Virtual call center
A virtual call center is a call center whose employees are not tied to a location and fixed working hours, but rather act flexibly in the home office with the help of special software . Virtual call centers are often used for service or advisory hotlines and information services as a cost-effective solution. The prerequisites for this are broadband Internet access and PCs , with the volume of dialog being regulated via automated call distribution.
background
The elimination of room rent, maintenance and upkeep costs, etc. results in savings with the same quality of service. It is also possible to meet the need for employees who are precisely specialized in the respective product or project. While employees in a conventional call center are usually tied to one branch, the decentralized organizational form of a virtual call center means that the consultants with the highest qualifications can always be recruited. Since these are experts in their field who work as consultants in addition to their actual job , excessive demands from unknown content can be avoided.
Working from home with flexible working hours saves the individual employee having to travel there and is also kind to the environment. In addition, it makes it easier for employees to combine family and work. The optimized framework conditions mean that there is less fluctuation in the workforce.
Technical features
The client receives the service of the virtual call center as Software as a Service (SaaS) and thus follows the principle of cloud computing : local software installations are superfluous, because numerous software features combine to form an easy-to-use format and manage the Projects possible in real time in a web browser. A voice server often controls the flexible and highly scalable connection to the telephone network .
Although the working hours can be divided freely without the classic nine-to-five hourly model, the consultants undertake to make certain capacities available for cooperation at certain times. The call agents are available to customers around the clock, regardless of their location. For quality control purposes, customers can then grade their advice and thus create the basis for future call distribution: Bad advice means that the agent concerned will receive less call volumes in the future.
The client pays according to an on-demand billing model or pay as you go, e.g. B. on a minute basis. Depending on the task to be performed, the effort required and the qualification of the consultant, the costs incurred are variable: For example, a pharmaceutical hotline requires higher per-minute prices than an order acceptance hotline.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Building A Virtual Call Center
- ↑ On tasks and functionality, page 4 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Bjoern Hegewald: Virtual companies - a cross-functional analysis - illustrated using the example of Call Center , Tectum Verlag, Marburg, 2003, ISBN 978-3-8288-8513-4 , p. 69ff.
- TA Grossman et al. a .: Call centers . In: SI Gass and CM Harris (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science . 2nd ed., Kluwer, Boston u. a. 2001, p. 73ff.
- A. Denbigh U. Huws, Virtually There: the Evolution of Call Centers , Mitel, Swindon, 1999.
- Sandra Kremer / Hans-J. Weißbach / Simone Henze: Quo vadis call center? : Experiences and findings from IUK projects 1998 - 2003; Decentralization strategies, catching up and systematic personnel development in call centers , IUK-Inst. for social sciences Technology research, Dortmund, 2004.
- Simone Fojut: Call Center Lexicon: the most important technical terms in the industry explained in an understandable manner , Gabler, Wiesbaden, 2008, 1st edition, ISBN 978-3-00-023227-5 .