GeneralContact Centers and Call Centers: Which is Suitable for My Business?

Which is suitable for my business needs—a contact center or a call center? This is not a simple question for numerous companies. As businesses want to give the best customer service experience, they have been exploring different tools that would make communication work effectively for them and for their customers, clients, and partners. Telnum.net has a solution for that.

As customer service is one of the top priorities of businesses, connecting with customers conveniently at all times is necessary for both small and large scale companies. Meeting the demands of each client in a much faster way would not be possible without effective communication. Hence, people have created different communication innovations.

Aside from trying out various telecommunication applications, businesses are also doing an in-depth study on whether to adopt a contact center or a call center. With the need to provide an outstanding customer service experience, businesses are weighing down the key features of both contact centers and call centers to see what suits their business needs.

In spite of the fact that the two models are used as business tools for customer service, they differ with a lot of factors as well. Both tools have their own set of key features that cater to the specific needs of every business. Thus, let us dig deeper into the specific features that the two have for us to know which would suit your business.

What is a contact center?

Although contact centers are usually being compared to call centers, it is actually a relatively new tool for some businesses. Unlike call centers that are not unusual to the ears of business owners, contact centers are just starting to make a name as a customer service tool. Despite being an infamous communication tool for some businesses, contact centers have the same goal as with call centers—to make communication work easily and effectively for every business.

The major asset of contact centers is the way it provides omnichannel customer support or what is commonly known as multichannel customer support. The concept behind it provides service for more than one channel; it includes phone calls, live chat, email, social media, forums, and more. This is a great technology for progressive businesses because their customers, clients, and partners may reach them through different channels.

With the strategy of omnichannel customer support, customer service is being taken on a higher level. The needs and demands of every customer are catered across different channels which makes communication work easily and effectively for the side of business owners and the side of their customers, clients, and partners. This is a great tool especially for the customer support team because answering questions and solving issues are done conveniently.

A contact center also handles inbound calls, outbound calls, and a hierarchy of the two. Like call centers, it can also be outsourced or operated in house. Aside from handling customer service, other activities like debt collection, billing services, and telemarketing can also be done. On the other hand, similar to contact centers, one of the main goals of call centers is to meet the needs of their customers in a much faster way. Thus, let us further discuss what call centers are.

What is a call center?

If you take a look at it, call centers and contact centers have indeed lots of similarities—they can both handle inbound calls, outbound calls, and a hybrid of the two. Both of them can also be handled in house or outsourced. Call centers, on the other hand, operate over the phone—they are programmed to handle an immense volume of calls which is why large scale companies that receive a massive amount of questions and queries opt for call centers.

Call centers are known for handling technical support, customer service, and sales. Even though they use phones as their main channel, their wide array of services extends to handling telemarketing, billing services, and debt collection similar to contact centers as well. The flexibility of call centers also allows their team to scale up and try out different roles in different departments.

On premises call centers and cloud based call centers, on the other hand, are the two main kinds of call centers. On premises call centers are handled in house—installation, operation, and maintenance are all done right in the office. Cloud based call centers operate through the help of a service provider. Users only need to connect their smartphone or desktop to the Internet for the call center to operate.aa

However, in virtual call centers, every operation is done by the service provider alone—this technology helps companies to focus on running their core businesses with virtual phone numbers. In this way, companies give their specific rules and guidelines to their service provider to help them answer all the queries and questions from their clients and customers. This tool helps businesses to allot their time to the other components of their businesses.

In summary, a contact center handles calls in a much faster way and it provides omnichannel customer support while a call center handles a massive volume amount of calls and it operates over the phone. Both contact centers and call centers have the same goal—to help small and large scale businesses practice effective communication within their clients, customers, partners, and workforce.

Although the two technologies are being compared to one another, they both have different sets of key features that cater to every need of businesses. This is also one of the main reasons why businesses need to choose a reliable service provider if they are planning to outsource. As communication is one of the foundations of a stable business, choosing a reliable service provider is the key to communication for work effectively.

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