{{Short description|Office dealing with a large volume of enquiries by telephone}} {{for|the contact centres in family law|children's centre}} {{Use British English|date=March 2025}} [[File:Police contact centre 1970.jpg|thumb|A 1970 police call centre in Brierley Hill, England]] {{E-commerce}}
A '''call centre''' (Commonwealth spelling) or '''call center''' (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product or service support or information inquiries from consumers. Outbound call centres are usually operated for sales purposes such as telemarketing, for solicitation of charitable or political donations, debt collection, market research, emergency notifications, and urgent/critical needs blood banks. A '''contact centre''' is a further extension of call centres' telephony based capabilities, administering centralised handling of individual communications including letters, faxes, live support software, social media, instant message, and email.<ref name="EWA">{{cite web |url=http://ewa-ltd.blogspot.com/2010/03/contact-centre-vs-communication-centre.html |title=Contact Center vs Communication Center vs Call Center |publisher=EWA Bespoke Communications|date=2010-03-26 }}</ref>
A call centre was previously seen as an open workspace for call centre agents, with workstations that included a computer and display for each agent and were connected to an inbound/outbound call management system, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputer, servers and LANs. It is expected that artificial intelligence-based chatbots will significantly impact call centre jobs and will increase productivity substantially.<ref>Adam, M., Wessel, M. & Benlian, A. AI-based chatbots in customer service and their effects on user compliance. Electron Markets 31, 427–445 (2021). {{doi|10.1007/s12525-020-00414-7}}</ref><ref name=Gupta_3/><ref name=mckinsey_1>{{Cite web|title=AI-enabled customer service is now the quickest and most effective route for institutions to deliver personalized, proactive experiences that drive customer engagement. |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/the-next-frontier-of-customer-engagement-ai-enabled-customer-service |publisher=McKinsey & Company |date=March 27, 2023 |location=New York}}</ref> Many organisations have already adopted AI-based chatbots to improve their customer service experience.<ref name=mckinsey_1/><ref>{{Cite web|title=How chatbots can provide a better customer experience |url=https://www.ibm.com/blog/how-chatbots-can-provide-a-better-customer-experience/ |publisher=IBM |date=August 2, 2023|author= Brandon Turpin}}</ref><ref name=Gupta_3>Krishnan, C., Gupta, A., Gupta, A., Singh, G. (2022). Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Based Chatbots on Customer Engagement and Business Growth. In: Hong, TP., Serrano-Estrada, L., Saxena, A., Biswas, A. (eds) Deep Learning for Social Media Data Analytics. Studies in Big Data, vol 113. Springer, Cham. {{doi|10.1007/978-3-031-10869-3_11}}</ref>
The contact centre is a central point from which all customer contacts are managed. Through contact centres, valuable information can be routed to the appropriate people or systems, contacts can be tracked, and data may be gathered. It is generally a part of the company's customer relationship management infrastructure. The majority of large companies use contact centres as a means of managing their customer interactions. These centres can be operated by either an in-house department responsible or outsourcing customer interaction to a third-party agency (known as Outsourcing Call Centres<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jolaoso |first=Christiana |date=4 February 2024 |editor-last=Main |editor-first=Kelly |title=Call Center Outsourcing: Pros, Cons & Best Practices – Forbes Advisor |url=https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/call-center-outsourcing/ |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=Forbes}}</ref>).
==History== thumb|A very large call centre in Lakeland, Florida (2006) Answering services, as known in the 1960s through the 1980s, earlier and slightly later, involved a business that specifically provided the service. Primarily, by using an off-premises extension (OPX) for each subscribing business, connected at a switchboard at the answering service business, the answering service would answer the otherwise unattended phones of the subscribing businesses with a live operator. The live operator could take messages or relay information, doing so with greater human interactivity than a mechanical answering machine. Although undoubtedly more costly (the human service, the cost of setting up and paying the phone company for the OPX on a monthly basis), it had the advantage of being more ready to respond to the unique needs of after-hours callers. The answering service operators also had the option of calling the client and alerting them to particularly important calls.
