Ken, the term "call center" is used to describe a wide variety of voice telephony (and integrated voice-data, multimedia, etc.) implementations.
Call center "purists" will argue that a call center can be as simple as your desktop phone, or a cellular device, and it's all a matter of how you administer it that counts.
A more accepted least common denominator of what a call center might be is the everyday receptionist's desk... where the attendant must serve as the hub for multiple lines, taking messages, forwarding calls, etc.
But this doesn't yet get to the type that you are asking about.
The larger ones which Nortel is speaking about are usually supported by automatic call distributors, or ACDs. ACDs are intelligent queuing machines that sort and parse the incoming [and outgoing] calls, then distribute them to attendants - or intelligent nodes - on the basis of predetermined criteria.. either static criteria or those which vary dynamically according to load, available staff, whether staff is trained or not for a particular purpose, hold times, and a host of behavioral and psychological factors. To say the least, it's a science (some would argue an art form) unto itself.
You know call centers by the product promotion 800 call-in number that you see after a commercial advertisement late at night for a tummy reducer. These are referred to as "inbound" call centers. Other examples of inbounds are help desks, carrier service order desks, operator assistance [information], 911 centers.... you get the picture.
Examples of outbound call centers would be those annoying long distance company solicitation operations, ones which work with autodialers, or the types that some companies use to perform quality assurance calling after a new product or service has been purchased... or any other form of notification or solicitation calling made from a centralized location, which could be either real (physical) or remote (virtual) through call routing techniques.
Of course, both functions ( inbound and outbound ) can be combined in a single cc, although their dynamics are different.
Call centers are highly leveraged with IN/AIN (advanced information network) and computer-telephony integration (CTI) technologies which permit automatic number ID, ANI/CLID, screen pops, "virtual attendant" functionality through the routing capabilities inherent in 800 schemes. CTI permits the issuance of relevant data, comparisons, script prompts, relationship management tools, etc. which someone else can jump in here and elaborate on, if they would be so kind.
Many aspects of call center routing are supported by extensive SS7 and ISDN functions, and data base lookups which "point" to remote telephone numbers without the caller's knowledge.This permits the call to be sent to a usually less-expensive demographic or to a work-at-home attendant, in other words, who appears to be somewhere where they are not, but gets the job done just the same for less.
I came across a good article in Phone Plus (or was it X-Change?) the other day that describes the pluses and minuses of call center outsourcing. If I can locate it again, I'll pass it along. |
