A call center is an office where a company's inbound calls are received or outbound calls are made with computer automation. It also has the ability to handle a volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward them to someone qualified to handle them, and to log calls. This is operated through an open workspace for call center agents/staff, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone and headset and one or more supervisor stations. It can be networked with additional centers, often linked to a corporate computer networking, like mainframes, microcomputers and LAN's

Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, to sell or service products and services.

Call centers have been popular as outsourcing increases. With outsourcing, a company contracts out some jobs to be handled by other companies. It can be expensive to maintain call center equipment and staff, some companies choose to outsource.

What is Call Center Agent?
A call center agent is an individual who handles incoming or outgoing customer calls for a business. A call center agent can handle account inquiries, customer complaints or support issues. Call center agent also known as Customer Service Representative (CSR), Telephone sales or Technical Service Representative (TSR), Attendant, Operator.

Businesses can outsource a call center
Telecom
HR & Recruiting
Insurance
Logistics
Health Care
Travel and Ticketing
Banking Financial
Mortgage

Qualities of a good call center
Technology - should have a state of the art technology that can level to the world class call centers. Systems should have a quick processing of inbound and outbound calls. Capturing and processing customer information which can be also use for market research and other marketing strategies. It has to be also a well equipped and ready for unexpected problems.

Professionalism - a call center should have a well trained call center agents or staff to operate the facilities. Should have good moral characteristic such as patient, friendly, outgoing and can handle pressure from the customers.

Flexibility - a good call center should always have a tailor made packages and can adapt for the changing requirements of the client.

Multilingual Agents - a big point if your call center has a multilingual agent that can assist customers in different part of the world.