When did call centers become ubiquitous?

Factual Questions
1

I’m wondering when phone-trees or call centers became standard practice for every business from the Gas Company to Urban Outfitters. Was it sometime in the late '90s? Also, who invented the technology? I’m particularly interested in when it become standard in Chicago.

2

Here are some data points: I managed technical support and customer service for a mid-sized California software company in the late 80’s when we outsourced certain customer service functions to a Wisconsin-based phone center who employed mostly bored housewives. Later, in the early 90’s, I was with a startup and we also outsourced customer service functions to domestic call centers. Then, late 90’s, with a really large software company, and we started going offshore with both customer service and technical support functions.

3

There was a phone number to call for customer service shortly after there were phones. In 1950s America every business from Joe’s Plumbing to Sears Roebuck had some way for a customer to talk to somebody at the company who could help them.

Or are you asking about the function being outsourced to specialists, rather than each company doing their own?

4

LSLGuy, I think s/he’s talking about those automated machines, where you are asked multiple choice questions and must press a corresponding number to proceed to diagnose what kind of help you need. And is asking who invented this technology. (I don’t know the answers and am interested, just thought I’d clarify.)

5

I had a client in the early/mid 80’s who was doing that sort of thing. They were trying to position themselves as an innovator so I’d guess the technology was becoming fairly mainstream at that point.

6

Hmmm, is the OP asking about ACD equipment (automatic call distribution) that provides a prompted multiple choice interface (“press 1 if you want to speak with accounting, press 2 if you want to reach shipping, etc.”), or a call center, a room or a whole building full of people answering incoming calls?

Late 70s, early 80s is when phone switches with hard disk storage really started to appear on the market. Can’t help with who the early innovators were.