Characterization of Inbound Call Centers

Mehrotra defines a call center as “any group whose principal business is talking on the telephone to customers or prospects.” 1 A call center constitutes a set of resources which enables the delivery of services via the telephone.2 One of those important resources is the employee talking on the telephone. In call centers they are commonly called agents or telephone service representatives (TSR). The operating expenses of call centers are mainly driven by the costs of these agents. About 60 to 70 percent of the operating costs are personnelrelated.2The second major kind of resource is the information technology and telecommunication equipment.