion.
6. Building a Social/Cultural Authority
The next branding approach is the creation of an authority that the consumers can use as a guide. That guide helps them to understand what's happening around them and informs them which behavioral ways are normative, what will make them happier and so on.
7. Creating 'a Long Hand'
The branding creates means for the consumer and empowering him or her to act for noble objectives and high purposes that she can't achieve by herself.
8. Creating an Alter Ego
The brand is a way for the consumer to behave (at least on a fantasy level) in a manner he would like to but doesn't dare, or isn't willing to pay the price for.