The origins of call centres date back to the 1960s with the UK-based Birmingham Press and Mail, which installed Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX) to have rows of agents handling customer contacts.<ref>Science and invention in Birmingham#cite note-45</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.callcentrehelper.com/the-history-of-the-call-centre-15085.htm |title=The history of the call center |publisher=Call Centre Helper Magazine |date=19 January 2011 |access-date=29 November 2014}}</ref> By 1973, call centres had received mainstream attention after Rockwell International patented its Galaxy Automatic Call Distributor (GACD) for a telephone booking system as well as the popularisation of telephone headsets as seen on televised NASA Mission Control Center events.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-history-of-the-call-center-explains-how-customer-service-got-so-annoying/ |title=The History of the Call Center Explains How Customer Service Got So Annoying |last=Smith |first=Ernie |date=5 August 2016 |website=Vice.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://voxjar.com/call-center-history/ |title=The History of Call Centers Timeline |website=Voxjar.com|date=2017-12-20 }}</ref>
During the late 1970s, call centre technology expanded to include telephone sales, airline reservations, and banking systems. The term "call centre" was first published and recognised by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 1983. The 1980s saw the development of toll-free telephone numbers to increase the efficiency of agents and overall call volume. Call centres increased with the deregulation of long-distance calling and growth in information-dependent industries.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Bottom-Line Call Center Management |last=Butler |first=David L. |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann}}</ref>
As call centres expanded, workers in North America began to join unions<ref>{{cite book |first1=Pradeep |last1=Kumar |first2=Christopher Robert |last2=Schenk |title=Paths to Union Renewal |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2006 |isbn=1-55193-058-7}}</ref> such as the Communications Workers of America<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/Improving_Call_Center_Jobs_a_Top_Priority_for_CWA_Customer_Service_Activist/ |title=Improving Call Center Jobs a Top Priority for CWA Customer Service |publisher=Communication Workers of America |access-date=2011-02-23|date=2010-05-06 }}</ref> and the United Steelworkers. In Australia, the National Union of Workers represents unionised workers; their activities form part of the Australian labour movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://workers.labor.net.au/90/news22_call.html |title=Call Centre Union Busters Get Wake-Up Call |publisher=Workers Online |access-date=2008-07-08}}</ref> In Europe, UNI Global Union of Switzerland is involved in assisting unionisation in the call center industry,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uniglobalunion.org/uniindep.nsf/callcentres?openpage |title=Uni Global Union's call centre organising campaigns |publisher=Uni Global Union |access-date=2008-07-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615190548/http://www.uniglobalunion.org/uniindep.nsf/callcentres?openpage |archive-date=2008-06-15 }}</ref> and in Germany Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft represents call centre workers.
During the 1990s, call centres expanded internationally and developed into two additional subsets of communication: contact centres and outsourced bureau centres. A contact centre is a coordinated system of people, processes, technologies, and strategies that provides access to information, resources, and expertise, through appropriate channels of communication, enabling interactions that create value for the customer and organisation.<ref>Cleveland, Brad, "Call Center Management on Fast Forward (Third Edition)", ''ICMI Press'', 2012</ref> In contrast to in-house management, outsourced bureau contact centres are a model of contact centre that provide services on a "pay per use" model. The overheads of the contact centre are shared by many clients, thereby supporting a very cost effective model, especially for low volumes of calls. The modern contact centre includes automated call blending of inbound and outbound calls as well as predictive dialling capabilities, dramatically increasing agents' productivity. New implementations of more complex systems require highly skilled operational and management staff that can use multichannel online and offline tools to improve customer interactions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nea.com/blog/reinventing-customer-service-the-modern-contact-center |title=Reinventing customer service: the modern contact center |last1=Viswanathan |first1=Ravi |last2=Sandell |first2=Scott |date=21 June 2016 |website=Nea.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.genesys.com/solutions/contact-center-modernization |title=Contact Center Modernization |year=2016 |website=Genesys.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tmcnet.com/cis/features/articles/301771-history-advancement-the-contact-center-the-customer-experience.htm |title=The History and Advancement of the Contact Center and the Customer Experience |last=Bernier |first=Paula |date=3 August 2012 |website=Tmcnet.com}}</ref>
