A contact center is a centralized office used for the purpose of sending & receiving large volumes of requests by telephone.
A contact center is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientèle, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call center, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact center.
Page Contents
- Mathematics
- Contact Center Technology
- Contact Center Criticisms
- Contact Centers & VoIP
- See Also
- Commercial Providers
- 3CX PRO & Enterprise Editions
- AAA+ Rated Freevoice Hosted Contact Center
- Asternic Call Center Stats Pro 2
- Clarity Connect
- Contact Center Software
- Database Systems Corp.
- DialApplet
- Dialer360
- Elastix Pro & Enterprise Editions
- HoduCC – Call Center Software
- ICTBroadcast REST API’s to integrate with any Contact Centre
- Incorpus TeleNetworks
- Loway
- Newfies-Dialer
- PBX in a Flash Pro & Enterprise Licence
- Voicent Communications
- Voiso
- xCally
- See also
- Commercial Providers
A contact center is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call center agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centers, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the center are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI).
Most major businesses use call centers to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centers. Examples of this include help desks and sales support. However, some companies employ staff to work in their call centers almost by “bulk”, applicants requiring little or no educational qualifications or experience; an example is Lloyds TSB. In contrast, some firms demand lengthy customer service experience, various formal certificates and impose a complicated and staged recruitment interview procedure; an example of this is American Express. – Wikipedia
Mathematics
A call center can be viewed, from an operational point of view, as a queuing network. The simplest call center, consisting of a single type of customers and statistically-identical servers, can be viewed as a single-queue. Queuing theory is a branch of mathematics in which models of such queuing systems have been developed. These models, in turn, are used to support work force planning and management, for example by helping answer the following common staffing-question: given a service-level, as determined by management, what is the least number of telephone agents that is required to achieve it. (Prevalent examples of service levels are: at least 80% of the callers are answered within 20 seconds; or, no more than 3% of the customers’ hang-up, due to their impatience, before being served.)
Queuing models also provide qualitative insight, for example identifying the circumstances under which economies of scale prevail, namely that a single large call centre is more effective at answering calls than several (distributed) smaller ones; or that cross-selling is beneficial; or that a call center should be quality-driven or efficiency-driven or, most likely, both Quality and Efficiency Driven (abbreviated to QED). Recently, queuing models have also been used for planning and operating skills-based-routing of calls within a call center, which entails the analysis of systems with multi-type customers and multi-skilled agents.
Contact Center operations have been supported by mathematical models beyond queuing, with operations research, which considers a wide range of optimization problems, being very relevant. For example, for forecasting of calls, for determining shift-structures, and even for analyzing customers’ impatience while waiting to be served by an agent.
Contact Center Technology
Contact Center Criticisms
Common contact center criticisms
From Callers:
- Operators working from a script.
- Non-expert operators (call screening).
- Incompetent or untrained operators incapable of processing customers’ requests effectively.
- Overseas location, with language and accent problems.
- Automated queuing systems. This sometimes results in excessively long hold times
- Complaints that departments of companies do not engage in communication with one another.
From Staff:
- Close scrutiny by management (e.g. frequent random call monitoring).
- Low compensation (pay and bonuses).
- Restrictive working practices (some operators are required to follow a pre-written script).
- High stress: a common problem associated with front-end jobs where employees deal directly with customers.
- Repetitive job task.
- Poor working conditions (e.g. poor facilities, poor maintenance and cleaning, cramped working conditions, management interference, lack of privacy and noisy).
Contact Centers & VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol has drastically altered the way contact centers work, particularly considering the influence VoIP had with the creation of Virtual Call Centers. A virtual call center is created by taking many small call centers (often at-home workers) from different locations and connecting them to one another. This is usually done through the use of VoIP, IVR, ACD, and CTI. The advantage of virtual call centers is that they improve service levels, provide emergency backup and enable extended operating hours over isolated call centers. There are two methods used to route traffic around call centers: pre-delivery and post-delivery. Pre-delivery involves using an external switch to route the calls to the appropriate centre and post-delivery enables call centers to route a call they’ve received to another call center.
See Also
Commercial Providers
3CX PRO & Enterprise Editions
3CX PRO offers a full blown contact center at a fraction of the cost. Features include:
- Facebook integration
- Business text messaging
- Inbuilt failover
- Scheduled backup and restore
- Remote office bridges
- Listen/barge-in/whisper
- Web based Wallboard
- CRM integration
- Advanced Queue Strategies
- Queue Reports
- Link company directory with LDAP/ODBC
- Sync phonebook with Microsoft Exchange
- And more
Learn more about 3CX’s contact center solution
AAA+ Rated Freevoice Hosted Contact Center.
