Olivia Maier
Does your business need a contact center? Or maybe you’d prefer a call center? Or maybe you aren’t sure which would be the best fit for your business? We wanted to give you the information in this mini guide so that you can equip your team with the best system for your business.
Call centers are dedicated departments to handle inbound and outbound calls from customers. The employees working in a call center are typically trained in customer service, and may provide additional services such as telemarketing, billing, and customer outreach activities. You could take advantage of specialized call centers, such as an outbound focused call center in which agents exclusively make outgoing calls. Businesses also have the options of choosing an in-house call center, or outsourcing to a third party provider. While there are many types of call centers which can be tailored to your business’ specific needs, it is important to remember that call centers exclusively use phone communication to connect with customers.
Phone communication may just be a part of your communication strategy. If your team is taking advantage of multiple channels of communication then a contact center may be the preferred route. Contact center agents will handle a wide variety of communication channels, and can connect with customers via chat, SMS messages, video, and more. Contact centers provide very similar services as a call center, but may provide additional services such as technical support with the ability to remotely access customer’s devices.
Simply put, a call center has more streamlined activities which all occur over the phone. With a contact center there are more opportunities to participate in a wide variety of activities, taking advantage of any combination of channels of communication.
Determining which is best will likely depend on your specific business. In the end, both work to improve the customer experience. A large component will be based on your agents, and their training. With a contact center your agents will need to be trained in phone etiquette, writing skills, technical knowledge, bill handling, and more. If you take advantage of a call center, you likely will have calls transferred to employees who specialize in those areas, for example technical support may be a separate team outside of your call center.
Either way, make sure that you have the tools that you need to support the customer service center of your choice. With a call center, having a reliable business phone system is a must. With a contact center, look for a business phone system that can integrate into the tools you are using for other channels of communication and your CRM platform.
Understanding the difference between a call center and a contact center is fairly easy. Determining what is best for your business will be based on your specific business needs and your team’s capabilities. Either way, set your business up for success with the tools necessary to support the system of your choice. With Yodel you can have all the capabilities necessary for either a call center or contact center. Get started today with our free 14 day trial, and see why thousands of companies trust Yodel for their business phone needs.
