What is a Call Center?

A call center is responsible for handling customer service over the phone. It's also the physical or virtual location where this customer service team works.

A call center might be a big room filled with customer service agents on computers in headsets — all making and receiving calls on behalf of a business. While some may still work this way, a call center can also be distributed with agents with call center software on company laptops and smartphones working from anywhere — a backyard, a living room, or even a beach.

However it's set up, a call center helps your business put its best foot forward with customers. A call center literally adds the human touch through voice to every interaction. Our research finds that 83% of agents say that customers expect a personal touch more than they used to.

Here, we’ll look at what a call center is, why it’s important, and how you can set up for success.

A call center is used by organizations to manage a large volume of phone-based customer interactions. It handles inbound and outbound calls to provide customer service, support, sales, telemarketing, and more. Call centers are staffed by on-site or remote agents who answer questions, resolve issues, and provide information about products or services.

Advanced technologies, such as automatic call distribution (ACD) systems, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software, are used to streamline operations and improve efficiency. Call centers play a critical role in providing effective communication and enhancing customer experience.

Call center and contact center are often used interchangeably. While they both play an important role in customer experience, they’re not the same. The main difference? A call center only uses the phone. In contrast, a contact center offers phone support, plus other customer service channels, such as self-service, chat, SMS, email, social media, and more.

Do today's customers actually like talking on the phone? Our research finds that 88% of consumers say they use the phone to engage with companies. High-performing service organizations know it: 90% of these businesses offer phone support. Plus, 77% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a business. Voice still holds the top spot as the most-used channel for customer service, especially for complex issues. Bottom line: phone support is important to customers.

Call centers offer many benefits to businesses and customers alike, including:

• Improved customer service: Call centers provide immediate assistance by a person. This helps to ensure customer issues are resolved quickly with a human touch. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction.
• Cost-efficiency: Centralizing customer service operations reduces overhead costs and allows for better resource allocation, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses.
• Enhanced customer relationships: By providing timely and effective support, call centers help build and maintain strong customer relationships, fostering loyalty and trust.
• Increased sales and revenue: Call centers can drive sales through upselling, directly contributing to revenue growth.
• 24/7 availability: Many call centers offer round-the-clock service, ensuring customers can get support at any time.
• Specialized support: Call centers can provide specialized and technical support services. This helps resolve complex issues more efficiently.
• Scalability: Call centers can easily scale operations up or down based on demand, such as holidays. This allows businesses to manage peak periods effectively without compromising service quality.
• Data collection and analysis: Call centers gather valuable customer data, which can be analyzed to identify trends, improve services, and make informed business decisions.
• Professionalism: Trained call center agents ensure consistent and professional interactions with customers, reflecting positively on your company's brand. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, can help your agents learn best practices for call center service.

Let’s look at call center processes, types of call centers, and tips for handling customer interactions.

Process flow in a call center
Both inbound and outbound call handling processes are supported by technologies like ACD, IVR, CRM systems, and predictive dialers to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Inbound calls:

• Call reception: When a call comes in, it is received by the ACD system. This identifies the caller's needs using interactive IVR technology.
• Call routing: The ACD system routes the call to the most appropriate agent based on factors like availability, expertise, and caller requirements.
• Customer interaction: The agent handles the call, providing information or resolving issues. They access customer data via a CRM system to offer personalized service. Notes are taken and the call is often recorded (with customer permission) and automatically transcribed.
• Resolution and follow-up: The agent addresses the customer's needs, records the interaction in the CRM system, and follows up later if necessary. This ensures the issue is resolved and provides a record for future reference.

Outbound calls:

1. Campaign setup: Outbound campaigns are planned, targeting specific customers for surveys, sales, or information dissemination.
2. Dialing: Agents or automated dialers place calls to the targeted list of contacts.
3. Customer interaction: Once connected, agents engage with customers to communicate the intended message, gather information, or promote products/services.
4. Recording and follow-up: Agents document the outcomes of the calls in the CRM system and schedule any necessary follow-ups based on customer responses or interests.

