Why Inbound Call Centers Have Become An Integral Part Of Managing Customer Relationships?

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Contact centers are built to receive incoming calls for many different reasons. It is common knowledge that businesses spend huge amounts of money on customer relations, and this is why they really pay close attention to what customers feel and say about how they are being served. In different business sectors, there is an increasing familiarity that customers generally dislike automated messaging systems. Answering machines, voice mails, and IVRs (interactive voice response) cause dissatisfaction among customers because these systems are too impersonal. Contact centers and professional answering services that involve live telephone representatives are far more appealing to callers, and enable organizations to portray an image that is more friendly, personal and sympathetic.

There are several purposes why customers place calls. These include:

-To gather information about a service or product
-To report discrepancies, problems, or errors
-To obtain assistance

This is unlike placing outbound calls with the purpose of prospecting or selling a service/product. Outbound calling (or cold calling) is better known as telemarketing, which involves different methodologies and standards to run successfully. Inbound contact centers can be a bit more expensive to operate, but they play a huge role in the current business environment.

The number of organizations outsourcing call center functions to big call center firms in the Philippines, India and Latin America have grown significantly because these countries have fluent English speakers not to mention that businesses are able to save on labor and operational costs.

Functions that used to be handled by in-house staff are now regularly outsourced to call centers across the globe. Call centers are providing more than just order taking, order processing, technical support, etc. BPO centers are increasing in number in order to satisfy the needs of restaurants, fast-food conglomerates and retail establishments. Telephone representatives are taking orders for food, flowers, catalog products, gadgets and more. In fact, there are large contact center firms that are expanding their offerings by providing complex solutions aimed at inexpensive service enhancements. This demonstrates that live inbound call centers will continue to grow in the coming years.

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