Trends

Call centres may be divided into two sub-categories: internal and independent. Internal call centres are located within a mother company, while independent centres function as companies in themselves, selling their services to other companies. The overall trend is that more and more call centres are located long distances from their customer base - even in other countries. It is estimated that, in South East Asia and India, the annual growth of call centres is 50%.
Most of the independent call centres in Sweden are small, having on average 46 workstations. However, many of the large publicly-owned businesses, such as the police force, postal service, Telia and Swedish Railways, use call centre services or have their own call centres. The aim is to create a 24-hour/seven day public service through which citizens can receive information or send questions or requests via information and communication technology. Their work organisation thus resembles that of dedicated call centres, i.e. some employees will be appointed to handle this communication on a full-time basis.