A call center is an office designed to deal with a large volume of customer requests, e.g. sales, support, complaints. Call centers become very popular in today’s global businesses.
There are many different types of call centers. Some of them provide information regarding technical issues or banking accounts, you may check details regarding your contracts or bills, but mostly call centers provide technical assistance and support for private and business partners.
Despite the name “call center” you may contact an agent through Internet, e-mail or chat. Most companies provide chat and forums for common issues. First call resolution is a term used by the management to persuade their associates to resolve the issue or to handle a customer’s and solve their request just by the first call. Call center agents are taught to be good listeners, to summarize the information the customer says and to offer solutions.
In technical issues regarding notebooks, printers, servers, storage machines, software etc. First Call Resolution (FCR) is a myth. Remote support requires commitment both from customer and agent and long hours’ analytical thinking and database research. There are some known issues which appear in some variations and combinations of machines and software, however in most cases every new customer's request is an unique problem.
Some big companies hold online forums where experienced people provide information and support to others. You may attach screen shots, logs or other images that illustrate the errors you get on your screen. Those forums are used to analyze software and hardware issues and are very helpful to business partners.
Popular outsourcing countries for call centers are the Philippines, India, Bangladesh in Asia, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria in Europe and Brazil and Argentina in South America. Those countries offer good quality in terms of language, education, communication skills and political stability.
Long distance travel is now a part of many employees’ life. In the past it was considered as a perk of the job, but today business travel relates more to headaches and exhaustion. Business travelers see nothing more than airports, hotels and offices.
Modern communications mean that the only time you are out of reach is during the flight. As long as you get to the hotel, you open your e-mails and start working. Business travels have become more stressful, now you are expected to manage the workload from a distance. Despite the modern communication such as fax, e-mails, telephone conferences, video calls, business travels continues to grow. More companies reconsider their expenditures and decide to choose cheap flights at an inconvenient time. This could be tiresome for the employee who on the very next morning should be in the office delivering a quality work.
Life is about experiences! Do sightseeing when you travel because you’ll remember the sights more than the meeting you’ll go to. Having a job with lots of travel is a good way to visit new and exciting places. It’s always better to soak up a little of the local culture and to build some friendships. Skip the breakfast or the hotel gym, get a map and go for a walk in the neighborhood. You get some fresh air and exercise before you sit in conference rooms all day and you get to see people and the city before everyone else wakes up.
Enjoy the biggest perk of the business travel – we don’t have to spend a dime and still get pleasure from the trip!
