Contact Center vs. Call Center: Which one does my company need?

As businesses look for better ways to deliver a better customer experience, deciding between a call center and a contact center can be complicated. But the world of contact centers can be confusing. However, you may be thinking about a Contact Center because that is where interactions with customers go. And you are right. But, in the technology industry, there are very different definitions when it comes to Contact Centers versus call centers.

You have the possibility of acquiring a Contact Center if your company requires:

• Manage call flows.
• When your clients only call to get in touch.
• Outbound calls are more important than inbound customer interactions.
• Your customers demand (and use) other digital channels.
• Assess multichannel reports.
• You're ready to expand and scale.

What is a contact center?

When defining what a Contact Center is, we land on “a business function responsible for communicating with customers.” This usually happens by phone, SMS, email, social media or video.

A Contact Center is also the business unit that assists customers through all contact methods. Typically, a contact center is located in an office. However, the pandemic has caused many customer service teams to work from home. The transitions home have been successful and some agents continue to work outside the office.

We now see hybrid contact centers; some work in the office and others at home.

He contact center software describes the technology used in these office or hybrid environments. However, we primarily associate it with people who respond to inbound transactions or make outbound calls.

When it's just phone calls, that's a call center.

A contact center manages all types of customer contact. Hopefully it will support the following digital channels:

• Phone calls.
• Emails.
• Video.
• Live chat.
• Chatbot Escalations.
• Social networks.
• Text messages (SMS).

A contact center solution has a single interface to manage multi-channel customer inquiries. They also have a sophisticated set of reports on the back end. All the data captured in your contact center is useful for forecasting and planning.

What is a call center?

Everyone knows a traditional call center. It's where customers call and agents answer their questions. These can be banks of tables, cubicles, or an open office environment. Agents typically wear headsets that connect to the phone system to make and answer calls.

In technical terms, a call center is a voice-only deployment. SIP trunks are the basis for call center software to handle high call volumes. The call center then routes the calls to the IVR system or call distribution functions.

Unlike a multichannel contact center, agents do not have web chat, social networks or other channels. While you may offer these support channels, many keep these touchpoints separate. So, for example, when a customer calls and asks for an update to their Twitter message, the call center agent does not have access.

But they have access to a number of features and functions to help customers who call.

Call center technology includes the following features:

• Interactive vocal response (IVR).
• Automatic Call Distributor (ACD).
• Automatic assistants.
• Call control.
• Call recording.
• Call queue.
• Call layout and KPI.
• Availability of agents.
• Integrated reports.
• Supervisor's dashboards.
• Live call status.
• Panels with waiting times.
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI).
• CRM integrations.
• Whispering announcements in queue.

Key differences between Contact Centers and call centers:

• What is the difference between a contact center and a call center?

The difference between a call center and a contact center lies in the channels that customers can use to contact you. In call centers, they can only use the telephone. In a contact center, digital channels are available such as web chat, email, social networks and SMS.

Consider the following differences when choosing between a contact center and a call center.

1) Call centers only support voice calls

If your customers currently contact you through other channels, a call center limits how customers reach the right people. Your call center agents should be the first line of support for any incoming queries.

What if they are not?

When your teams work without platforms that streamline processes, customers aren't up to date and agents can't see what other team members are saying to their customers.

It happens all the time when customers tweet and email, but your agents only answer calls.

2) If a customer uses an unsupported channel, their experience is disjointed

When other contact channels exist, but you keep them isolated from your call center, the customer experience is disjointed.

3) Call centers lack expansion capacity

Today, it's not just your agents and customers who are affected when you choose a call center over a contact center. And we're not just talking about call volume.

If your plans include channels like SMS, email and social media, it means moving from a call center to a modern contact center.

This new technology also involves training for agents. It means implementing new software. It means change. The probability that your customers will want to use another channel is high. Just because your company doesn't offer them centrally doesn't mean they can't find them or don't want to use them.

If you have an Instagram account, you may only use it to promote new products. But what happens when a client prefers Instagram to calling you?

They send you a DM that you don't check. After all, you schedule your posts and use Instagram as a one-way promotional communication channel. Your client doesn't know, they don't receive a response and they get frustrated. In the end, he goes to the competition.

