Call center:

A call centre or call center (see spelling differences) is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact centre.

A call centre is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that 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 operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).

Most major businesses use call centres to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centres. Examples of this include help desks and sales support.

Mathematical theory

A call centre can be seen from an operational point of view as a queueing network. The simplest call centre, consisting of a single type of customers and statistically-identical servers, can be viewed as a single-queue. Queueing theory is a branch of mathematics in which models of such queueing systems have been developed. These models, in turn, are used to support work force planning and management, for example by helping answer the following common staffing-question: given a service-level, as determined by management, what is the least number of telephone agents that is required to achieve it. (

Queueing models also provide qualitative insight, for example identifying the circumstances under which economies of scale prevail, namely that a single large call centre is more effective at answering calls than several (distributed) smaller ones; or that cross-selling is beneficial; or that a call centre should be quality-driven or efficiency-driven or, most likely, both Quality and Efficiency Driven (abbreviated to QED). Recently, queueing models have also been used for planning and operating skills-based-routing of calls within a call centre, which entails the analysis of systems with multi-type customers and multi-skilled agents.

Call centre operations have been supported by mathematical models beyond queueing, with operations research, which considers a wide range of optimisation problems, being very relevant. For example, for forecasting of calls, for determining shift-structures, and even for analysing customers' impatience while waiting to be served by an agent.

Administration of call centres

The centralisation of call management aims to improve a company's operations and reduce costs, while providing a standardised, streamlined, uniform service for consumers. To accommodate large customer bases, large warehouses are often converted to office space to host all call centre operations under one roof.

Call centre staff can be monitored for quality control, level of proficiency, and customer service by computer technology that manages, measures and monitors the performance and activities of the workers. Typical contact centre operations focus on the discipline areas of workforce management, queue management, quality monitoring, and reporting. Reporting in a call centre can be further broken down into real time reporting and historical reporting. The types of information collected for a group of call centre agents can include: agents logged in, agents ready to take calls, agents available to take calls, agents in wrap up mode, average call duration, average call duration including wrap-up time, longest duration agent available, longest duration call in queue, number of calls in queue, number of calls offered, number of calls abandoned, average speed to answer, average speed to abandoned and service level, calculated by the percentage of calls answered in under a certain time period.

Many Call centres use workforce management software, which is software that uses historical information coupled with projected need to generate automated schedules to meet anticipated staffing level needs.

Technology

Call centres use a wide variety of different technologies to allow them to manage large volumes of work. These technologies facilitate queueing and processing of calls, maintaining consistent work flow for agents and creating other business cost savings. Such technologies include

Call centre technology advances

Call centre technology is subject to improvements and innovations. Some of these technologies include speech recognition and speech synthesis 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, and many other technologies to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction.^[1] Automatic lead selection or lead stearing is also intended to improve efficiencies^[2], both for inbound and outbound campaigns, whereby inbound calls are intended to quickly land with the appropriate agent to handle the task, whilst minimising wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in, as well as for outbound calls, where lead selection allows management to designate what type of leads go to which agent based on factors including skill, socio-economic factors and past performance and percentage likelihood of closing a sale per lead. One of the most recent advances in call center technology has been the concept of the Universal Queue, which standardises the processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone, and email.

Patents

There are a large number of patents covering various aspects of call centre operation, automation, and technology. One of the early inventors in this field, Ronald A. Katz, personally holds over 50 patents covering inventions related to toll free numbers, automated attendant, automated call distribution, voice response unit, computer telephone integration and speech recognition.^[3].

Call centre dynamics

Types of calls are often divided into outbound and inbound. Inbound calls are calls that are made by the consumer to obtain information, report a malfunction, or ask for help. These calls are substantially different from outbound calls, where agents place calls to potential customers mostly with intentions of selling or service to the individual. (See telemarketing). It is possible to combine inbound and outbound campaigns^[4], but it is not a common practice.

Call centre staff are often organised into a multi-tier support system for a more efficient handling of calls. The first tier in such a model 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. In some cases, there may be three or more tiers of support staff. If a caller requires more assistance, the caller is forwarded to the third tier of support; typically the third tier of support is formed by product engineers/developers or highly skilled technical support staff of the product.

Call centres have their critics. Some critics argue that the work atmosphere in such an environment is de-humanising.^[5] Others point to the low rates of pay^[6] and restrictive working practices^[7] of some employers. There has been much controversy over such things as restricting the amount of time that an employee can spend in the toilet.^[8] Furthermore, call centres have been the subject of complaints by callers who find the staff often do not have enough skill or authority to resolve problems^[9], while the dehumanised workers very often exhibit an attitude of apathy to even the most abusive customer.^[10]

Owing to the highly technological nature of the operations in such offices, the close monitoring of staff activities is easy and widespread.^[11] This can be argued to be beneficial^[12], to enable the company to better plan the workload and time of its employees. Some people have argued that such close monitoring breaches human rights to privacy.^[13]

Varieties of call centres

Criticism & performance of call centres

Criticisms of call centres generally follow a number of common themes, from both callers and call centre staff. From callers, common criticisms include

