Internet Call Center

A call center is a system that allows a group of people (agents) either to make calls to or take calls from customers. The system usually provides the following functions:

§  Queuing of incoming calls. A typical queuing discipline is first-come, first-served, but often large-volume customers are given priority.

§  Call distribution. Incoming calls are typically distributed based on the agents’ availability. With the feature known as automatic call distribution (ACD), any given call is routed to the agent who has not received calls for the longest period of time. With another feature, that call can be routed to the agent who can best deal with the caller’s problem. For best-agent calls, the caller is first connected to the voice response system, which prompts the caller to make a choice from a list of options, and then is transferred to the appropriate agent.

§  Agent monitoring. The system tracks the time each agent spends actually responding to a call, the duration of each call, and other statistics that report on the load and efficiency of agents.

The Internet call center augments the capabilities of a traditional call center with the access to the Internet in general and to the World Wide Web in particular. In some cases, it also enables agents to use IP telephony in addition to the PSTN. In all cases, it gives the agent access to e-mail, text chat, and escorted Web browsing. These services are used to improve the information exchange between the customer and the agent. For example, voice communication may also be supplemented by IP-based information services. With escorted Web browsing, the agent can guide a customer through a set of Web pages, viewing the same pages as the customer.