You probably speak with people situated in call centres on a regular basis, but have you ever wondered how these operations actually work? They can range significantly of course; it could be a department of a company with just a few employees or a whole complex with hundreds of people reaching out to clients on a daily basis.

1. Call Centres Are Not Telemarketing Services

Call centres serve many different purposes and their role has expanded significantly over the past several decades. A specialised office or department, they can be used for sales and marketing functions in addition to market research. The first thing that probably comes to mind for most people when they hear call centre, is telemarketing. Contrary to popular opinion, there aren’t a lot of telemarketing operations that take place from a call centre.

Cable and telephone companies regularly contact current or prospective customers to see if they would like to upgrade their services, take advantage of a current promotion, or simply just to confirm that they are satisfied with the service they are currently receiving.

2. Database of Helpful Information

Not only do call centres call us though, you’ve probably called one too. Many help and information services are directed to centralised call centres that might be located elsewhere in the country or even across the ocean. Big corporations can train people anywhere in the world to answer questions and provide tech help or information about their product or services. Political, charitable, and other fundraising campaigns also utilize call centres to get in touch with potential donors.

3. Two Types of Call Centres

It can see a bit complicated, but despite the variety of functions they fulfill, call centres can essentially be placed into two categories. Captive and contracted are the two largest classifications used to talk about call centres. For a centre to be considered captive, they must deal only with the concerns, or only take calls from, a parent company. These kind of centres have a set and fixed agenda. Contracted, on the other hand, means that a third party takes the calls for a client company.

The reason people speaking to you from a call centre can sometimes sound a bit robotic is likely because they’ve been supplied with you a script from the company they are working for. Banks and financial institutions in particular, have a specific strategy for approaching their customers and outline the correct way to speak to them about upgrades or services. Due to the fact that call centres are increasingly being seen as a form of revenue rather than a cost, this process is being refined and becoming more sophisticated.

4. Should You Pick Up?

It’s important to remember that call centres are there to provide help. Sometimes a call centre is approaching you to provide a preventative solution to a problem you might not have even identified yet. On the service side, most called have to do with relatively minor problems that can be solved quickly.

Technical issues can be more challenging, but it’s worth noting that the person on the other line has been trained specifically to address your technical query. It can often be much more efficient to have a trained human brain explaining something to you, rather than trying to decipher a complicated technical manual on your own.

5. 24-Hour Business Work Day

In a modern economy that is increasingly defined by its 24-hour business day, call centres serve an important function in allowing things to run smoothly when issues arise during non-office hours. Most call centres have a rotating shift of employees that allows them to function both day and night. As the call centre process and technology is perfected, these are better places to work that are able to provide high quality and efficient service.