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How Does A Call Centre Work – Complete Guide For 2023

Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are specific IT-intensive business processes offering specific horizontal and vertical services to various companies. Standard office functions that BPO companies provide include human resources management, payroll, accounting, and customer service. These companies have very important role in how does a call centre work?

Table of Contents

What Is A Call Centre?

If you are asking the question of how a call centre work, you should understand the short definition of a call centre. A BPO company is a communication hub with a centralized system to accept, handle, and deal with customers’ queries and incoming calls. The services offered by call centres depends on the need of the customers. It handles outgoing calls, accept incoming calls, or offer both inbound and outbound calling services.

People working in a call centre are usually called call centre agents or operators. Sometimes, the industry refers to them as customer service representatives (CSRs) or customer support.

A call centre uses various communication and technology tools, such as auto-dialers, to facilitate their work. You can click here to learn more about robust auto-dialing systems and what type matches your call centre requirements the best. Moreover, they must adhere to best practices in customer relationships according to the needs of their clients to ensure customer satisfaction.

Purpose Of A Call Centre

In the business services industry, you classify a call centre as one type of business process outsourcing. Before entering the BPO industry, understand how a call centre work and its primary purpose. Knowing all the aspects of how a call centre works will help you prepare for its dynamic office environment, the needs of the clients and the industry, what gaps to fill, and the most modern approach that will generate higher revenues.

Customers call manufacturers, retailers, vendors, product outlets, etc., to inquire about products and services. For example, they might want to know more about specific or related products, their features, pricing, or when new products will be available in the market. They also call the source of the product or service if they encounter problems or have some complaints. Unfortunately, most companies do not have the capacity or staff to handle hundreds of calls daily from customers.

This is where a call centre comes in. Thus, if you want to understand how does a call centre work, you must realize that the centre handles many phone calls daily, usually about a company’s services and products, including service availability, order status, and product features. Therefore, the call centre agents handling specific clients must have proper training and in-depth knowledge of the product or service they are handling.

How Does A Call Centre Work?

There is no particular rule on how a call centre works, but you can find a range of approaches divided into two primary functions – inbound and outbound. An inbound call centre handles calls from customers, while an outbound call centre makes the calls to prospective customers or clients.

The person’s call gets connected to an agent who can assist and help them. For example, if the centre handles inbound calls, the customer can lodge a query or a complaint. The call centre agent responds to the customer’s need to resolve a particular issue.

Call centres use advanced software and other tools to process calls. For example, the centre’s software has options to schedule a callback for customers who request the service. The software also filters the calls and can connect the customer to a live agent who has the skill to handle the call. The agents are trained to address and resolve specific problems, boosting the issue’s resolution and enhancing customer experience.

Understand Further Work Of A Call Centre

Remember that 70 percent of a call centre’s operational costs go to its people. Aside from the tools, the efficiency and productivity of a call centre rest on its agents. They are the ones who resolve client issues. The agents know the right approach to handle the problem. Moreover, they are experienced in communication and product knowledge.

When you sign up with a call centre service, the company will represent you and use your business name when the agents receive customer calls. Their goal is to achieve ”first call resolution.” They aim to solve the caller’s issue in the first interaction. Achieving this will leave a strong positive impression on the caller, which increases brand reputation.

Another feature of how a call centre works is follow-up calls. If the agent cannot resolve the issue during the first contact, the agent can schedule a follow-up call. The second call helps the customer and the agent. The latter learns and gains more experience in situation management. Consequently, the customer receives help, strengthening their faith in the customer service department and the company.

Different Types Of Call Centres

There are different methods in how a call centre works. Call centres offer various services and have varied responsibilities.

It is vital in determining how does a call centre work to understand the strengths of each call centre category to ensure that a client can choose the most appropriate call centre to fit their needs.

Inbound call centre

The centres in this category only receive customer calls. Most of the callers are existing customers of a product or service. Other callers may be new customers looking for products to purchase. Services include order processing, dispatch services, help desk support, or answering and transferring incoming calls.

Outbound Call Centre

A centre specializing in outbound calls contacts customers on behalf of the client, for various purposes, including telemarketing services to prepare potential leads and expand your company or organization’s reach. You can also use an outbound call centre for up-selling, cross-selling, customer satisfaction surveys, market research, and debt collection.

Automated Call Centre

This call centre needs lesser staff to maintain the system and handle specific tasks that automation cannot perform. For example, you hire an automated call centre to manage voicemail, assist in finding store locations, help customers navigate a menu, or transfer calls using interactive voice responders (IVRs).

FAQs

How Many types of call centres are there?

There are three types of call centres. First is an inbound call centre where agents receive calls from the customer. The second is outbound, where agents call customers themselves. Then comes the virtual call centre which is a mixture of both types with its own advanced features.

What are the mediums through which call centres to earn money?

There are so many ways through which call centres to earn money. They agree that the amount is received as per the chat answered. Also, these call centres hire people from different BPO companies for the calling process, and they receive the amount as per the call answered by each agent.

What is the role of BPO in call centers?

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. The name itself is very clear that it help other companies by providing support. This is helpful for other business to outsource their tasks so that the process can become more efficient.

What is the eligibility criteria to get a job at a call centre?

Getting a job at a call centre is comparatively easy as they hire students who had passed high school as well as students from the college. Sometimes according to the client's requirement, they can ask for an experience of 2 years or a degree. But there are not many requirements of a degree to get a job at a call centre.

Conclusion

It’s easy to understand how a call centre works. But the service you will receive depends on the centre’s experience and the quality of service its agents render.