Introduction to Call Center-Call Center History and Terminologies

CALL CENTER HISTORY

Timeline

1873 – Seeking for answers and help started through answering each other neighbors’ problem.
1876 – Telephone was invented by Alexander Graham-Bell
1877 – First telephone was installed in Des Moines at Equitable Life Insurance, 2nd phone installed
next day at Terrace Hill.
1878 – Victor Unthe was the first one to be hired to staff phone in Equitable Life Insurance
1904-1905 – International Call Center was established during the outbreak of Russo-Japanese War.
1918 – Increasing Call Center Volume leads to creation of switchboards
1944 – First hold music was recorded by Andrews sisters
1969- Call Center jobs has become popular –Shots of NASA Control Center increases headset
popularity.
1973 - Automatic Call Distributor developed by US firm Rockwell (the Rockwell Galaxy) to allow
Continental Airlines to run a telephone booking system.

ACD systems allow calls to be filtered and assigned to the best possible agents available at the time. An algorithm
determines which agent receives which call.
Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX) began to be used to handle large numbers of customer contacts. In the
1990s the call center industry continued to grow, spurred on by the rise of the internet. From 1995 onwards internet-based
‘dot com’ companies attracted vast amounts of investment from venture capitalists excited by the potential for rapid
growth offered by the online economy.

As websites became the central point of contact and sales for an increasing number of companies, call centers were
essential in dealing with customer service and technical support. Unfortunately it didn’t last, and by 2001 the ‘dot com
crash’ saw many internet-based companies go bust.

The call center was still on the rise. By 2003 the industry consisted of 5,320 call center operations employing 800,000
people in the UK. 500,000 of these people were working in agent positions. The industry had grown by 250% since
1995, and was still growing.

The early 2000s saw a trend for large companies to transfer customer service departments overseas. Cheaper labor costs
and in some cases better skills in the workforce made offshore call centers attractive to businesses seeking to cut costs.

CALL CENTER IN THE PHILIPPINES

1992 - Frank Holz, under the Accenture group, created the first contact center in the Philippines
1995 - The Philippine Congress passed the Special Economic Zone Act, lowering area requirements for
development and offering tax incentives to attract more foreign investors
1997 - Sykes Asia set up shop and becomes the first multinational BPO Company in the Philippines
1999 - Jim Franke and Derek Holley found eTelecare, more popularly known as the first call center in the
country
2000 - The BPO industry accounted for 0.075% of the country’s GDP
2001 - PeopleSupport, a US-Based outsourcing center, restructured their business, and moved their operations
to the Philippines, providing 8,400 jobs
2003 - The Convergys Corp. opened up two call centers in the Philippines. The Philippines, along with India,
was chosen by then president of the company, Jack Freker, as part of the company’s global expansion and
revenue generation plan
2005 - The Philippines gained 3% of the global BPO market, which accounted for 2.4% of the country’s GDP
2006 - ePLDT Ventus was at the forefront of the local BPO landscape
•This improved the Philippine domestic economy by 5.4%
•11,000 people were employed across North America, Europe, and Asia
2010 - The Philippines was declared the world’s BPO capital!
•525,000 employees in call centers

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 Introduction to Call Center-Call Center History and Terminologies

•$8.9 Billion in revenue generated

•Revenues are expected to soar with a five-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38%
•The country continues to become an attractive location for foreign investor
2011 – The BPO industry becomes one of the biggest and fastest growing job providers in the private sector
•$11B revenue generated and 638,000 Filipinos employed
•Revenue comprised 4.9% of country’s total GDP
2012 - The BPO industry grows even further
•BPO industry grew by 46% annually since 2006
•Revenue comprised 5.4% of the country’s total GDP
2013 - Revenue generated climbs up further to $15.5B and 900,000 Filipinos are employed full time
2016 - BPO industry is projected to generate 1.3M new jobs, with 17% annual growth

CALL CENTER
- It is a centralized office environment wherein agents either answer inbound calls or make outbound calls.
- is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by
telephone
- is a booming industry in the Philippines
What is a CSR?
CSR stands for CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE. Other names for a CSR are Call Center
Agent and Telephone Sales and Service Representative.
BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
- is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific
business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider.
OUTSOURCING
- refers to the process of contracting to a third-party.
OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING
- is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country other
than the one where the products or services are actually developed or manufactured?
CONTACT CENTER
- A part of an enterprise’s overall customer which manages customer contact, including letters, faxes,
emails, newsletters, mail catalogues, Web site inquiries, and other gathered information.
INBOUND AGENTS
- handle calls from people needing support, asking for information, and filing complaints.
OUTBOUND AGENTS
- call people on behalf of a business or a client for the purpose of telemarketing, surveys, debt collection,
verification, and updating services
TECHNICAL SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVES
- deal with computer software and/or hardware concerns and queries and provide assistance on technical
aspects
QUALITY ASSURANCE PERSONNEL
- monitor recorded calls and handling time (average length of call), how agents handle the transaction,
evaluate the performance of agents such as average number of calls per week; analyze the call flow,
provide input to the team leader.
TEAM LEADERS
- supervise 12 – 18 agents working under them. Team or shift leaders are given leadership training
programs to enable them to evaluate agents’ performance and productivity.
HUMAN RESOURCES PERSONNEL
- in charge of recruitment, compensation and benefits, payroll, employee communications and relations.
TRAINERS
- provide training on the English Language, local accent reduction/neutralization, understanding
American culture, and other topics related to call center work.

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