When you hear the word “call center,” what comes to mind? Long hold times? Being told to turn your computer on and o ? A combination of the two? For a lot of people, call centers can be a frustrating experience when the people you are talking to aren’t properly trained.
However, this shouldn’t take away from the fact that call centers form an important backbone for various industries.
According to Statista, the global market for call centers is worth $339.4 billion. This figure is expected to hit $496 billion by 2027. Various industries in the U.S. have used call centers to great e ect. In this article, we will explore three industries that can benefit from call centers.
1. Business Processing Outsourcing
The term “Business Processing Outsourcing” may sound a bit cryptic, but the concept is fairly straightforward. Essentially, businesses hire call centers to handle dierent parts of their operations. Typically, the departments outsourced are sales and customer support. The only limiting factor will be the level of specialized training required for the call center agents.
The fact that the average customer service outsourcing cost is not that expensive contributes to the widespread adoption of BPO call centers. With costs being cheap, it makes a lot of sense for companies to outsource customer service and sales-related tasks to call centers. The freed-up resources can then be spent on strategic areas that maximize business growth.
According to Blue Valley Marketing, the average cost of an outsourced call center can range from $15 – $70 per hour. Hiring an outsourced call center agent at $20 per hour adds up to about $58,200 per year. This is far more a ordable when compared to training an in-house representative, which will cost you about $100,000 a year.
2. Debt Collection
According to statistics, 77% of Americans owe money in some form or another. Banks and other financial institutions often outsource the job of getting people to pay their dues to call centers.
Call center agents in this field are trained to locate debtors, verify their identities, and initiate negotiations. Their ultimate goal is to facilitate debt repayment.
Due to the sensitive nature of the work, considerable training for call center agents is required. In addition, call centers have to be compliant with regulations, such as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
Call center agents are also trained to collaborate with legal teams in more complex cases. These situations have the potential to become unpleasant, but such is the nature of this field.
Documentation and record keeping are of utmost importance in this industry. Agents in call centers are required to keep thorough records of information such as:
- Communication Logs
- Debt Information
- Debtor Information
- Payment Arrangements
- Compliance Records
- Dispute Resolutions
3. Healthcare
The medical industry in America is a large and powerful behemoth. From rich pharmaceutical companies to large hospitals, the U.S. healthcare system is made up of 22 million workers. As one can imagine, clear communication within the system is of utmost importance.
Perhaps the most common type of call center service within the healthcare system revolves around the scheduling of appointments and billing. Call centers often act as central hubs for managing appointment requests as well as handling patient interaction and assistance.
The e ectiveness of call centers in the healthcare system was witnessed in great detail during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, several cities and states are thinking about more funding for such healthcare call centers.
New York’s health department had such a notion recently and planned to set aside $100 million for a “Public Health Call Center.” The aim of this endeavor would be to provide the public with easy access to medical information from experienced doctors and clinicians.
Conclusion
Some people believe that with the rise of AI-based models, conventional call center roles will start to subside. However, the psychological benefits of having a real human to interact with are massive. Customers who reach out to call centers crave to be understood and have their problems attended to.
Call center agents are often told to empathize and foster a human connection with each caller. No matter how e cient a future AI voice representative is, the need to be heard and acknowledged can only be met with another human.
Thus, it’s safe to say that call centers will be around for some time and continue to save companies a ton of money over in-house support.
