Most call centres have an understanding of why their callers phone but not generally a detailed understanding of the actual call 'types'. Call tracking is the logging of calls by call type.

Call tracking is essential in any call centre and is undertaken for a number of reasons:

• To avoid calls - stop unnecessary calls coming in.
• To establish call types for IVR resourcing or skills-based routing.
• To provide call-flow scripts for advisors

Some call centres have tracking systems, where the advisor checks a box to identify the call type after each call. However, in many cases this is just at 'high' call level, for example 'Payments'. Rather than a drill-down of :

Payments > Invoices > Don't understand Invoice.

There is not much you can do with just an heading of 'Payments' but you can do something about your callers phoning because they do not understand the invoice you have sent to them.

Call tracking, if part of a tracking system, will be undertaken by all advisors. However, where there is no system, then it will be undertaken on a sample basis. This could be by a group of advisors or Quality Analysts, who would sample during monitoring.

Outsourcers undertake call tracking for clients as a value add add-on.

Whether or not a call centre has a tracking system it will still be necessary to establish the call types for input into the system. Refer to Call Tracking Processes to set-up your own process.