Call Center

Also referred to as a contact center by the Gartner Group, the call center is where computer telephony technology finds its most spectacular and innovative expression.

At one time, call centers were specific departments dedicated to centralize and manage incoming calls (internal and external help desks, technical service and problem resolution centers, reservation centers, order taking, customer service) and outgoing calls (telemarketing, collections, fundraising, polls). The calls would be handled directly in the call center or else routed to specialized departments.

Today, however, call centers are simply places where people make or take calls for a living. Entire companies can be a call center . People telecommuting at home can be part of a virtual ACD group (See Automated Call Distribution) and thus be part of a call center. There can be informal call centers (a term coined by Blair Pleasant of the PELORUS Group) where there are people handling phone calls for an organization, but not in a formal location. Call centers can also function as self-sustaining businesses and can include service bureaus or outsourcers, which make or take calls on behalf of clients. (See Call Center Outsourcing.)

Indeed, with the coming of the Internet and the Company website, a call does not necessarily have anything to do with voice communications over the public phone network. Call centers can be web enabled (See Web-Enabled Call Centers) where agents or customer service representatives (CSRs) can respond to a web alert button that has been clicked on the company website...