The net-net of these concerns is that call centers as a business process exhibit stratospheric levels of variability. The experience a customer gets and the results a company achieves on a given call are almost totally dependent on the quality of the agent answering that call.^[14] Call Centers are beginning to address this by using technology to standardize the process all agents use. Anton and Phelps have provided a detailed HOWTO to conduct the performance evaluation of the business ^[15], whereas others are using various scientific technologies to do the jobs ^[16]^, ^[17]^, ^[18]. However more popular alternatives are using personality and skill based approaches ^[19]^, ^[20]. The various challenges encountered by call operators are disscussed by several authors ^[21]^, ^[22]^, ^[23]^, ^[24]^, ^[25].

Unionisation of call centres

Unions in North America have made some effort to gain members from this sector.^[26] In Australia, the Call Centre Workers Union represents unionised workers; their activities form part of the Australian labour movement.^[27]. In Europe, Uni Global Union of Switzerland is involved in assisting unionisation in this realm.^[28]

Standardisation

Currently, there are no universally bracketable international standards, other than ISO 9000 series, available for the industry to follow up. However, there are some guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures available on the internet ^[29]^, ^[30]

Notes

^ L Venkata Subramaniam (2008-02-01). "Call Centers of the Future" (PDF) 48-51. i.t. magazine. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.
^ "US Patent 7035699 - Qualified and targeted lead selection and delivery system". Patent Storm (2006-04-25). Retrieved on 2008-05-29.
^ Bednarek et al., "Katz Patent Reexamination: A Change in Momentum Favoring RAKTL Targets", ShawPittman, June 9, 2004
^ Freeman, Laura M; Whitfield, Hilary C. "Setting up for integrated inbound/outbound telemarketing", BNET. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Working conditions and health in Swedish call centres". European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2005-04-28). Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Hourly Rate Survey Report for Industry: Call Center". PayScale. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Advice regarding call centre working practices" (PDF). Health and Safety Executive. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Hazards 81 extended briefing: Toilet breaks: Give us a break!". Hazards. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ Shaw, Russell (2006-01-30). "Tone-deaf to customer complaints, Dell opens yet another call center in India", ZDNet. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ Ahmed, Zubair (2006-02-22). "Abuse rattles Indian call centre staff", BBC News. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Call Centre Monitoring". Management. callcentrehelper.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "The Call Center Answer Team reaches out to the industry for to crack a tough nut". Q&A: How Many Calls Should I Monitor. callcentermagazine.com (2003-07-30). Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ "Who’s on the Line? Women in Call Centres Project" (PDF). Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health. Health Canada. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
^ Fleming, J., Coffman, C., Harter, J. (2005) Manage Your Human Sigma, Harvard Business Review
^ Anton, Jon; Dru Phelps. "How to conduct a call center performance audit: A to Z". Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Paprzycki, Marcin et al. (2004). Data Mining Approach for Analyzing Call Center Performance. doi:10.1007/b97304. ISBN 9783540220077.
^ "Evaluation of the Performance of customer service representatives in a call center using DEA/Network Model/Fussy Sets". Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Srinivasan, Raj et al. (2004). "Performance analysis of a call center with interactive voice response units". TOP 12 (1): 91 - 110. Springer Berlin. doi:10.1007/BF02578926. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Skyrme, Pamela et al.. "Using personality to predict outbound call center job performance". Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Stolletz, Raik; Stefan Helber (2004). "Performance analysis of an inbound call center with skills-based routing". OR Spectrum 26 (3): 331 - 352. doi:10.1007/s00291-004-0161-y. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Witt, L. A. et al. (2004). "When Conscientiousness Isn’t Enough: Emotional Exhaustion and Performance Among Call Center Customer Service Representatives". Journal of Management 30 (1): 149 - 160. doi:10.1016/j.jm.2003.01.007. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Aguir, Salah et al. (2004). "The impact of retrials on call center performance". OR Spectrum 26 (3): 353 - 376. doi:10.1007/s00291-004-0165-7. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Murthy, Nagesh N. et al. (2008). "The Impact of Simulation Training on Call Center Agent Performance: A Field-Based Investigation". Mnagement Science 54 (2): 384 - 399. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1070.0818. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Armony, Mor; Itay Gurvich. "When promotions meet operations: cross-selling and its effect on call-center performance". Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Goldberg, L.S.; A.A. Grandey. "Display rules versus display autonomy: emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and task performance in a call center simulation". Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ (2006) Paths to Union Renewal. Broadview Press. ISBN 1-55193-058-7.
^ "Call Centre Union Busters Get Wake-Up Call". Workers Online. Retrieved on 2008-07-08.
^ "Uni Global Union's call center organising campaigns". Uni Global Union. Retrieved on 2008-07-08.
^ Rochester Institute of Technology. "Internal Call Center Standing Operating Procedures". Retrieved on 3 July 2008.
^ Thinking problem management. "Documentation - the techie curse". Retrieved on 3 July 2008.

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