==Technology== [[File:Callcentreterminal.JPG|thumb|Call centre worker confined to a small workstation/booth, using CallWeb<ref name="CallWeb">{{cite web | title=CallWeb | website=CallWeb | url=https://callweb.ca/index.cgi?en:home | access-date=2023-05-04|quote=... a complete on-line data collection system. Its functionalities allow for Web surveys, of course, but it has also been used to build registration systems, project tracking systems, intelligent forms, etc.}}</ref> Internet-based survey software]] {{multiple image | caption_align = left | header_align = center | footer_align = center | align = right | total_width = 380 | image1 = Call centre desk lakeland florida.jpg | width1 = 2288 | height1 = 1712 | alt1 = | caption1 = Workstation | image2 = Aspect Tel-set telephone call centre.jpg | width2 = 1535 | height2 = 1112 | alt2 = | caption2 = A typical call centre telephone; note absence of {{nowrap|handset{{hsp}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}}}phone is for headset use only | footer = Call-centre technology {{circa|2005}} }} Call centre technologies often include: speech recognition software which allowed Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems to handle first levels of customer support, text mining, natural language processing to allow better customer handling, agent training via interactive scripting and automatic mining using best practices from past interactions, support automation and many other technologies to improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Automatic lead selection or lead steering is also intended to improve efficiencies, both for inbound and outbound campaigns. This allows inbound calls to be directly routed to the appropriate agent for the task, whilst minimising wait times and long lists of irrelevant options for people calling in.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shah |first1=Shariq |last2=Ghomeshi |first2=Hossein |last3=Vakaj |first3=Edlira |last4=Cooper |first4=Emmett |last5=Fouad |first5=Shereen |date=2023-08-01 |title=A review of natural language processing in contact centre automation |journal=Pattern Analysis and Applications |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=823–846 |doi=10.1007/s10044-023-01182-8 |issn=1433-755X|doi-access=free }}</ref>
For outbound calls, lead selection allows management to designate what type of leads go to which agent based on factors including skill, socioeconomic factors, past performance, and percentage likelihood of closing a sale per lead.
The universal queue standardises the processing of communications across multiple technologies such as fax, phone, and email. The virtual queue provides callers with an alternative to waiting on hold when no agents are available to handle inbound call demand.
===Premises-based technology=== Historically call centres have been built on Private branch exchange (PBX) equipment owned, hosted, and maintained by the call centre operator. The PBX can provide functions such as automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, and skills-based routing.
===Virtual call centre=== {{see also|Software as a service|Remote work}} In a virtual call centre model, the call centre operator (business) pays a monthly or annual fee to a vendor that hosts the call centre telephony and data equipment in their own facility, cloud-based. In this model, the operator does not own, operate or host the equipment on which the call centre runs. Agents connect to the vendor's equipment through traditional PSTN telephone lines, or over voice over IP. Calls to and from prospects or contacts originate from or terminate at the vendor's data centre, rather than at the call centre operator's premises. The vendor's telephony equipment (at times data servers) then connects the calls to the call centre operator's agents.<ref>{{cite book |author=M. Popovic and V. Kovacevic |url=https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-3-540-47728-4/mode/2up |title=Networking — ICN 2001 |publisher=University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia |year=2001 |isbn=978-3-540-42302-7 |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=2093 |pages=75–84 |chapter=An Approach to Internet-Based Virtual Call Center Implementation |doi=10.1007/3-540-47728-4_8}}</ref>
Virtual call centre technology allows customer service representatives to operate remotely, connecting to the organisation's telephony and CRM systems via cloud infrastructure instead of working from a central office. This approach promotes greater accessibility for individuals with disabilities and supports distributed or hybrid workforce models across different regions. The only required equipment is Internet access, a workstation, and a softphone.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nticentral.org/about/articles/nnyt03012006.shtm |author=David S. Joachim |title=Computer Technology Opens a World of Work to Disabled People |newspaper=New York Times |access-date=2010-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323055604/http://www.nticentral.org/about/articles/nnyt03012006.shtm |archive-date=2010-03-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> If the virtual call centre software utilises webRTC, a softphone is not required to dial. The companies are preferring Virtual Call Centre services due to cost advantage. Companies can start their call centre business immediately without installing the basic infrastructure like Dialer, ACD and IVRS.<ref>{{cite journal|last1 = Kumar|first1 = Harish|title = Hosted Contact / Call Center Services in Indian Telecommunications Licensing and Regulation|url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294894811|website = Researchgate|page = 6|doi = 10.13140/RG.2.1.2931.9445|year = 2016}}</ref>
Virtual call centres became increasingly used after the COVID-19 pandemic restricted businesses from operating with large groups of people working in close proximity.
