Inbound Call Centers vs Outbound Call Centers

Posted by Aaeesha on August 27th, 2014

Many have heard of the robust BPO industry, which is a relatively new industry catering to a company’s customer relations and marketing needs. Today the majority of call centers are based in developing countries namely India, Indonesia and Philippines due to the low cost of running the call centers from those countries. There are two kinds of call centers - inbound and outbound call centers. Most call centers will specialize in either inbound or outbound operations since specializing makes it easier to manage the call center. Read on to learn the differences between the two.

Inbound call centers
Inbound call centers cater for receiving calls from customers or people looking to make an inquiry or order a particular item. Inbound call center dialer boards are used to distribute and redirect calls from one call executive to another. This required in certain cases where the customer may want to speak to the customer care representative or agent in a specific language. The switchboards also help the calls to be redirected to agents who may not be on a call thus helping to reduce the time the customer may spend in waiting the calls to attend. Usually, inbound call centers receive calls only and are associated with customer care and sales agents.

Outbound call centers
Outbound call centers are specifically designed to make the call to the customer, client or potential customer for marketing purposes. Most outbound call centers are associated with telemarketing services and usually have the phone number of people who they call with certain promotions with the intention of selling them to the customer. The outbound call center dialer is also different since it is designed to make calls, thus helping speed up dialing and increase the number of calls made thus increasing the potential of making more sales. Most of the outbound dialers are digital and linked to computer databases with customer numbers, thus making the calls much easier to make.

Domestic and international call centers
Call centers also fall into an additional category which is domestic or international. Domestic call center will usually cater for domestic customer needs and will usually have no restrictions linked to language. Most domestic call centers will desire candidates who speak the local language fluently thus helping increase understanding and ultimately sales. Both domestic and international share the same inbound call center dialer since they only receive calls.

International call centers specialize in serving international clients, thus requiring the call center executives to be fluent in certain languages and most even train their representativess to speak in certain accents. Both inbound and outbound processes require specialized training to handle international customers The outbound call center dialer for domestic and international call centers also differ and thus the dialer must be specifically chosen for these operations.