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Call center an enterprise or an organizational unit is called, in which market contacts are manufactured by telephone actively (outbound) or passively (inbound). In a call center apart from service offers also frequently telephone sales is operationally converted as form direct marketing.
Call centers can fulfill various tasks. They serve for information purposes (Hotline, product informations, Helpdesks, etc.), customer service, complaint management, market study, public opinion poll, order and order acceptance (e.g. Distributing houses, ticket services) or also as emergency service (General German Automobile Association) and the sales with conclusion of a contract (if necessary with signature by fax). In recent time however straight these actions are more strongly adjusted and limited by the legislator and pursued the active call without request for customer more strongly.
The call center industry is large: However in Germany approximately 250,000 humans within this service range work in the year 2004.
In principle one differentiates Outbound Callcentern, which contact exclusively on their part from persons, between Inbound Callcentern, which receive only externally which are received calls, as well as call centers, in which both forms occur at the same time.
The working environment of a call center is generally an open-plan office with many divided jobs, at which the coworkers with Headsets sit forwards Computer-Terminals and which callers serve. In addition, conventional offices with two to three coworkers can be called in case of fastidious Servicehotlines call centers.
The telephonist/inside a call center is called agents or English Callcenteragents. Over them the team managers (team leaders) stand, who both organizational tasks notice, and trainings and Coachings accomplish, if no own coach is available. When supervisors one designates partially the level over the team manager, often in addition, employees, who do not have disciplinary tasks, but rather the agents to the ACD supervise and the call volume steer. Call centers with several orders usually employ projects manager, who coordinate the work of the team managers and supervisors.
The usual employment form of the agents is a flexible, in order to serve the permanently changing demand situation. One often works with slightly persons employed, alone-educating mothers, housewives or students. By various external factors (weather, sport, elections, advertisement, seasonal fluctuations in the Versandhandel, etc.) or rises the call arising of the Inbound business sinks drastically in shortest time. A third of the employees here e.g. work. Full time and has to show comprehensive experience and high qualifications. This group constantly grows and is also by far more highly paid, since there is a rising need in this direction and hardly free workers for the order.
Other call center forms, e.g. in the for the date agreement or cancellation recuperation work very evenly with a clearly given number of calls per layer and target being.
Call centers are furnished for some years frequently in regions with low labour costs, in the rural area or at locations of universities. Multinational companies created Belgium particularly in Ireland, and the Netherlands their central call centers, in order to take off from there from the entire European market.
A telecommunications plant - PBX (private one [AUTOMATIC] Branch Exchange) mentioned - connects the public telephone network via voice grade channels with the telephones in the call center.
Between the PBX and the agents is as principal item of the call center the ACD plant (AUTOMATIC call distribution), which has the task to divide all detailed calls evenly on the available agents. As a rule the distribution becomes after the FIFO ("roofridge in roofridge out") and "longest idle" - principle made. That means that the arriving call, which was registered as the first in the telecommunications plant is passed on to that coworker, whose last discussion is past longest. It is however also possible different distribution rules to specify (e.g. Distinction after different priority of the callers, distribution of certain call numbers at certain groups of coworkers, etc.).
If no agent is open, in order to receive an arriving call, the ACD passes the caller on automatically to a queue (queue) - here he is asked by a noted voice to wait until a coworker became free, who can receive its call.
Apart from the pure call distribution a further task of the ACD plant is the production of extensive statistics, from which important characteristic numbers are won, which are used both for the personnel planning and for the controlling of the optimal extent of utilization of a call center. Thus for example the number of detailed, received and broken off calls, is stored which serve the characteristic of "accessibility" for the calculation. Further the time is seized, which callers in the queue must wait for forwarding to an agent - from this the characteristic "service level" can be derived. The total period of the individual calls is callable ("like for a long time an average discussion" lasts) and some further data. Those are evaluated later and are "on-line", the agents in the call center to usually also see, how many callers are momentarily in the queue.
Frequently call centers use a IVR (Interactive Voice Response), which serves to free the agents from routine information to as well as determined inquiries directly to the correct group of coworkers to pass on, and saves so (error-prone) the way of the far connection by humans. Noted greetings offer then different possibilities, which can be selected by depressing the key or language to callers. The IVR can in particular with frequently occurring demands for certain information (e.g. Account balance inquiry) a discussion with an agent completely replace.
A CTI system (computer Telephony integration) connects the PBX of the call center with a computer system. The caller is identified - e.g. by his telephone number or the input his account number/pin in the IVR system - like that can all data at the screen of the agent, stored over the customers, be indicated. The agent can reconstruct, what the caller discussed with other coworkers, without the customer must its desire again speak and/or the agent with its colleagues consultation hold. This entails a substantial acceleration of the processes.
The accessibility of a call center depends directly on the number of assigned coworkers. Too cover, i.e. over-capacities, unprofitable not fully utilized coworkers without motivation are called many agents.
Too few agents - understocking - worsen the particularly in demand points. Calls, which can not be accepted ("calls" draw), revise the saved costs in the personnel employment through possibly escaped conversions.
High extent of utilization: Agents telephone (nearly) nonstop, because calls are in the queue. That lowers the service level. That should be as high as possible. No economically working enterprise can accept each call directly in briefly arising point times. Where the agents work a longer period, immediately an understocking would be there after the point times. The waiting periods are partly selected after importance or potenzieller purchasing power of the caller, e.g. Caller from statistically purchasing power-strong residences better serves.
During the capacity planning the costs of coworker extent of utilization must be weighed out against the "waiting costs", which develop for the customer for lack of accessibility of the call center.
The operational personnel planning looks in call centers as a rule as follows:
Hieran follows a real time planning, it makes possible short term shifts in planning to make and so e.g. Toilet-trace the agents or discussions to consider.
During the operational personnel planning a substantial volume of data must be processed. This processing is only computer-aided meaningfully possible. One uses for this so-called "Workforce management of systems".
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