What's more, multichannel contact centers often give you an edge over the competition.

In fact, 92% of organizations that consider customer experience as a differentiating element offer multiple contact channels.

Don't be left behind if there is a possibility that your customers use channels other than voice.

• Contact Center and Call Center Similarities:

Although there is no doubt that Contact Centers and call centers are different, some fundamental similarities must be taken into account.

• 1) Both support voice calls

The selling point of a contact center compared to a Call Center is the additional channels available. But that doesn't mean it can't handle voice.

In fact, most contact center customers use voice as their primary channel. They use channels such as web chat, email and social networks as complementary solutions.

When wait times are high, send a communication to the customer to use self-service options, such as consulting your help center. When this is the case, the other channels come in handy when customers still need help and don't want to wait on hold. That being said, all of the features and capabilities available in a cloud call center are available when you choose a cloud-based contact center.

• 2) Both can include in-depth reporting and analysis

When your company receives a lot of incoming calls or any customer contact, it generates a lot of data. This information includes conversations and data from your customer relationship management tools.

What you do with this data depends on your company's needs. But both contact center and call center solutions include extensive reporting and analysis.

In call centers, analytics provide details about real-time and historical calls to your business. This data is valuable in high-volume situations, such as inbound technical support. Using historical trends, staff management during vacations can be optimized.

With contact center reporting, you'll get full call details as well as insights into customer behavior across other channels. It also has more canaries in the coal mine. If your website goes down, several people on social media will surely tell you about it first.

The added advantage is that everything is available in the same place and for all agents. When access and information are shared across contact channels, we speak of an omnichannel contact center.

Omnichannel contact centers serve customers on all channels and at any time.

• 3) Both are available through the cloud

Nowadays there is not much that cannot be put in the cloud.

Although there are some specific use cases for on-premises deployments, only 4% of companies are reluctant to migrate to the cloud.

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is the term for cloud deployments of contact centers. This is instead of installing a call center module to your phone system and adding as many individual servers per channel as you need.

Instead, you download a desktop app or connect to a web URL and access all the channels you need through the cloud.

A Cloud Call Center works in a very similar way. For example, you can start with a VoIP phone system with features like call flows and call queues, then upgrade to an advanced package with IVR, smart callback, and quality control.

• Contact center vs. call center: Which one to choose?

Choosing well between a Contact Center and a Call Center can be the difference between increasing customer satisfaction and losing previously loyal customers.

Here are some principles you should follow when choosing between contact centers and call centers. See which one best describes your business.

• Choose a call center when:

If your clients only use the phone to get in touch. If you are sure that your customers are not going to use new channels such as web chat and SMS, choosing a contact center is unnecessary. As a result, you will have empty reports and will have spent money on unused contact center technology.

For some businesses, a simple call center is all they need. And that's no problem. In cases such as outsourcing customer service functions, an inbound call center is all you need.

If your business model involves taking calls from your customers (or your customers' customers), a call center is a good option. Your main area of interest is call flow management. You may need to manage complex call flows in addition to receiving simple calls.

• Choose a contact center when:

Your customers use multiple channels.

Sometimes, you have no choice but to choose a contact center instead of a call center. If your customers already use email and social media to contact your company, you need to connect the experience.

It's about reinforcing the customer journey. If you can't give a good enough answer every time a customer calls you to know what's going on with their query on Facebook. You are preparing them for the next big step: looking for another option.

In most cases, the advantages of a multichannel contact center are:

•       Multipurpose agents.
•       Shorter waiting times.
•       Profitable staff.
•       Improve brand consistency.
•       Greater customer satisfaction.
•       Improved customer retention.
•       Higher resolution rate on the first call.
•       Free agents for specialized support.
•       Multichannel reporting and analysis.

Ultimately, offering a contact center (as opposed to a call center) allows you to serve your customers on the channel they prefer. And that is a great benefit in itself.

Contact centers are the future of call centers.

Ultimately, using a contact center (rather than a call center) allows you to serve your customers on the channel they prefer. And that is an advantage that is priceless in itself.