Call center: Meaning and Different Types 

Customer service is one of the most essential works in a business. It is the one who helps the customer and also helps the business to have a good image. Having good customer service can make your business better. But, of course, you can’t have good customer service if your employee is not well trained. So. being able to know what kind of employees you will hire is a good choice that you can do.

What is a Call Center?

A contact center is a type of assistance that serves as a direct line of communication between your company and its most essential asset—your consumers. Call centers enable businesses to grow revenue, respond to consumer inquiries in real-time, and enhance customer service.

Call centers are organized teams that received calls and messages from the customers. All call centers can be proactive (outbound) or reactive (inbound), and they can be maintained within a firm or transferred to a company that specializes in managing customer service. This means they may either contact clients with service offers or provide standard assistance and answer incoming calls. Many businesses are increasingly providing proactive customer service in order to build deeper client connections and take advantage of timely upsell and cross-sell possibilities.

Types of Call Centers

According to my research, there are just two types of call centers but for a better understanding, here are the four types of call centers: Proactive (outbound), reactive (inbound), Work-from-home, and chatbots/ artificial intelligence. 

1. Proactive (Outbound)

Instead of receiving calls from customers, employees at this type of call center make calls to them. This sort of contact center is typically utilized for marketing and sales calls, advertising, and consumer feedback, however, this is not always the case. Some business owners prefer to greet new clients with a “welcome call,” during which employees deliver further information about the company’s goods or services.

The sales staff at call centers typically make calls to contact and target new clients. Outbound call centers are used by businesses to do market research so that they can improve their marketing strategies. Agents can contact consumers who match their target customer’s wants and interests to discover more about their requirements and needs.

Pros of proactive (outbound) call centers:

• Agents communicate with targeted clients in real-time and convert prospects into leads.
• An outbound sales team may assist in the qualification of leads and the creation of a more strong list of customers.
• Provide businesses the ability to perfect their marketing activities and strive for improved client satisfaction.
• When consumers report problems, agents have the opportunity to resolve the issue while also being responsive to the customer’s demands.

Cons of proactive (outbound) call centers:

• Outbound call center services will be an added cost to your customer service budget.
• Other call center doesn’t literally know your product and can cause misunderstanding. 

2. Reactive (Inbound)

When a client calls a company for help, an inbound customer service agent is waiting on the other end of the line to support them. An agent in this role is proficient in technical assistance, communication, and problem-solving. Having knowledge in all of these areas improves the client experience.

Inbound contact centers’ main purpose is to handle as many complaints from customers as possible. The amount of calls that agents handle is mostly determined by the number of individuals that call the call center.

Compare to outbound call centers, inbound is to handle the complaints while outbound is for promoting.

Pros of reactive (Inbound) call centers:

• Handle high call volumes over the holidays
• Spend more time focusing on your main business.
• When consumers report problems, agents have the opportunity to resolve the issue while also being responsive to the customer’s demands.
• Maintenance and reduction of fixed expenses
• Agents can be easily added if the system is easily scalable.
• After-hours client service
• delivers qualified agents to low-volume organizations since they are trained to handle increasing call traffic as your firm grows.

Cons of reactive (Inbound) call centers:

• Many business owners are concerned that outsourcing to a contact center or answering service rather than hosting it in-house may result in client loss.
• Some people are concerned that outsourced agents would be unfamiliar with small company products and services.
• Other people don’t trust an agent if they might ask them for their information like contact numbers, names, addresses, and other secure data.

3. Work-from-home

Due to the pandemic, much business work is done from home, so it is a huge miss if I didn’t include this type of call center. 

Businesses all around the world are fast adopting work-from-home, or distant, call centers. These call centers employ software to disperse calls to operators who are spread out around the country. Distant call centers hire agents from all around the country, resulting in a more diversified customer care workforce.

This arrangement benefits businesses by making it easier to provide customer assistance across several time zones. Businesses employing distant call centers provide support during off-hours without needing to place staff on separate shifts because the customer care team is operating from different locations. This makes personnel scheduling much easier for businesses that offer 24-hour customer service.

Pros of work-from-home call centers:

• Comfortable work from home.
• Makes it easier for businesses to provide customer assistance across time zones.
• Makes workforce scheduling easier for businesses that provide 24-hour customer services.
• Offer coverage during non-working hours without requiring staff to work alternative shifts

Cons of work-from-home call centers:

• Some employees can’t separate work and personal issues from home, which affects the effectiveness of a skill.
• Employees can get frustrated in unexpected overtime work.

4. Automated Chatbots and Artificial intelligence

Technology is one of the biggest improving instruments in this modern era. A lot of companies are looking to AI to help them as the demand for a much more organized and better customer services experience.

Through AI-assisted, self-service channels such as chatbots, modern contact center systems include capabilities meant to handle customers’ issues before a human agent is required.

Pros of automated chatbots and AI call centers:

• No need to hire employees
• Convenient for the customer to understand the concerns.
• Can solve the problem immediately, especially in an emergency.

Cons of automated chatbots and AI call centers:

• Other customers don’t like AI and chatbots
• There will always be situations where AI is ineffective.
• High cost for maintenance