A call center is basically a service center, which is well equipped with adequate telecom facilities, Internet access, and a wide database. All these facilities are geared up in order to provide voice-based or web-based information. This is done to provide support to customers who are either in the same country or are placed abroad through trained personnel.
Almost all the business sectors have Call centers existing to service their requirements. Some of the most prominent sectors are banking, utilities, manufacturing, security, market research, pharmaceuticals, catalog sales, order desk, customer service, technical queries (help desk), emergency dispatch, debtcollections, food service, airline/hotel reservations etc. In fact, due to the wide area of services that are provided by the call centers, there has been a creation of a number of lucrative careers, which provide a wide range of opportunities to graduates.
Earlier call centers provided only services related to the voice-based customer support. However, now most of the call centers have become more of a contact center that offers services ranging from voice-based customer support as well as email response, web-based text chat services and other customer interaction channels.
The call centers can be inbound or outbound. Inbound call center are those where in calls are received from customers enquiring about a service or product that an organization provides. On the other hand, outbound call center are those where in calls are made to customers to sell products or collect information etc. Also, there is a type of call center that gathers functionalities of both inbound and outbound call centers – and it is called a blended call center.