===Cloud computing=== {{Main|Cloud computing}} Through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs), hosted and on-demand call centres that are built on cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) platforms can integrate their functionality with cloud-based applications for customer relationship management (CRM), lead management and more.
Developers use APIs to enhance cloud-based call centre platform functionality—including Computer telephony integration (CTI) APIs which provide basic telephony controls and sophisticated call handling from a separate application, and configuration APIs which enable graphical user interface (GUI) controls of administrative functions.
===Outsourcing=== {{see also|Outsourcing}} Outsourced call centres are often located in developing countries, where wages are significantly lower than in western countries with higher minimum wages. These include the call centre industries in the Philippines, Bangladesh, and India.
Companies that regularly utilise outsourced contact centre services include British Sky Broadcasting and Orange<ref name="The Wall Street Journal">{{cite news |url=http://www.livemint.com/2008/11/15003857/Orange-says-outsourced-work-to.html |title=Orange currently outsources work to Indian units of Convergys Corp |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> in the telecommunications industry, Adidas in the sports and leisure sector,<ref name="Adidas - Contact Centres">{{cite web |url=http://www.ewa.ltd.uk/case-studies/adidas |title=adidas setup a dedicated customer care centre |publisher=Adidas |access-date=2014-11-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131027000319/http://www.ewa.ltd.uk/case-studies/adidas |archive-date=2013-10-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Audi in car manufacturing<ref name="Audi chose Confero as an outsourced call centre">{{cite web |url=http://www.confero.co.uk/casestudies.htm |title=Audi chose Confero as an outsourced contact centre |publisher=Confero}}</ref> and charities such as the RSPCA.
==Industries== ===Healthcare=== The healthcare industry uses outbound call centre programmes to help manage billing, collections, and patient communication.<ref>{{cite web |title=Billing and Collections |url=http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=13 |website=Modern Healthcare|date = 2019-01-30}}</ref> The inbound call centre is a service meant for various types of healthcare facilities, including large hospitals.
These healthcare call centres are designed to help streamline communications, enhance patient retention and satisfaction, reduce expenses and improve operational efficiencies.
===Hospitality=== Many large hospitality companies such as the Hilton Hotels Corporation and Marriott International make use of call centres to manage reservations. These are known in the industry as "central reservations offices". Staff members at these call centres take calls from clients wishing to make reservations or other inquiries via a public number, usually a 1-800 number. These centres may operate as many as 24 hours per day, seven days a week, depending on the call volume the chain receives.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqTgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22central+reservations+office%22|title=Managing Front Office Operations|last1=Kasavana|first1=Michael L.|last2=Brooks|first2=Richard M.|date=1998|publisher=Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association|isbn=9780866121798|language=en}}</ref>
==Evaluation== ===Mathematical theory=== {{see also|Erlang distribution}} Queueing theory is a branch of mathematics in which models of service systems have been developed. A call centre can be seen as a queueing network and results from queueing theory such as the probability an arriving customer needs to wait before starting service useful for provisioning capacity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gans |first1=N. |last2=Koole |first2=G. |last3=Mandelbaum |first3=A. |doi=10.1287/msom.5.2.79.16071 |title=Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects |journal=Manufacturing & Service Operations Management |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=79–141 |year=2003 |url=http://ie.technion.ac.il/Labs/Serveng/files/CCReview.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208113728/http://ie.technion.ac.il/Labs/Serveng/files/CCReview.pdf |archive-date=2015-12-08 |url-status=live }}</ref> (Erlang's C formula is such a result for an M/M/c queue and approximations exist for an M/G/k queue.) Statistical analysis of call centre data has suggested arrivals are governed by an inhomogeneous Poisson process and jobs have a log-normal service time distribution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=L. |last2=Gans |first2=N. |last3=Mandelbaum |first3=A. |last4=Sakov |first4=A. |last5=Shen |first5=H. |last6=Zeltyn |first6=S. |last7=Zhao |first7=L. |doi=10.1198/016214504000001808 |title=Statistical Analysis of a Telephone Call Center |journal=Journal of the American Statistical Association |volume=100 |issue=469 |pages=36–50 |year=2005 |url=http://132.68.160.12/serveng/References/statanalysis.