call center

American  

[kawl sen-ter] / ˈkɔl ˌsɛn tər /

noun

1. an office or department that makes and receives a high volume of phone calls for an enterprise, as outbound sales and telemarketing calls or inbound customer service and technical support calls.

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Etymology

Origin of call center

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

You can only book it by calling a call center.

From Slate • Jun. 6, 2026

My mom worked a number of service jobs over the course of her life, whether it was as a baker or a florist at a grocery store or working at a customer call center.

From Salon • Apr. 27, 2026

Dealing with a call center or an automated teller might have been exasperating.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Booking a tee time through an AI call center provides a “data-rich” environment for course managers, says Fraser Marriott, head of the golf business at Lightspeed Commerce, a Montreal-based software company.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

This avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center, inside a virtual cubicle, sitting at a virtual desk, in front of a virtual computer, wearing a virtual phone headset.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline