Call Centers in Financial Services: Strategies, Technologies, and Operations

Abstract

The importance of call centers in the economy has grown dramatically since 1878, when the Bell Telephone Company began using operators to connect calls. The National American Call Center Summit (NACCS) estimates that the percentage of the U.S. working population currently employed in call centers is around 3%. In other words, in the United States, more people work in call centers than in, for example, agriculture. The annual spending on call centers is currently estimated to be somewhere between $120 and $150 billion (Anupindi and Smythe 1997). Operations budgets for all call centers in the U.S. are estimated to grow from $7 billion in 1998 to $18 billion in 2002, i.e., at a projected annual growth rate of 21% (NACCS).