Types of call centers
Call centers can be categorized based on their functions, structure, and the services they provide:

By function:

• Inbound call centers focus on handling incoming calls from customers. Calls typically involve customer service, support, inquiries, and order processing.
• Outbound call centers primarily make outgoing calls to customers or prospects for purposes such as surveys, sales, telemarketing, and debt collection.

By structure:

• In-house call centers are operated and managed internally by the company. They’re often located within the organization's premises.
• Outsourced call centers are contracted to handle call center operations. These third-party service providers offer cost-effective solutions and expertise. They also let you focus on your core business responsibilities.

Both of these types can have agents who work on-site, virtually, or a combination of both.

By service type:

• Customer service call centers handle inquiries, support, complaints, and provide information about products or services.
• Technical support call centers provide specialized assistance for technical issues, troubleshooting, and product support.
• Help desk call centers offer technical support and troubleshooting for IT-related issues for internal employees and/or external customers.
• Sales and telemarketing call centers focus on outbound calls to promote products or services, generate leads, and close sales.
• Collections call centers manage outbound calls to collect overdue payments from customers and handle debt recovery.

Customer interaction and issue resolution

Here are a few tips to help your agents get the best possible results:

• Make a good first impression: Customers come with all kinds of feelings. Set the tone to make neutral customers happy and angry customers calm.
• Listen first, speak second: You might have the knowledge, but they have the issue or question. Get all the information you can and let them share before you try to solve it. You might learn more details and change your assumptions about where the issue lies.
• Empathize: Being heard is part of the appeal of getting a real person on the phone. Acknowledge your customers' feelings and issues to build a connection and trust
• Focus on solutions: Don't dive too deep into intangibles, however. Turn the conversation toward potential fixes as you work through the case.
• Match the customer's tone: People generally relate better when there’s a connection. Mirror their speaking style in a respectful way. Of course, this doesn't apply to anger or shouting, but letting them know that "this would frustrate me, too," can help diffuse this.
• Deepen your knowledge of your products: The more you can solve for a customer's problems without relying on your manager or transferring the caller, the faster the issue will be resolved, and the happier the customer will be. Try to go hands-on with the product or service, or talk to experts in your organization to learn more when that's not possible.

Many metrics are considered in the success of customer service in general. For agents in a call center, however, it's more specific.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for call centers

• First call resolution (FCR): This measures the proportion of cases which are solved in the customer's first call with the call center. The higher the FCR the better.
• Average handle time (AHT): This measures the amount of time a team or agent takes to solve a customer case on the phone. For inbound calls that are about simple issues, a low AHT is ideal. But for inbound ones that are more complex, or outbound calls, a higher AHT can mean more time for cross-selling or upselling.
• Call abandonment rate (CAR): This measures the number of callers who hang up before talking to an agent. A high number suggests an issue with the autoresponder or wait times being too long.
• Transfer rate: This measures how many calls an agent can handle before transferring to another caller. Higher numbers indicate efficiency and skill.
• After conversation time: This measures how long it takes an agent to make post-call notes and wrap up work.

Metrics to evaluate call center performance

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): This measures the overall satisfaction of customers after interacting with your agents. CSAT is usually measured by a post-call survey.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): This measures customer loyalty and, specifically, their likelihood of recommending your company. NPS is also measured by surveys.