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208162908/http://132.68.160.12/serveng/References/statanalysis.pdf |archive-date=2015-12-08 |url-status=live |s2cid=1639154 }}</ref> Simulation algorithms are increasingly being used to model call arrival, queueing and service levels.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://portagecommunications.com/a-primer-on-two-call-center-staffing-methods/|title=A Primer On Two Call Center Staffing Methods for Call Center Workforce Management|newspaper=Portage Communications|language=en-US|access-date=2016-10-14}}</ref>
Call centre operations have been supported by mathematical models beyond queueing, with operations research, which considers a wide range of optimisation problems seeking to reduce waiting times while keeping server utilisation and therefore efficiency high.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Borst |first1=S. |last2=Mandelbaum |first2=A. |last3=Reiman |first3=M. I. |title=Dimensioning Large Call Centers |doi=10.1287/opre.1030.0081 |journal=Operations Research |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=17–34 |year=2004 |jstor=30036558 |url=http://iew3.technion.ac.il/serveng/References/Dimensioning.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030705052951/http://iew3.technion.ac.il/serveng/References/dimensioning.pdf |archive-date=2003-07-05 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Criticism== Call centres have received criticism for low rates of pay and restrictive working practices for employees, which have been deemed as a dehumanising environment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/2005/04/SE0504NU02.htm |title=Working conditions and health in Swedish call centres |publisher=European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions |date=2005-06-05 |access-date=2008-05-29 |archive-date=2008-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620213202/http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/2005/04/SE0504NU02.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=Call_Center/Hourly_Rate |title=Hourly Rate Survey Report for Industry: Call Center |publisher=PayScale |access-date=2008-06-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/94-2.pdf |title=Advice regarding call centre working practices |publisher=Health and Safety Executive |access-date=2008-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220050612/http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/94-2.pdf |archive-date=2009-02-20}}</ref> Other research illustrates how call centre workers develop ways to counter or resist this environment by integrating local cultural sensibilities or embracing a vision of a new life.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pal |first=Mahuya |author2=Buzzanell, Patrice |title=Breaking the Myth of Indian Call Centers: A Postcolonial Analysis of Resistance |journal=Communication Monographs |year=2013 |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=199–219 |doi=10.1080/03637751.2013.776172|s2cid=143554201 }}</ref> Most call centres provide electronic reports that outline performance metrics, quarterly highlights and other information about the calls made and received. This has the benefit<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=12803684 |title=The Call Center Answer Team reaches out to the industry for to crack a tough nut |work=Q&A: How Many Calls Should I Monitor |publisher=callcentermagazine.com |date=2003-07-30 |access-date=2008-06-05 |archive-date=2006-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313210407/http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=12803684 |url-status=dead }}</ref> of helping the company to plan the workload and time of its employees. However, it has also been argued that such close monitoring breaches the human right to privacy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acewh.dal.ca/eng/reports/moving6.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050215190412/http://www.acewh.dal.ca/eng/reports/moving6.pdf |archive-date=2005-02-15 |url-status=live |title=Who's on the Line? Women in Call Centres Project |publisher=Health Canada |work=Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health |access-date=2008-06-05}}</ref>
