What is a call center?
A call center is a team, and the technology behind it, that handles a high volume of phone calls with customers or prospects. Inbound call centers answer incoming calls, such as support lines, while outbound call centers place calls for sales, collections or surveys.
How it works
Inbound calls arrive on shared numbers and pass through an IVR and an ACD, which queue them and hand each one to the next available agent. Outbound teams load contact lists into a dialer, which places calls and connects agents to the people who answer.
Agents use a softphone or headset with a screen that shows the caller's record. Calls are often recorded for quality and training, and supervisors follow live queues and agent status.
Performance is measured with metrics such as average handle time, first-call resolution, service level, answer rate and, for outbound, connect and conversion rates.
Why it matters
01Capacity
A structured team can handle far more calls than people answering their own lines.
02Consistency
Scripts, routing and recordings make the customer experience repeatable.
03Measurable
Every call is a data point, so staffing and coaching decisions rest on numbers.
Allo and Call center
Allo is built for sales and support teams that live on the phone: shared lines, routing, a power dialer add-on for outbound and every call recorded and summarized.
Related terms
The terms that usually come up in the same conversation.
All glossary terms
Predictive dialer
Software that dials ahead of agents, predicting who will answer.
Read the definition
Frequently asked questions
A call center handles phone calls. A contact center handles several channels, such as phone, email, chat and messaging, often in the same queue.
At minimum a phone system with queues and routing. Most add a dialer for outbound, call recording, a CRM integration and reporting.
Yes. With cloud calling software, agents only need a computer, a headset and a reliable internet connection.