A Journey from Calls to Call Center to Call Center Outsourcing

For many, customer care services are a recent phenomenon.  Generally, people connect it with the IT boom that led to globalization. However, it is not the case. Even almost 2 centuries ago, customer services used to exist, but they were quite different from their modern avatar. In the past, these services were provided through cruder mediums that were a far cry from the ones used today. A notice board placed next to the butcher’s shop for gaining insights about the quality of meat to direct questions asked by a hawker, the means of customer contact were very basic. And, then came Alexander Graham Bell and everything changed…

Throughout this journey from yesteryears’ rudimentary customer services to the modern-day call center outsourcing, the world has evolved considerably. However, the idea behind customer services has still remained the same – Keep the customer happy and satisfied to bring in new customers.

Exploring Call Center History

The seed of modern-day call center services were sown by Mr. Bell. The invention of the phone facilitated the development of switchboards that were used for routing calls. These switchboards were used for forwarding customer requests and complaints. After that, the first rotary dial system was created, which was used by customers to call the sellers directly. In 1960, the journey towards modern-day call centers picked up the pace with a new innovation called Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX). This innovation allowed businesses to run their call center business through large rooms filled with call-taking agents. These operations were probably closest to the image of today’s call centers.

Once call centers gained popularity, they became widely prevalent in all industries. After that, came the surge of globalization and the Internet, which connected the world. It provided businessmen a great opportunity to exploit cheap labor in poor and developing countries, which ultimately resulted in the birth of call center outsourcing companies.

Why Call Center Outsourcing is Beneficial?

In the past, many companies used to scoff at the prospect of outsourcing their business. However, with changing perceptions and pressing need of businesses to keep cost in check, call center outsourcing has gained ground. Below are some reasons why call center outsourcing can be a great decision for any company:

Outsourcing allows you to exploit currency exchange rate – As an enterprise, if you can find call center outsourcing companies that operate in countries with a lower currency value than yours, then you can automatically gain from the currency exchange rate. This way, you have to pay far less for the same services. For example, you can have a call center representative working in India for a mere 400 dollar per month, which is nothing when compared to the salary of a US-based employee.

Call center outsourcing companies know their business and have a preset infrastructure – For a company that has always focused on its core processes, it is very hard to suddenly open a call center division. The lack of knowledge about call center operations can result in inefficiency and bad customer support. Moreover, the cost of creating infrastructure can be an additional burden. Hence, call center outsourcing actually makes good business sense.