Complaints are often logged by callers who find the staff do not have enough skill or authority to resolve problems,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=873 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123042636/http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=873 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 23, 2009 |title=Tone-deaf to customer complaints, Dell opens yet another call center in India |date=2006-01-30 |work=ZDNet |author=Shaw, Russell |access-date=2008-06-05}}</ref> as well as appearing apathetic.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4738804.stm |title=Abuse rattles Indian call centre staff |work=BBC News |date=2006-02-22 |author=Ahmed, Zubair |access-date=2008-06-05}}</ref> These concerns are due to a business process that exhibits levels of variability because the experience a customer gets and results a company achieves on a given call are dependent upon the quality of the agent.<ref>Fleming, J., Coffman, C., Harter, J. (2005) Manage Your Human Sigma, Harvard Business Review</ref> Call centres are beginning to address this by using agent-assisted automation to standardise the process all agents use.<ref name = dmaa >{{cite book |last=Paprzycki |first=Marcin |title=Data Mining Approach for Analyzing Call Center Performance |volume=3029 |publisher=Springer |year=2004 |location=Berlin |doi=10.1007/b97304 |isbn=978-3-540-22007-7|display-authors=etal|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |hdl=1959.17/43613 |s2cid=463672 |url=http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/43613 }}</ref><ref name=epcs>{{cite thesis |title=Evaluation of the Performance of customer service representatives in a call center using DEA/Network Model/Fussy Sets |date=November 2002 |publisher=Virginia Tech |hdl=10919/31704 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31704 |access-date=1 July 2008}}</ref><ref name=pacc>{{cite journal |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Raj |title=Performance analysis of a call center with interactive voice response units |journal=Top |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=91–110 |publisher=Springer Berlin |year=2004 |doi=10.1007/BF02578926 |last2=Talim |first2=JéRome |last3=Wang |first3=Jinting|s2cid=62154813 |display-authors=etal}}<!--|access-date=1 July 2008 --></ref> However, more popular alternatives are using personality and skill based approaches.<ref name=uppoc>{{cite web |last=Skyrme |first=Pamela |title=Using personality to predict outbound call center job performance |url=http://applyhrm.asp.radford.edu/Volume%2010/MS%2010_2_%20Abraham.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901110138/http://applyhrm.asp.radford.edu/Volume%2010/MS%2010_2_%20Abraham.pdf |archive-date=2006-09-01 |url-status=live |access-date=1 July 2008 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref name=paaic>{{cite journal |last=Stolletz |first=Raik |author2=Stefan Helber |title=Performance analysis of an inbound call center with skills-based routing |journal=OR Spectrum |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=331–352 |year=2004 |doi=10.1007/s00291-004-0161-y |s2cid=60731382 }}<!--|access-date=1 July 2008--></ref> The various challenges encountered by call operators are discussed by several authors.<ref name=wcie>{{cite journal |last=Witt |first=L. A. |title=When Conscientiousness Isn't Enough: Emotional Exhaustion and Performance Among Call Center Customer Service Representatives |journal=Journal of Management |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=149–160 |year=2004 |doi=10.1016/j.jm.2003.01.007 |s2cid=145705159 |display-authors=etal}}<!--|access-date=1 July 2008--></ref><ref name=ircc>{{cite journal |last1=Aguir |first1=Salah |title=The impact of retrials on call center performance |journal=OR Spectrum |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=353–376 |year=2004 |doi=10.1007/s00291-004-0165-7 |citeseerx=10.1.1.579.9384 |last2=Karaesmen |first2=Fikri |last3=Aksin |first3=O. Zeynep |last4=Chauvet |first4=Fabrice|s2cid=6818864 |display-authors=etal|url=http://home.ku.edu.tr/~fkaraesmen/pdfpapers/AKAC_ORS_04.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120714015727/http://home.ku.edu.tr/~fkaraesmen/pdfpapers/AKAC_ORS_04.pdf |archive-date=2012-07-14 |url-status=live }}<!--|access-date=1 July 2008 --></ref><ref name=istc>{{cite journal |last1=Murthy |first1=Nagesh N. |title=The Impact of Simulation Training on Call Center Agent Performance: A Field-Based Investigation |journal=Management Science |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=384–399 |year=2008 |doi=10.1287/mnsc.1070.0818 |last2=Challagalla |first2=G. N. |last3=Vincent |first3=L. H. |last4=Shervani |first4=T. 