Call Center
A call center is a collection of resources, human, real estate, furniture and technology, which helps support the long-distance relationship between a brand and its market. It is most often embodied by one or more space (s) offices which are distributed calls telephone , as well as emails , letters, etc. ... These calls can be classified as inbound, when received by customer advisors to the center, or the inverse of outgoing when issued by them. Many call centers treat both types of appeals.
In general, it should be noted that since the beginning of the XXI century, all industries rely on the use of call centers primarily for their external relations but also to optimize their internal interactions. This is the case of assistance centers (help desks) internal troubleshoot remote employees, as is the case of platforms created to educate employees on their pay slips, their rights and obligations.
Summary |
Terminology
Front Office & Back Office: As a business, is services and computer systems help in making contact with customers and taking orders.
The front office is showcase (its English translation "boutique"), you will receive clients.
The Back Office is the back room, where we process the application or customer's order, where one manages inventory, and more generally the administration.
The middle office is the intermediary between the demand and supply.
When the CRM team are spread across multiple centers or at home, talking about virtual call center.
The technology allows scientists to automate part of call processing through the coupling between telephony and computer technology (ITC) by entrusting them to interactive voice response (IVR). The latest developments of these IVR allows them to exchange near-natural language with the users, through recognition and speech synthesis and customization dialogs.
The centers are at the heart of customer relations for many companies today. The integration of telephony with computers can customize the contact with the operator all relevant customer data at the time of the call and optimize call distribution and thus the use of time customer advisors. The quality of service delivered to customers and reduced cost of this service is one of the recurring themes of call centers. The service is frequently outsourced service providers in dealing with calls from several sponsors (20% of total).
The centers are increasingly driven to diversify to increase the means of contact (Channels) instantly: telephony , Email , fax , Internet , Instant Messaging ... Before long it will be possible to add video communication.
Incoming
The goals of a center specializing in incoming calls can be manifold:
- To provide information, sometimes with a freephone number or special pricing: the consumer gets a personalized information easily, without moving.
- making appointments (eg for medical offices).
- taking orders, especially for mail order.
- service : the hotlines , often to deal with problems encountered by customers of ISP or use of any product or service, run through call centers. It may include assistance centers suppliers of elevators, very popular with users in it sometimes blocked!
Among the activities that have appealed to the intense inbound call centers include:
- The telephone sex.
- The banking sector tends to expand. They offer the advantage of access to the accounts, do banking transactions and made an appointment outside business hours of agency.
Outgoing calls
Centers specializing in outbound calls can:
- conduct surveys : the collection of information is easy, computerization and their treatment can be performed immediately.
- make publicity for a brand or the prospecting or selling at a distance: this is the replacement of hawkers and selling them door to door.
Sectors that have used outbound:
- ISPs
- The kitchen,
- Advisors Wealth Management
- Banks,
- Telecom operators,
- Electricity operators.
The center, which works only in outbound campaigns often produces making appointments. This activity has become quite structured. It is entirely focused on excellence. Production managers work with spreadsheets can calculate the gross margin generated in real time. The work program is successful if the center is developing production processes structured and clear.
The average time a call is often preset to a campaign since the margin is calculated on the volume of appeals. A position of employment must produce daily crude production number of calls that exceed 250. The transmission platforms are often equipped with "solutions".
These "solutions" would improve the margin and have the power to multiply the return on investment - sometimes princely - how should those who start a call center.
This activity is so well structured production ( Taylorism ) that can write a kind of universal frame of the script. The script is sometimes called manual calls or in other ways. Here we are talking about the text that tlactrices and telemarketers must interpret sometimes in full, other times for three seconds. It lasts eight or nine hours a day. Problems Several media outlets as the chained duck rose up against several problems common in call centers: they are often outsourced in developing countries , where the most educated (having acquired the language desired by the customer) are then faced with a work tedious, a salary often weak or too short a break between calls . There remains the question of cadenzas, which are often exaggerated in the absence of protective legislation. Awareness of contractors has become necessary to prevent such abuse. The consideration consists in what they agree to pay the price for a service carried out in a socially acceptable. The field of call centers in Switzerland stands out from other countries because of its four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch. Especially since the speaking population speaks its own dialect in Swiss-German. National companies do not outsource their customer service since the proximity remains a key criterion. Not only a client romand do not appreciate that he speaks with a French accent, but especially the customer-speaking Swiss do not tolerate that he meets in "good German." The primary advantage of an agent in a call center is the Swiss language proficiency . - Jean-Denis Garo, "Safety Call Centre" in Pelike Gerard (ed.), The safety for use by policymakers, Editing etna France, Paris, 2005 - Caroline Plaignaud, Jean-Denis Garo (ed.), The Off-Shore Call Centers Focus on Mauritius 1Angle2Vues Edition, Paris, 2007 - Call centers, a symphony to the commercial well-oiled marketing - Book Author: Aurlien Nancel, Lille, 2007. - Jean-Denis Garo, "Call Center and Crisis Management" in Security for the use of local and territorial forum Atena , Paris, 2009 - Call Center: box snowmen - Book Author: Muriel H. Essling Publishing Thousand Feathers - September 2009. Relocation
In Switzerland
References
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See also
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