For many businesses, the call center is the heart of customer service. Its where customers call in for help and reps call out for sales. We refer to it as a “call center” because traditional customer service models rely on phone support as the main contact method. Today, however, call center agents interact with customers through a variety of channels. Thus, the call center has evolved into the contact center.
In this article, we’ll explore the differences between a traditional call center based on legacy premise systems and a modern contact center powered by the latest technologies.
Contact centers and call centers are vital for delivering exceptional customer service, but it’s easy to confuse the two. While they share some commonalities, contact centers have evolved far beyond traditional call centers to deliver omnichannel support.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain the critical differences between call centers and contact centers, from channels and technologies to data, skills, and customer experience. Read on to determine which model best suits your business needs.
What is a Call Center?
A call center is a facility where agents handle inbound and outbound voice calls exclusively Call centers have been around since the 1960s, providing telephone customer service and sales
Agents in inbound call centers take queries, complaints, and orders from customers calling in. They offer assistance on issues like technical support, billing, and product questions.
Outbound call centers make telemarketing calls for sales, appointment reminders, surveys, and collections.
Call centers rely solely on voice calls via PSTN or VoIP networks. They’re designed to handle high call volumes efficiently using automatic call distribution (ACD) to route each call to the right agent or department.
Call centers need robust phones, headsets, and desktop software. Performance metrics focus on call-related KPIs like average handle time. Call centers can be in-house or outsourced.
What is a Contact Center?
A contact center delivers omnichannel customer support, with various digital channels alongside voice. This allows customers to interact how they prefer – phone, email, live chat, messaging, or social media.
Contact centers combine the functions of traditional call centers with emerging channels. Agents no longer just receive inbound calls; they also manage outbound interactions and conversations across multiple channels.
Omnichannel contact centers unify these channels on a single platform using intelligent routing. This means that a customer can seamlessly switch channels mid-conversation while agents have full context.
Contact centers run on specialized software like RingCentral Engage. This consolidates interactions, provides omnichannel analytics, and enables remote work. Self-service options like IVR and chatbots also reduce live agent workloads.
Key Differences Between Call Centers and Contact Centers
While call centers and contact centers both aim to deliver great customer service, several factors set them apart:
1. Channels of Communication
The fundamental difference is that call centers offer phone support exclusively, whereas contact centers provide an omnichannel experience.
Contact centers allow customers to use their channel of choice – often starting online before calling for complex issues. Support channels typically include:
- Phone
- Web chat
- Messaging (SMS, WhatsApp)
- Social media
- Video chat
- Voice assistants
According to SnapLogic, the ability to switch channels is a top priority for 72% of customers. Omnichannel flexibility provides convenience and boosts satisfaction.
2. Customer Data
With multiple channels to interact, contact centers can gain a more complete view of each customer across their journey. This provides invaluable data to personalize experiences.
Contact centers combine conversation data from different platforms with CRM records for rich customer profiles. Analytics tools mine this for insights that agents can use to improve relationships.
Call centers rely on speech analytics to understand callers based on voice conversations. While helpful, this only reveals part of the story.
3. Customer Self-Service
Contact centers enable various customer self-service (CSS) options to efficiently resolve common inquiries. For call centers, CSS is typically limited to phone-based IVR systems.
Popular contact center self-service tools include:
- Interactive voice response (IVR) phone trees
- Virtual assistants and chatbots
- Knowledge bases
- FAQ pages
- Online communities
- Appointment scheduling portals
According to Salesforce, 71% of customers prefer self-service for quick fixes. Done right, CSS boosts satisfaction while reducing call volumes.
4. Agent Skill Sets
While call center agents focus on call handling and listening skills, contact center agents need expertise across channels.
Key contact center agent skills include:
- Multitasking across channels
- Written communication abilities
- Social media and web etiquette
- Tools literacy – software, knowledge bases
- Analytics usage
With more data to manage across channels, agents must stay organized. They also need training as new touchpoints are added.
5. Technologies
Contact centers require a broader suite of technologies to merge channels, optimize routing, provide analytics, and elevate customer experiences.