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==Media portrayals== Call centres located in India have been the focus of several documentary films: the 2004 film ''Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: The Other Side of Outsourcing'', the 2005 films ''John and Jane'', ''Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night'', ''1-800-India: Importing a White-Collar Economy'', and the 2006 film ''Bombay Calling'', among others.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hudson | first1 = Dale | year = 2009 | title = Undesirable Bodies and Desirable Labor: Documenting the Globalization and Digitization of Transnational American Dreams in Indian Call Centers | journal = Cinema Journal | volume = 49 | issue = 1| pages = 82–102 | doi=10.1353/cj.0.0164| s2cid = 144859546 }}</ref> An Indian call centre is also the subject of the 2006 film ''Outsourced'' and a key location in the 2008 film, ''Slumdog Millionaire''. The 2014 BBC fly on the wall documentary series ''The Call Centre'' gave an often distorted although humorous view of life in a Welsh call centre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018vlpy |title=BBC Three – The Call Centre, Series 1 |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2013-12-10 |access-date=2017-12-10}}</ref>
==See also== * Automatic call distributor * Business process outsourcing * Call management * List of call centre companies * Predictive dialling * Operator messaging * Queue management system * Skills based routing * ''The Call Centre'', a BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary at a Welsh call centre * Virtual queue * {{portal-inline|Business}} * {{portal-inline|Telephones}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== {{Refbegin|30em}} * Cusack M., "Online Customer Care", American Society for Quality (ASQ) Press, 2000. * Brad Cleveland, "Call Center Management on Fast Forward", ICMI Press, 2006. * Kennedy I., ''Call centres'', School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, 2003. * Masi D.M.B., Fischer M.J., Harris C.M., ''Numerical Analysis of Routing Rules for Call centres'', Telecommunications Review, 1998, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090226001006/http://www.noblis.org/Publications/TR98_8.doc noblis.org] * [http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr169.htm HSE website] Psychosocial risk factors in call centres: An evaluation of work design and well-being. * Reena Patel, ''Working the Night Shift: Women in India's Call Center Industry'' (Stanford University Press; 2010) 219 pages; traces changing views of "women's work" in India under globalisation. * Fluss, Donna, "The Real-Time Contact centre", 2005 AMACOM * Wegge, J., van Dick, R., Fisher, G., Wecking, C., & Moltzen, K. (2006, January). Work motivation, organisational identification, and well-being in call centre work. Work & Stress, 20(1), 60–83. * Legros, B. (2016). Unintended consequences of optimizing a queue discipline for a service level defined by a percentile of the waiting time. ''Operations Research Letters'', ''44''(6), 839–845. * Krishnan, C., Gupta, A., Gupta, A., Singh, G. (2022). Impact of Artificial Intelligence-Based Chatbots on Customer Engagement and Business Growth. In: Hong, TP., Serrano-Estrada, L., Saxena, A., Biswas, A. (eds) Deep Learning for Social Media Data Analytics. Studies in Big Data, vol 113. Springer, Cham. {{doi|10.1007/978-3-031-10869-3_11}} * Adam, M., Wessel, M. & Benlian, A. AI-based chatbots in customer service and their effects on user compliance. Electron Markets 31, 427–445 (2021). {{doi|10.1007/s12525-020-00414-7}} * Hardalov, M., Koychev, I., Nakov, P. (2018). Towards Automated Customer Support. In: Agre, G., van Genabith, J., Declerck, T. (eds) Artificial Intelligence: Methodology, Systems, and Applications. AIMSA 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11089. Springer, Cham. {{doi|10.1007/978-3-319-99344-7_5}} * Roberts, C. and Maier, T. (2024), "The evolution of service toward automated customer assistance: there is a difference", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 1914-1925. {{doi|10.1108/IJCHM-08-2022-1037}} * Suendermann, D., Liscombe, J., Pieraccini, R., Evanini, K. (2010). “How am I Doing?”: A New Framework to Effectively Measure the Performance of Automated Customer Care Contact Centers. In: Neustein, A. (eds) Advances in Speech Recognition. Springer, Boston, MA. {{doi|10.1007/978-1-4419-5951-5_7}} {{refend}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline|Call centres|lcfirst=yes}} * Mandelbaum, Avishai [http://iew3.technion.ac.il/serveng/References/ccbib.pdf Call Centers (Centres) Research Bibliography with Abstracts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429025115/http://iew3.technion.ac.il/serveng/References/ccbib.pdf |date=2017-04-29 }}. Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Call Centre}} * Category:Computer telephony integration Category:Telemarketing Category:Outsourcing Category:Telephony Category:Customer service