CALL CENTRE

Introduction:
Call center services are one of the most sought after services in todays competitive business world. Whether you need to set up a customer support center or market your product through telemarketing services, you would need professional call center services. In other words , A call centre is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letter, fax,live chat, and e-mail at one location is known as a contact centre. A contact centre, also known as customer interaction centre is a central point of any organization from which all customer contacts are managed. Through contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. There are Four Kinds of Call centre/contact centre As follows, 1.Inbound Call Centre : An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. 2.Outbound Call Centre : Outbound call centers are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political donations and debt collection. 3.Telemarketing call centre: : These call centers deal with telemarketing and promotion of services. Their primary goal is to promote sales and customer satisfaction. 4.Phone call centre: They are usually automated call centers that rout the calls and uses IVR technology. These call centers can be used for asking bank account balance, pin numbers, telephone numbers and other information. Computers replies pre recorded answers.

Abstract:
Call centre technology is subject to improvements and innovations. Some of these technologies include speech recognition software to allow computers to handle first level ofcustomer support, text mining and natural language processing to allow better customer handling, agent training by automatic mining of best practices from past interactions. The Following are the Technologies which used by call centre:
1.Automatic Call Distributor:

An Automatic Call Distributor is often the first point of contact when calling many larger businesses. An ACD uses digital storage devices to play greetings or announcements, but typically routes a caller without prompting for input.
2.Interactive Voice Response:

Interactive Voice Response can be used to front-end a call center operation by identifying the needs of the caller. Information can be obtained from the caller such as account numbers. Answers to the simple questions such as account balances or pre-recorded information can be provided without operator intervention. Account numbers from the IVR are often compared to caller ID data for security reasons and additional IVR responses are required if the caller ID data does not match the account record.
3. COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION (CTI):

Computer telephony integration (CTI) is technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or co-ordinated. As contact channels have expanded from voice to include email, web, and fax, the definition of CTI has expanded to include the integration of all customer contact channels (voice, email, web, fax, etc.) with computer systems.
4. AUTOMATED INTELLIGENT CALL ROUTING(AICR):

This process helps the user call to be transferred to a proper place and the reply can be given to the user immediately.

Method / Material / Procedure:

Within a call centre the main process is handling the telephone call. If an Agent is able to give the customer all the information they require during the call without passing it to someone else, then this is usually known as one and done. The call handling can be broken down into three steps the first is the answering of the call by the ACD; the second is the time that an agent spends talking to the customer. There are different process varies on different technologies: 1.Automatic Call Distributor: It maintains the phone call workflow: (a) It has the feature of automatic call transfer or routing. (b) This technology is based on defining the characteristics of the call. 2.Interactive Voice Response: It mainly deals with registration and interaction with the customer. (a) It is a menu-based technology. (b) It is mainly based with voice recording. (c) The major benefit of this technology is that it can handle transactions without any live agents. 3. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI):

CTI applications provide the ability to do one or more of the following: A)Authenticate callers. Using one of several standard methods, the telephone number of the caller can be screened against a database. (b) Recognize a voice, either for authentication or for message forwarding.

4. Automated Intelligent Call Routing(AICR): Normally the following steps will be followed with this technology. (1) Make a call. (2) Wait for few minutes or seconds. (3) The call is directed to a particular person. (4) It seems easy but is prone to failure. (5) It is difficult with email chat, web routing etc.. (6) Call routing software can handle large volume, multiple channels and work flow of data. (7) It identifies who is making a call and the reason for calling.

Advantage and Disadvantage:

Advantages

Call centers are used for almost any purpose. When a call center is hired by a company, it is considered outsourcing. Outsourcing through a call center provides resources a company normally would not have. Call centers are trained to manage large volume and varied clients and services. Outsourcing through a call center also provides up-to-date technologies. Call centers are accustomed to providing these services and typically have all the latest technology available.

1. Business is handled by well trained (skilled) staff. 2. Business is handled more economically. 3. Business is handled more efficiently. 4. Business is handled more conveniently, (at least communication part). 5. Business process under progression is evaluated, by the experts, without getting exposed. 6. Business organizations, outsourcing the services of Call Cent res, are providing business opportunities. 7. Business or Activity carried out by call center, over phone or through Lap Top or PC, save fuel bill of product / service provider as well as cut short the process time, at the convenience of client or customer.

Disadvantages

Using a call center has disadvantages as well. The quality of service is typically not as solid as it would be in a company setting. Security is another disadvantage. Workers in call centers have access to personal information for thousands of people. This can lead to security issues.
1. Misuse, of clients data, by Out sourced Call Centre employees. 2. Young generation, familiar with the use of new communication gadgets, are able to make best / most use of services, where as older generation are not able avail the benefits. 3. Only Limited Services, can be extended, communication based.

Conclusion: Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/callcentre http://www.google.co.in

This is a kind of medium which is used to extract information about things we really need like get information about address of particular coaching class. Customer relations were managed by call centers. So it is a best source or best example to get information.