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Inbound call center - Call center services that support calls received
from a customer. Inbound call center calls typically include customer
support and help desk calls. These could also be self-service where
client simply requires information about their accounts, for example,
current bank balance.
Outbound call center - Call center services that consist of calls made
by a company representative out to contacts or customers. These could be
calls which were not satisfied by your incoming call center. Another
example would be security alerts for banking customers when their ATM
use for the day reaches a limit.
Outbound call center calls don’t need to be dialed by a human being. The
system can be pre-programmed to dial our pre-determined phone numbers by
using predictive dialers. Telemarketing calls and survey calls are
usually handled by these automated dialers.
Call Center Software
Here are a few "musts" when selecting call center software:
Predictive dialer software
A predictive dialer is used in outbound
call center applications, and can be implemented in either hardware or
software, but software is cheaper. A predictive dialer is used to
automatically call numbers stored in the call center database, identify
disconnected numbers, busy signals, unanswered calls and answering
machines.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software
IVR software is used in
inbound call center applications, and allows you to setup an interactive
set of pre-recorded menu options that a caller can select from, thus
alleviating the need for live representatives to handle all incoming
calls.
Automatic call distribution software
Automatic call center
distribution software allows callers who are in a call queue to be
routed to a representative efficiently. Such calls can be forwarded to
the next available live person or to the most appropriate representative
depending on the type and level of call as determined by the caller's IVR menu choices selected.
Flexible database backend
A good database is a must for any call
center software system, and this is not the place to skimp. You should
be able to sort the contact list by any field to maximize efficiency.
The call center database should also allow one to easily import, export,
and convert data between different database format from leading vendors
as well.
Flexible reporting options
Good call center reporting software
allows you to view and print call center performance metrics based on
customizable date ranges, by call center agent, by service level or any
other parameter. Good reporting software can make a call center
manager's job much easier.
Interactive Voice Response - IVR
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is software that provides a series of
interactive menu options to a person that calls a customer support phone
number. IVR software in a call center can accept either telephone
touch-tone keypad input or voice input from the caller. Using computer
telephony integration (CTI), IVR software can "hand off" a call to a
company representative.
The use of IVR in inbound call centers can dramatically increase the
number of calls that a company can handle. However, it is important that
IVR be setup logically and simply so as not to confuse or frustrate
callers with an overly long or complex series of menu options and
choices. In addition, consider having a voice over professional do the
IVR recordings.
Predictive Dialers
A predictive dialer is piece of hardware or software in a call center
that automatically dials a large number of phone numbers that are stored
in a contact database. Specifically, predictive dialers are used in an
outbound call center or telemarketing operation.
Predictive dialers can dramatically increase telemarketer productivity
and efficiency in the call center by handling disconnected phone
numbers, unanswered numbers, busy signals and answering machines.
In addition, predictive dialers monitor the length of each live call by
each agent, and calculate the average time spent per call, or average
call length. In this way, call center efficiency goes up dramatically as
the predictive dialer can dial a number and hand it off to an agent as
soon as the previous call has ended. As such, company representatives
spend less time dialing numbers and more time talking to prospective
customers.
Note: Predictive dialers should not be confused with auto dialers, which
are used to send prerecorded messages to contacts and then automatically
transfer the call to a live agent depending on the menu option selected
on the message by a person.
Other Call Center Verbage
Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) – Some times a single
company, for example, a big financial conglomerate would want to have
multiple call centers – for retail banking, corporate banking, stock
brokerage, insurance, etc. They want each of these divisions to have a
separate identity and hence a separate UAN or toll free number. But they
don’t want to invest in 4 different call center setups.
This is where DNIS is useful. When call is dialed to Insurance number,
the greeting caller hears from ACD is insurance related, and the call is
directed to agent group best suited for handling insurance calls.
Personal broadcast
A type of outbound call center call that consists
of a pre-recorded message that is phoned out automatically to a large
number of customer phone numbers stored in a database.
Queue
In a call center, the queue is where callers are held who are
not connected immediately with a live call center representative.
Callers are connected with the next available person depending on where
they are placed in the queue.
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