Role of VOIP in a Call Center

Business means interaction with persons and organizations that share common objectives which leads to conclusions of business goals. This stands true for any business. To get a clear understanding of the concept of call centers, we need to examine the business process, which primarily revolves around the purchase or sale of a product, service or a concept. It all begins with an initiating call to make inquiry, based on one’s needs or wants and taking it to logical conclusion. This day to day interaction is the foundation on which the concept of call center rests. Interaction may take place between various group of persons, broadly categorized as Customer and seller; Employer and Employee and so on.

Timely and accurate dissemination of information is what aids the business and in fact facilitates growth. The concept of call centers has come to its high level of sophistication from rather humble beginnings, that of a telephone operator or an inquiry desk, where one can call in for information or physically make an inquiry.

With the rapid pace of telecommunications technology development, it has become possible to use the state of the art systems and equipment to exchange voice, data and chat. This is made possible by VOIP. Today, VOIP plays a very crucial role in the call center industry.

The reason why a company might choose VOIP is because it allows them to reduce cost and also helps them in bringing about a tremendous increase in the level of customer service. With a call center which is based on IP, the customers call is terminated directly on an IP call server. All the agents have an IP phone application in their computer and do not rely on a separate telephone set. An IP based Automatic Call Distributor directs the IP call to the agents PC based internet phone over a LAN. An advantage of this PC to PC call is that it provides for end to end IP transmission without utilizing pulse code modulation conversion or circuit switched networks. Apart from this it also allows coordination between voice call, web session, and host software services without having to develop complex computer telephone integration applications.

The main advantage of VOIP is that it allows call centers equipped with the appropriate connectivity and bandwidth to operate from virtually anywhere in the world, thus taking advantage of labor availability and competitive labor costs. Because the Call Center uses the Internet to route the calls, it does not incur into overseas charges (it does however incur VSat connectivity charges). VOIP call centers pay for Internet connection rather than paying enormous international long distance charges.