Call Centers vs Contact Centers: Key Differences

Customer service is the top-most priority for companies today. To cater to the queries of their customers, businesses use either call centers, contact centers, or both. And the chances are you are already using one of them.

Nevertheless, every marketer should understand the differences and similarities between these systems. Decision makers should know the difference so they know which option best fits their organization’s needs.

That said, there is a thin line of difference between call centers and contact centers. A few years ago, call centers were once the gold standard for customer service, but as new technologies emerged over time, and so, new technologies took birth to help businesses resolve customers’ problems and queries.

Before we dive into the differences between these two calling systems, let us make ourselves familiar with them.

Call Centers

Call centers primarily center around voice-based communication. The core function involves handling incoming and outgoing calls, providing customer support, resolving queries, and managing service requests.

The agents taking inbound calls help customers with account inquiries, technical support, scheduling, complaints, and questions about products and services. The agents tending to outbound calls focus on fundraising, telemarketing, scheduling prospects, lead generation, customer retention, and debt collection.

Call centers have proven to improve customer experience because they aim to offer dependable and timely customer service. Call centers are designed for efficiency in handling a high volume of calls. Quick issue resolution and minimizing call duration are often prioritized to enhance operational productivity.

Contact Centers

Contact centers, on the other hand, embrace a broader spectrum of communication channels. In addition to voice calls, they integrate email, live chat, social media, and other digital platforms for customer interaction.

Contact centers recognize the importance of meeting customers on their preferred channels. This adaptability extends to various touchpoints, offering a seamless and integrated customer experience.

With multiple channels, organizations can garner marketing data and enable customers to interact with the organization conveniently. Agents in contact centers are trained to handle a variety of communication channels. Their expertise spans voice calls, emails, chats, and social media interactions, allowing for a more holistic customer engagement strategy.

Let us discuss the differences between these here.

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Call Centers Vs Contact Centers

As stated earlier, call centers have a singular focus, and contact centers take an omni-channel approach that customers find convenient. Decision-makers can consider the following factors to distinguish between call centers and contact centers.

Channel Choice

Contact centers and call centers both provide ways to reach out to your customers, but they differ in the communication channels they use. While call centers only use one channel, contact centers use several of them to ensure that no customer queries are left unresolved.

The concept of call centers is not new. The idea took birth much before we braced this digital world. Many organizations believe that a live phone call with an agent helps customers to resolve their queries quickly. Alternatively, modern contact centers can to reach out to customers beyond using phone lines. Organizations can connect with customers through various digital channels enabling them to interact with the organization in more than one way.

Personalized Customer Service

A major difference between a call center and a contact center is that the latter uses real-time customer data and CRM to provide customized customer service.

Imagine if you only have phones to interact with customers, you will find yourself limited to having simple voice conversations. There is just a bit of personalization here. But with contact centers, you can handle complex tasks. Simpler customer queries can be handled by live chat, and SMS, while more complex issues are handled by voice or video calls.

48% of customers have switched brands for better customer service – Salesforce.

Skills of Agents

Whether you should choose a call center or a contact center will also depend upon the skills of your agents attending to customers’ queries. As contact center agents are required to use more asynchronous and digital channels than call center agents, they should be multi-tasking and comfortable with using the latest technologies.

Alternatively, call center agents should be calm and composed to attend to regular calls and handle situations in real-time.

Wrapping Up – Choosing one that suits

That said, call centers are easier to operate. Businesses that do not want to overcomplicate their customer service strategy can have call centers to handle their customers. And when you know your customers are happy to receive help through voice calls, a call center is a great option.

On the other hand, contact centers are known to add a dash of personalization to resolve a query. Queries are handled through different digital channels depending on customers’ preferences. Here, simple issues are handled through SMS or live chat, and complex issues are solved over the phone.

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