All the tools for managing high volume inbound calls with ACD, Q’s, Reports, CRM integrations, In house developers will write custom feature scripts to create exactly the feature you need. $199 for 100 seats + 1 ¢ per minute and up. No contracts or setup fee’s. Origination DID’s Available in all US Area codes. Live US Support. Call 24/7 to 800-834-8999 [email protected]
Asternic Call Center Stats Pro 2
Just released the Call Center Stats PRO 2 with lots of improvements and new tools.
The reports display accurate information for your call center activity in nice formated tables and informative charts. Even more: you have the option to export the reports to pdf and csv (Excel). There are a myriad of metrics available: Service Level Agreement, Abandon Rates, Call Distributions, Agent Activity and a lot more.
The software is used in small SOHO call centers and also on big corporations. We are developing best of breed Asterisk solutions and applications since 2004.
Features included in the PRO version:
– Predefined reports: answered,unanswered,distribution,agents,transfers,detailed events; Charts on HTML5, PDF & Excel Export, Detailed drill-down grids,realtime parsing logs,recordings,user access and levels, queues and agent dictionary,scheduled reports and notifications, realtime view information, rest web service, spy an agent, whisper an agent, steal a call, report designer and more.
Also we are giving 30 days trial codes to test the FULL featured PRO 2 just requesting in Asternic Call Center Stats Web
Clarity Connect
- Clarity Connect is the best contact center for Skype for Business: native and full-featured. * Learn more
Contact Center Software
Ecosmob Technologies has developed a web-based contact center software. This is an ideal contact center solution for any size of call centers. It can provide the best performance for all three types of call centers namely, Inbound, Oubound and Blended. The solution has a very user friendly GUI. It is developed using FreeSWITCH and WebRTC which made it a scalable, robust and reliable call center solution.
Key Features of Contact Center Solution:
– Different modes of access based on the level of staff like supervisor, agent
– Advanced Call distribution methods
– Realtime View
– Customizable Dashboard
– Barg-in/ Whisper/ Mentor features
– Whitelist/ Blacklist
– Auto Redial/ Callback
– Voice monitoring/ Call recording
– Scripts
– Multi-level IVR support
– Skill-based work assignment
– CDR reports
– And many more
To get a free demo or more details, contact:
[email protected]
https://www.ecosmob.com/call-center-solution/
Database Systems Corp.
Database Systems Corp. has been a leading provider of call center technology since 1978. DSC provides both contact center phone systems and software as well as outsourcing phone services. DSC voice broadcasting and IVR systems are award winning computer telephony solutions. The following are some of these contact center solutions and services:
- Contact Center Software – Phone application software for small to large enterprises.
- Voice Broadcasting – Systems and outsourcing services that contact large groups of individuals using message broadcasting autodialers.
- IVR – Interactive voice response phone systems and outsourcing services.
- Telephone Reassurance – Community calling program for seniors and home alone children
- Emergency Notification Systems – Community alert systems and emergency voice broadcasting services
- IVR Applications – Listing of a variety of IVR phone applications and clients
- Phone Surveys – IVR phone survey applications and development tools
- Phone Reminders – Voice blast phone reminders
- Campus Alert Services – Contact students, faculty and parents in the event of a school emergency using emergency school notification phone systems.
DialApplet
DialApplet Call Center Suite is a complete solution to manage Call Center’s and Contact Center’s platform. It permits advanced control and supervision tools in real-time of all calls and offers the opportunity of managing outbound, inbound and blending campaigns. Also it provides 4 types of dialers that can be adapted to any situation like predictive, progressive, power dialer auto and manual. New concept of creation and modification of scriptsbased on the autonomy of the user.
https://www.dialapplet.com/
Dialer360
- Dialer360 Cloud contact center software is easy to use, Cost-Effective, Less time to understand and can be integrated with top leading CRM’s. It is providing Predictive, Power, Progressive and Sms & Voice Broadcasting for every type of call center.
Dialer360 Features:
- Admin Panel
- Agent Panel
- Agent Statuboard
- PCI Compliance
- Cheap Voip Rates
- TPS/DNC Filtering
- Internal Chat
- Web Phone
- Avatar
- Android & IOS App for Mobile Users.
For More Info Submit Demo Request
Elastix Pro & Enterprise Editions
- Elastix Pro offers a complete contact center for a competitive rate.
Features include:
- Inbuilt failover
- Scheduled backup and restore
- Remote office bridges
- Listen/barge-in/whisper
- Web Client with integrated web conferencing
- Web based Wallboard
- Multiple CRM integrations
- Advanced Queue Strategies
- Queue Reports
- Link company directory with LDAP/ODBC
- Sync phonebook with Microsoft Exchange
- And more
Learn more about Elastix
HoduCC – Call Center Software
HoduCC – Call Center Software HoduCC is a FreeSWITCH based Call Center Solution that is comprehensive and consolidated at the same time. It guarantees to provide the best Call Center Software that suits best for all types of call centers. Being one of the top VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions providers across the globe, HoduSoft ensures that this Call Center System offers intelligence, security and advance features.