Contact center tech stack:
- Omnichannel platform – Software to manage channels on one interface
- IVR and virtual assistant bots
- CRM and customer data platforms
- Workforce management
- Desktop analytics
- Knowledge management
- Automated outreach and marketing tools
Call centers focus more on call management systems, workforce management, basic reporting, and call monitoring.
6. Customer Experiences
Call centers excel at one-to-one service via trusted phone support. However, in an omnichannel contact center, customers have the flexibility to use their preferred channel.
Contact centers also provide a more continuous experience. If a customer emails then calls, agents have full context from both conversations. This simplifies interactions and reduces frustration.
With call centers, the experience resets with each new call. But omnichannel centers track the full journey across touchpoints in one unified desktop.
Call Center vs Contact Center: Which is Right for You?
Determining if you need a call center or contact center depends on your customers, industry, and business goals.
Call centers work for phone-centric sectors like IT support and healthcare. The personal touch of voice calls can increase satisfaction.
Contact centers make sense for sales-driven industries like finance and retail. Omnichannel flexibility provides convenience to customers.
For most modern organizations, though, contact centers are the best fit. The majority of consumers now expect omnichannel access for speed and simplicity.
Migrating from call center to contact center takes planning. Key steps include selecting software, training staff, and integrating new channels. But omnichannel personalization drives loyalty, delivering an optimal customer experience.
What is a call center?
Traditionally, a call center is an office where numerous agents provide customer service over the telephone. Inbound call centers receive calls for customer support and often serve as a knowledge base for tech support, billing questions, and more. These call centers focus on quick resolution times and agent productivity. In outbound call centers, agents make calls rather than receive them. These could be sales calls, marketing offers, surveys, fundraising requests, or debt collection, for example.
For customers, the term “call center” conjures an of waiting on perpetual hold or being routed through an endless interactive voice response (IVR) system that never gives them what they need. Because so many consumers have had an experience along these lines, call centers have developed a bad rap. But as legacy phone systems give way to newer digital technologies, call centers are evolving.
Legacy contact center infrastructure
Many businesses built contact centers using products designed nearly a decade ago. This is a lifetime in the digital age. For example, a system launched in 2009 likely began with a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor evaluations in 2007. Given the product development cycles for contact center hardware and software, the product proposed by a chosen vendor in 2007 was probably first released in 2004 and initially designed 5 years before that.
This is how many companies currently find themselves caught in the trap of an aging and costly infrastructure that impedes progress. Contact center systems currently in place were expensive and time-consuming to install and customize, so businesses are, understandably, reluctant to update them.
How often have you called into an IVR and heard, “Please listen carefully because the menu options have recently changed,” and knew that the menu actually hasnt changed in a very long time? That’s because most legacy IVR systems take an average of 9 months of professional services to make even the smallest changes.
Its difficult to experiment, iterate, and improve a contact center under those circumstances. In the meantime, customer expectations continue to change rapidly as new technologies and communication channels become the norm. When aging infrastructure can’t keep pace with customers and the communications technologies they rely on, the result is frustrated customers and agents, along with wasted time and resources.
Contact Center vs. Call Center: What’s the difference?
What is the difference between a call center and a contact center?
Call centers focus solely on phone communications, while modern contact centers provide support through a variety of channels, including phone, email, live chat, self-service knowledge articles, and chatbots.
What is a contact center?
The term “contact center” reflects that there are many ways to connect with a customer today besides by telephone. Increased customer expectations and newer technologies that allow for many communication channels created a shift in the traditional, decades-old call center model.
Why are contact centers better than phone calls?
Still, they benefit many organizations because phone calls with live agents offer a personalized experience that other channels often lack. On the other hand, contact centers include digital channels, which enable customers to interact with an organization on whichever platform best suits their needs.
Is it time to re-evaluate the debate about contact centers vs call centers?
Given this reality, it is time to re-evaluate the debate around contact centers vs. call centers from a more holistic perspective, understanding key differences and why both play a crucial role in the modern CX.
