A call center is like any other office environment where you will find many people talking on the phone and working with computers. The key difference is that in a call center the employees' primary job is to take calls and help customers. When they finish with one customer, they move on to the next customer that is waiting in line.

On a busy day, employees in a call center (called customer service representatives or customer service agents) may take more than 100 phone calls. The number of calls that a customer service agent takes depends on the length of each call and their work schedule. On average, call times last from three to four minutes, with about one minute of "after call wrap-up" to complete any unfinished work related to the call.

If you work in a call center, you will need to be good with people and comfortable talking on the phone, but there is more to it than just the phone call.

The call center team

Call centers are typically organized in groups. Each team has a defined role in the call center to support a particular type of customer request. For example, in a call center for ordering clothing, one team may support men's' apparel while another team may support teens' or women's' clothing. Each call center is organized differently depending on the types of products or services they support.

Call center agents have a complete support team to assist them in their work. When difficult questions arise, most call centers have a help desk for their agents to use, or the call center provides support from the supervisors in each area. In some cases it is necessary to escalate the call to experts. If all these options fail, it may be necessary to call the customer back with the information they need.

Other types of teams within the call center may include the training group (for training new hires and ongoing training of agents), the quality monitoring team (for monitoring calls for customer service and quality), human resources (for recruiting and hiring call center agents) and the work force management (for scheduling employees to match the work load).

Telemarketing and outbound call centers

Not all call centers receive calls. Many call centers make calls. These call centers are called outbound call centers and include telemarketing companies, debt collection agencies, fund raising organizations and other companies that need proactive contact with customers.

In some cases a call center will handle inbound calls from customers during one period of the day and then switch to outbound calling for the remainder of the day. Other call centers have the ability to blend inbound and outbound at the same time. In other words, if you are not needed for an inbound customer call, then the system can prompt you to place an outbound call. This capability minimizes the time agents sit idle waiting for a call to come in.

Call center management and technical positions

In addition to the front-line employees that work with customers, the call center offers many other jobs in both management and technical areas. Examples of employment opportunities include:

• supervisor or team leader
• training development and delivery
• workforce scheduling
• quality monitoring or quality assurance
• business analyst (reporting and financials)
• process specialists
• human resources
• information technology
• facility design and maintenance

All of these areas are needed for the call center to work effectively and efficiently, and offer a strong and diverse career path for customer service representatives working in the call center.