It can make sense (and not just from the cost savings point of view - sorry value!) to have or use a Call Centre. If you have a major fundraising initiative, you'll almost certainly have contracted out the 'talking' to people to a Call Centre.

 

Red Nose Day gave you the chance to ring celebrities to donate. Channel 4 did their own fundraising programme where celebrities tried to help solve problems. These were 'entertainment' with a conscience, far removed from the invaluable help lines provided by The Samaritans, the NSPC and many other charities. For some local support, it can be one person who has an out-of-hours number, who then completes as near a 24hr service availability as you can offer. Ring for the Emergency Services and you contact as good a Call Centre as it gets, again any time of the day. 

 

You may provide transport, care services, food, advice ... and do so locally but are now being pushed towards centralising 'things' and contact points - Contact (Call) Centres - are a long established piece of infrastructure that 'works' .. or do they.? From my own professional experience, this isn't always the case.

 

There is plenty of hard data about the depth of engagement that a local service has over that of an 030, 0345 etc number. Google (and Facebook) spend more money on developing their offer and push more advice about being 'local' than they do for the generics of a centralised contact point. They know that any search (keyboard or now voice) that shows results as close to the enquirer as possible - they are more relevant - they work better -- they are what people want.

 

The same is true of a local number on a leaflet. Someone ringing it will be more amenable, more ready than if they (imperceptibly - through having to think about what a phone number means) call somewhere 'distant'. Just the impact of a receptionist saying 'I think its just about to rain here - what's it like with you?' will smooth out the whole engagement process.

 

You can (through VOIP technology etc) use local numbers to transfer calls to a call taking factory. You could be working with something exactly like the BBC2 programme of a few years ago, when to motivate all the employees, there were embarrassing games and, to some, embarrassing bosses.

 

If you want to  know everything about what happens, in all sizes of Call Centres, then I think I've the web site to join. Its only been on my 'radar' for a month or so, but the depth of posts and the qualities of the webinars that are available (free) is really good.

 

Whether you need the 'performance' of getting donations, or what could happen to your booking services, or how to get the advice delivery that you need to have, this site may well give you the answers. Yes you will find out a bit more about the pressurised offers that some Call Centres can provide, and some formulas that make this business work (that you've never heard of before), but from what I can see, everything about Call Centres is covered.

 

Hope its of use! Have a great week.