ICTBroadcast REST API’s to integrate with any Contact Centre
- ICTBroadcast Autodialer Application offers a full suite of telemarketing campaigns like Voice broadcasting, Fax broadcasting, SMS messaging, Survey and Polling , Appointment reminder, Press 1 camapaign, Interactive Campaign , Inbound campaigns also it offers Rest API’s to integerate any third party application with it to automate CRM business process and communicate with customers / contacts in effective way . ICTBroadcast REst api offer opportunity to integrate with any open source CRM’s like SuiteCRM, SugarCRM, EspoCRM, Yetiforce, Vtiger, flatefree, flarepoint CRM with ease
Incorpus TeleNetworks
Incorpus TeleNetworks Offering unlimited call center plans for many destinations. As well as termination to Call Center routes such as USA Flat, USA NPANXX, UK, Australia and many more. One Stop Solution for all your VoIP needs either Call Center or residential or Wholesale. From DIDs, Tollfree’s, CRMs, HRMS, Softswitches, Servers, Hosting and Website Designs. Email us at :- [email protected] or skype id :- incorpus.support
Loway
Based in Switzerland, Loway is a very established international provider within the call centre arena, having created its flagship product: QueueMetrics, which is an industry-standard comprehensive monitoring and reporting software suite for call centres, based on the Asterisk PBX, that is also available directly as an Elastix add-on.
Deployed in thousands of call centres worldwide, it is a robust and reliable tool that can monitor inbound queues and outbound campaigns. The suite can support over 500 live agents, allowing operations managers, call team leaders and call agents to complete their daily tasks through a real-time interface. Activity reports can then be viewed, recorded calls can be monitored, agent activity can be measured and business targets assessed through this platform. At the same time, team leaders can view current agent status and listen to live calls. The QueueMetrics platform allows agents to see calls they are handling, integrate with external Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and much more. With a web-based interface and no client installation required, it offers various storage and deployment models.
With over 150 quantitative metrics available, any call centre will run smoothly and problems are easily identified and resolved. Minimal Asterisk interactions leads to maximum overall availability.
Newfies-Dialer
Newfies-Dialer is a free and open source multi-tenant autodialer from Star2Billing comprising Auto-dialer, survey tool, extension dialling (press 1), voice recording, and outbound conferencing, with white labelling, SMS broadcasting and AMD addons available, all backed by professional installation, training and support services.
Newfies-Dialer is mainly aimed at Telecoms companies wishing to offer SaaS (Software as a Service) auto-dialling and SMS broadcasting to their customers. It may also be used by any organisation that wants to broadcast marketing, emergency and informational messages to their contacts.
https://www.newfies-dialer.org/
PBX in a Flash Pro & Enterprise Licence
- PBX in a Flash with Pro or Enterprise 3CX licence offers a full featured contact center solution at a fraction of the price of competing solutions.
Features include:
- Inbuilt failover
- Scheduled backup and restore
- Remote office bridges
- Listen/barge-in/whisper
- Web Client with integrated web conferencing
- Web based Wallboard
- Integrations with many popular CRMs
- Advanced Queue Strategies
- Queue Reports
- Link company directory with LDAP/ODBC
- Sync phonebook with Microsoft Exchange
- And many more!
Voicent Communications
- Voicent, a leading VoIP software vendor, offers communication tools for sales, marketing, customer service, event notification, appointment reminder, and much more.
- The company’s latest offering is called Call Center Manager.
- You can’t manage what you can’t measure!
- Call Center Manager automatically measures workloads and adjusts outbound calling pace to comply with U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule on intentionally Abandoned or Dropped Calls. Don’t risk penalties of up to $16,000 per incident!
- Statistical reporting helps you meet FTC’s “Safe Harbor” requirement for collecting and maintaining dropped-call reports, providing protection from prosecution for occasional, accidental rule violations.
- Call Center Manager speeds effective training for new agents with “whisper coaching” feature allowing live-call coaching that is inaudible to customers, and Easy call monitoring and recording.
- Call Center Manager Includes real-time and historical statistical reporting capabilities for tracking and managing agent performance, line usage, and campaign productivity.
Voiso
Call Center Software for inbound, outbound, and blended call centers. 50+ metrics, predictive dialer, agent monitoring (Whisper, Barge-in, and other), advanced call reporting with event-based navigation, customizable dashboards, agile reports, CRM integration, DID numbers from 120+ countries, AI-based AMD engine, WebRTC softphone. Ideal for any environment, including customer support, outbound sales, and BPOs. 2 minutes to go live; 24/7 support.
xCally
xCALLY is a professional Call Center suite optimized for Asterisk. It provides Inbound, Outbound and Blended features for customer care management, along with advanced reporting, web configuration and multi-channel services.
- xCally – Official Web Site
- Social Customer Care features
- Multichannel Web calls
- xCally Web Reports – Offline and Realtime web Charts (also optimized for mobile view)
April 7, 2023
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