A call center is a centralized office used for transmitting and receiving a large number of requests through telephone, emails, or live chats. It can manage inbound and outbound calls or deal with a combination of both. These days, regardless of the business size, call center is like a need which is felt by every customer oriented organization. Although, a call center need is getting prominent day-by-day, but businesses are also thinking about starting up a domestic or international call center that meet the needs of customers. To aid a large number of professionals and businesses rushing to setting up a call center, here is a brief guide. Read on.
- Choosing a Technology Platform
Traditional EPABX-based and server-based are two types of technologies, available for call centers. The traditional EPABX-based call center comes with various options, including private branch exchange with automatic call distributor that distributes calls of common lines and predictive dialers, multiple telephone lines on agent desks, interactive voice recognition systems, and computer telephony integration systems. Whereas, the server-based call center integrates the components of a call center into a server with multiple software components. There are various advantages if you opt for a server-based call center. Some of them include –
- Web based Platform – With this platform, it is possible to post audio and video in a high-quality format over the web. Due to excellent multimedia handling capabilities of the platform, integration of video, voice and data becomes easy.
- Low Set-up Cost – The server-based call center costs around one fourth of the traditional architecture. As the components used are standard. These are bought-out components instead of independent systems that have been integrated together.
- Check Connectivity Factor
A call center should have two kinds of connectivity. One is International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) that usually call centers take from the clients’ premises to terminate the calls. These are provisioned by VSNL and private players. Through IPLC, customer calls originating at a particular location lands at the call center premises. Second is Primary Rate Interface (PRI). If a call center needs Primary Rate Interface (PRI) channel (provisioned by BSNL/MTNL), the call center location should be in such a place where the PSTN provider can provide digital High-speed links.
- Location
Deciding a location of the call center is a big decision. As employees will spend most of their time in the office, make sure that the building is provisioned with all basic or modern amenities. It should be easily accessible and located in such a way that traffic and outside noises should not be a hindrance. To cater to the US and European markets, most of the call center activities take place in the night in India. So, it is important to select a secure location.
- Site Layout
When the location is finalized, then the layout of a call center should be freeze. Before finalizing the site layout, some of the factors need to be checked such as –
- Networking Topology
There are various types of networking topology. Popular types include mesh topology and star topology. The type of topology should be decides as per the space availability and seats that need to be provisioned.
- Human Needs
This is one of the most important factors that need to be look after while deciding layout of a call center. As the employees are going to spend their most of the time at their workstations, so there should be proper facilities provided to the workers.
- Equipment
The equipment should be purchased as per the project call loads. A balance should be maintained in between the incoming PSTN lines and seats, provisioned to manage these calls. IVR and ACD units should have an appropriate number ports so that they can receive additional ports and incoming trunks to handle internal agent lines. In addition, computer networks should be able to manage a large number of network connections.
- Staff
Staff is the most important critical decision that needs to be taken with consciousness. Before hiring the staff, you should consider certain parameters, including call load, peak times, extra headcount, absenteeism, and employees on leave. The list should also include food supplies, medical aid, overnight staying facility, and other amenities that may be needed for smooth operations. Hiring the managing staff might be particularly challenging in an incoming domestic or repute international call center. Also, optimizing the staff that will be available to deal with the volume of work is also critical.
- Training Processes
In a call center, training is a continuous process. Training needs can be classified as recruitment training, grade change training, functional training, and performance improvement training. It should be a mix of in-house and outsourced resources so that latest techniques should also be learned at the same time.
So these are some of the steps that you need to take care of before setting a domestic or international call center. If you have time then do it yourself or outsource to system integrator that has relevant experience in setting up various types of call centers.
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