Virtual Call centers
A virtual call centers is a call centers in which the organisation's representatives are geographically dispersed, rather than being situated at work stations in a building operated by the organization. Virtual call centers employees may be situated in groups in a number of smaller centers, but most often they work from their own homes. This is an attractive arrangement for many employees: the hours are often flexible, and there's no dress code or commute. For the organisation, the virtual call centers model saves housing and equipment costs and can lead to lower employee turnover rates, which tend to be high for physical call centers.
Switching to a virtual call centers model can be very beneficial. For companies whose business is highly seasonal, the virtual model also means that they don't have to maintain large facilities year-round. Virtual Call centers features
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Support 1 to 500 agents, without any hardware or software.
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Set up your outbound campaigns and begin dialing in minutes!
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Pay only 3.5 cents per minute, per line!
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Use your existing phones lines and hardware, no VoIP phones needed!
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Easy to use interface makes tracking statistics quick and simple.
To appear professional and increase customer confidence, even bricks and mortar call centers attempt to present customers with a virtual representation of an organisation's offices. The customer, dialing a customer service or technical support number, is given the impression that their call reaches a physical department within the organization, when in fact, it is likely to reach a company that outsource support for several different organisations. In the case of the virtual call centers the customer's impression is even more illusory, as the number is quite likely to reach the kitchen of a stay-at-home parent, or the dorm room of a university student.
The call centers landscape has so far been driven by the technology. To drive bigger efficiencies agents have needed to be concentrated into agent groups and hence into large buildings often into giant warehouses. These often gave the feel that workers were just a cog in a giant machine.
Home working
You would have thought that virtual call centers would lead to a large increase of home agents. The need to answer call peaks, as well as being able to deal with unsocial hours should make home working very attractive. But it seems that out-of-sight really does mean out-of-mind when it comes to home working.