Continuous improvement strategies for call centers

There are always learning opportunities and ways to improve customer service. Strategies include:

• Call reviews: Listen to recordings or use automated sentiment analysis. Then share the results with your agents to identify when to try different approaches.
• Employee engagement: Sometimes poor metrics are the result of call center burnout or external factors, such as personal issues or even world events. Taking time to work directly with your agents and find solutions helps them feel heard — leading to improved engagement and job satisfaction. This can also be scaled through employee engagement software for distributed or hybrid teams.
• Customer service automation: If your agents have too much manual work, like post-call note taking, or have to hunt for information, they won’t be able to focus on delivering exceptional customer service. Implement customer service automation software to unify data, improve self-service options, and take tedious tasks off your agents’ plates.
• Leaderboards: Creating incentives, such as extra paid time off, for friendly competition can help boost agent performance. This works best when it recognizes above-and-beyond performance and when collective team goals are part of the mix.
• Data analysis: Not everything that happens in a customer call can be attributed to the agent. Dig into your call center analytics to see if technology or processes need to be improved. These changes can improve the call center and customer experience.

Call centers have come a long way since the private branch exchange (PBX), with operators physically transferring calls with cables. Today’s call centers rely on a basic tech stack, including a means for making and receiving calls, a routing system, and a method for recording interactions. This allows your agents to offload tedious tasks, enabling them to handle more calls and focus on delivering exceptional service. Management can collect and analyze data more quickly, improving operations. And your customers can have faster, more positive interactions with shorter wait times.

Key hardware and software used in call centers

Setting up a call center involves both hardware and software components to ensure smooth operations and effective communication. Here's a breakdown of what is typically required:

• Phones: Whether analog, digital, or cloud-hosted, some type of phone hardware and software is necessary for call centers.
• Computers: Computers can run the software central to a call center and sometimes handle the calls themselves.
• Headsets: Whether remote or on-site, agents need to have good clarity of voice on both ends to provide the best service. After all, no one likes to repeat themself — especially frustrated customers. Be sure to invest in quality headsets.
• CRM: Customer relationship management software helps track the results of a call and the status of a customer case. Technologies like Service Cloud Voice natively integrate CRM with your call center software.
• Self-service: A self-service component of a CRM helps customers resolve their own issues and provides agents with more information prior to actually handling calls.
• Knowledge base: This centralized collection of help articles, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and other resources lets your agents find information quickly. Salesforce’s Unified Knowledge organizes your resources, including ones in 3rd party systems, into one tidy platform.
• AI: New machine learning tools are getting integrated into existing call center software to help surface answers, summarize phone calls, and more.

Now that we’ve explored the ins and outs of call centers, it’s time to choose the right solution for your call center. Service Cloud Voice integrates voice conversations into the customer service workflow, enhancing the capabilities of your customer support teams.

Here are some of the key functionalities and benefits of Service Cloud Voice:

• Voice calls integrated with CRM: Service Cloud Voice allows your agents to make and receive phone calls directly within the Salesforce platform. This integration ensures that all voice interactions are logged and tracked in the CRM, providing a complete view of customer interactions.
• Real-time transcription: The feature offers real-time transcription of voice calls, enabling agents to see written records of conversations as they occur. This helps in better understanding and responding to customer needs during the call.
• AI-powered insights: Service Cloud Voice provides real-time coaching and next-best-action recommendations to agents. This AI guidance helps agents manage conversations more effectively and deliver personalized customer experiences.
• Automated data capture: By automatically capturing data from voice conversations, Service Cloud Voice reduces the need for manual data entry. This not only saves time but also improves data accuracy and completeness in the CRM.
• Seamless customer context: Agents have immediate access to the customer’s history and past interactions across all channels. This context allows them to provide more informed and cohesive support, enhancing customer satisfaction.
• Post-call analytics: After calls, Service Cloud Voice provides analytics and insights, which can be used to assess call quality, agent performance, and customer satisfaction. This data is valuable for ongoing training and improvement of service strategies.
• Customizable workflows: Organizations can customize workflows in Service Cloud Voice to align with their specific business processes and customer service strategies, ensuring that the tool complements their operational needs.

Service Cloud Voice integrates voice communication more deeply into the customer service and CRM processes, thereby improving efficiency, data management, and customer experience.

Remember: picking the best call center software means deciding which features are right for your team that will help them deliver exceptional customer service and scale with your needs.