A 24 hour call center is any telecommunications center that is dedicated solely to providing incoming and/or outgoing call services. These centers can range in size from just a few employees and operators to thousands. Since 24 hour call centers operate around the clock, including all holidays, they usually are equipped to handle three shifts. In the larger call centers, shifts overlap so that there is never a mass exit or entrance of operators.

Why Use a 24 Hour Call Center?

Depending on the size and mission of your business, you may be paying out a lot of money for in-house customer service representatives to sit and wait for incoming calls. You may not be large enough to afford a predictive dialer for outgoing calls, so your reps may be be dealing with numerous busy signals and unanswered calls. Both of these scenarios are are an expensive waste of associates and resources.

So, who should use 24 hour call centers? The list is growing. The major criteria are whether using a call center will enhance or grow your business or whether it will improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. All of these may apply if your customers use your services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They may also apply if you have a sales website with customers who have questions for a live operator.

Typically, when you call the toll-free number on your credit card to report it lost or to request a credit line increase, you will be talking to an operator at a call center. Some credit companies use in-house staff, but most are now using national or local telecommunications companies' call centers. The call center you use depends on the types of service you want to provide for your callers which can include everything from message taking to order taking to outbound calling.