BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING 101

ITE433

I. The Call Center

To begin with, lets start with the process of defining a call center, according to the industry definition:
“A call center is a place wherefrom calls are made or received in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing,
customer service, telemarketing, technical support or any other specialized business activity.” Call centers are
generally set up as large rooms, with workstations that include a computer, telephone set hooked into a large
switch and one or more supervisors stations. Call centers gained popularity in service oriented industries where
keeping in touch with the customer is not only required but is a necessity in the fiercely competitive business
environment prevailing today.

A. History of the Industry

 The history of call centers dates to the inception of its enabling channel, the telephone.
 In 1876 the first telephone patent was issued.
 By November 1877, over 3000 phones were being utilized as wires were strung between homes and
businesses across the city of Boston in Massachusetts. That same year, the first call center was created.
 By 1880, the number of phones in use had climbed to 133,000 an thus began the new dawn of a new
age in communication.
 One of the first ever 24-hour call centers was an inbound customer service and sales center set up by
Pan American World Airlines in 1956. Shortly afterwards, AT&T introduced the first high-volume
discounts for outbound long-distance calling that led to the development of regional and national
telemarketing call centers.
 In 1967 toll free numbers (800 numbers) was introduced. It gave the customers a way of contacting
businesses at no cost to themselves.

B. Classification of Call Centers

Call centers can be broadly classified into three different categories according to the nature, area and
ownership of the call that make into three categories respectively:
1. Inbound/Outbound: when a call center specializes in receiving calls from customers/third parties, it’s
known as an inbound call center. It is basically used in customer care and ideally should have one or
more toll free numbers. Outbound call center can, thus, be easily defined as one wherefrom calls
are made to third parties. The main utility of outbound call centers is for collections, telemarketing
and catalog retailing.
2. International/Domestic: Signifies the geographic area of customers a call center is catering to. A call
center making/ taking calls to/from customers situated outside the political boundaries of the
country the call center is located in would be termed as an international call center. Some of the
characteristics of such a call center is the difference of time zones, laws of the land, area of
dominant influence and cultural and language differences between the customer and the agent.
3. In-house/Outsourced: an in-house call center is run by the company which owns the product/service
regarding which the call is made or received. Whereas in outsourcing, the company simply enters
into service contract with a with a comply willing to take the responsibility of call handling for the
customers of the former.
C. Operational Challenges
The below mentioned factors represent the challenges faced by this industry.
1. Trained manpower – Quality human resource is a vital area which has to be addressed on a priority
basis. When we speak of manpower, obviously the context is individuals who are not alien to the
idea of contact centers and posses basic computer skills, typing skills, team spirit and interpersonal
communication skills. This familiarity and skill set reduces the strain and individual comes across and
also increases the learning curve when one is further exposed to specific business training.
2. Government regulations – while the government is trying its best to promote this industry, there still
remain some operational hurdles which the multinational companies perceive as adverse to their
smooth running of this business.
3. Commitment to quality – Contact centers deal with customers and serves as the first line of contact
for the business they are representing. Any mistake, misrepresentation by the agent can cause a
damage in customer-client relationship.
D. The Agent
Agent/Customer Service Representative is the person who interacts with a customer in a contact center.
Since these centers are the company’s first line of contact with the current and future customers, appropriate
training of the contact center staff can have an enormous impact on customers loyalty and satisfaction and
companies can minimize the risk of losing a valued customer because of service defects.
Personal Attributes of a contact center representative:
1. Love interacting with people
2. Maintains high standards of professional ethics
3. Is a team member
4. Respects an individuals right
5. Identifies well with clients values
6. Is a positive thinker and high on learning
7. Admits one’s mistake.
E. Measuring Agents Efficiency
The most important tool for quantifying agent efficiency is monitoring. An agent is closely monitored while at
work. This may be with or without his/her knowledge. Further, it can be screen monitoring or talk monitoring, this
monitoring is an important tool to asses the quality of calls, identify and take care of any issue which amounts to
miscommunication, malpractice or any functional error. Some quantitative productivity measuring tools with
reference to the different contact functionalities are as follows.
Customer Care:
 Number of clients/products/portfolios handled.
 Average customers handled.
 Average talk time.
 Number of escalations
Telemarketing:
 Number of calls made.
 Number of sales made.
 Number pf lead generation/referrals
Collections:
 Number of accounts worked.
 Revenue per call.
 Total promises taken.
 Number/percentage of promises kept.
 Number of disputes reported.
F. Call Center Technology
A call center is an integration of human and technical resources. Usually, apart from having general all-
purpose gadgets like computer, printer, faxes and telephone lines a call center needs to have some
sophisticated equipment in order to maximize productivity. The purpose of installing these gadgets rages from
maximizing number of calls handled, reducing stress on agents, distributing call load evenly, route calls to
specific agent group etc.