Call centres and contact centres are similar in some ways. They both handle telephone interactions, whether it’s routing calls to the right department, or taking a customer’s information so they can be contacted by a sales agent. But there are some key differences between call centres and contact centres that should help you determine which type of operation is ideal for your business.
What Are Call Centres? Call centres are facilities that take incoming phone calls from customers who need to speak with an agent. These call center agents answer customer service enquiries, provide sales advice and manage repetitive tasks such as checking eligibility for a promotion or confirming previous purchases. While call centres usually have more than one location, they can also operate as virtual call centres.
What Are Contact Centres?
Contact centres are facilities that take incoming customer information and provide a team of customer service agents who can then handle the enquiries. Contact centre agents help customers to reach the right department in your company, offer sales advice, check eligibility for promotions, and confirm previous purchases. They also manage repetitive tasks such as checking eligibility for a promotion or confirming previous purchases.
Call centres are best suited to companies that need a wide range of phone support services on the same floor. This can include answering questions about collections, billing inquiries, technical support or even general customer service enquiries.
Contact centres are typically used by companies that have a large volume of contact requests or callers coming through their front desk or phone lines. They’re often found in business parks with office buildings that house multiple businesses. This can include answering questions about collections, billing inquiries, technical support or even general customer service enquiries. They’re better suited to companies that need an efficient way to serve different departments with different needs.
The main difference between call centres and contact centres is what they do with their queue of contacts at any given time. Call centres process each caller individually while contact centres work on queues of calls that require more than one agent handling them at any given time. This means contact centre agents often use different skillsets to handle each type of request differently as they cannot be processed simultaneously (i.e., collecting a direct quote while checking eligibility for a promotion).
What’s the Difference Between Call Centres and Contact Centres?
Call centres are typically located in offices or on site in buildings. They are staffed with customer service agents who have access to hardware like phones and fax machines. Contact centres, on the other hand, refer to office-based operations that handle customer relations by way of voice calls. These contact centres operate without a phone line and will use anything from an internet connection to a mobile network to take incoming calls. The staff at contact centres is usually made up of sales representatives and customer support representatives who have in-depth knowledge of the company’s products and services. The information they provide is more tailored to the needs of individual customers because it comes from knowledge gleaned from previous interactions with them.
Contact centre employees can also help with follow-ups after a telephone call has been made, providing feedback on how well the call went as well as any information about the customer for which you would like a follow-up call or email.
Advantages of a Call Centre
A call centre is an ideal way to handle customer service inquiries. They can handle incoming calls from customers, and provide them with access to experienced agents. This can help reduce the number of customer complaints, which makes it an attractive option for businesses that want a scalable solution.
Call centres also have other advantages over contact centres. Call centres typically use a less expensive type of technology that is easier to implement and maintain. And due to their expertise in handling customer service inquiries, they are often able to provide better customer support than a contact centre would be able to offer. Let’s say that you want your business to grow at a fast pace and you have limited capital available for marketing efforts. Many of your customers will likely be using social media like Facebook or Instagram as their primary source of information, so having a call centre could help you differentiate your brand on these platforms without spending heavily on marketing campaigns and advertising.
Disadvantages of a Call Centre
One of the main disadvantages of a call centre is that they are not very flexible. The number of call centres out there are limited, which means agents have to work in a specific location.
Contact centres allow for much more flexibility with scheduling. Depending on your business needs, contact centres can operate from a single location or at multiple locations. Contact centres also offer more options for customer service agents to take calls from customers, such as using IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technology that allows customers to interact with agents by simply pressing “1” for English and “2” for Spanish in order to get help with their language preference.
Contact centres allow companies to respond faster if the need arises. With virtual contact centres, you can always find an agent who is available and ready to serve your customers. It’s easier to have agents available 24/7 when they don’t have to be physically present at a specific location.
Advantages of a Contact Centre
The main advantage of a contact centre is that it allows you to handle more than one customer at the same time. If you have customers who require you to be available outside of business hours, then a contact centre will allow your staff to answer calls and process appointments all in one location. They may also provide your employees with an additional benefit. A contact centre is usually more cost-effective than having several different call centres within a company; this means that you can save money on equipment and staffing costs.
What Are the Differences Between Call Centre & Contact Centre? As mentioned above, call centres are facilities that take incoming phone calls from customers who need to speak with an agent. These call center agents answer customer service enquiries, provide sales advice and manage repetitive tasks such as checking eligibility for a promotion or confirming previous purchases.
Contact centres are facilities that take incoming phone calls from customers who need to speak with an agent or a sales rep. The difference between these two terms lies in what they do: contact centres deal with both incoming phone calls and in-person visits by potential customers, while call centres deal mainly with incoming phone calls from consumers who need assistance via telephone. Additionally, contact centres primarily involve human interactions; this makes them ideal for businesses that need to interact with their consumers face-to-face outside of work hours but are not looking for a full-time office space for their staff members.
Disadvantages of a Contact Centre
The major disadvantage of a contact centre is that it will take more time and money to set up. It’s also much harder to scale with a contact centre, which means you’ll have to invest in more people and resources just to keep up with demand.
On the other hand, there are some benefits of operating a contact centre. Contact centres often generate more leads than call centres, which means you’ll be able to grow your business by getting more customers. This can be important for some businesses as they may not get enough phone calls at their main call centre location. A contact centre also offers customer service agents the opportunity to handle multiple tasks at once, which can be beneficial for busy times of day or during busy seasons.
Final Words
A call centre is a business that takes in incoming phone calls from customers who need to speak with an agent. These call center agents answer customer service enquiries, provide sales advice and manage repetitive tasks such as checking eligibility for a promotion or confirming previous purchases. While call centres usually have more than one location, they can also operate as virtual call centres.
A contact centre is a business that receives customer contacts via e-mail and online communication channels, which then allows the company to contact the customer by phone. Because they are not taking in phone calls, contact centres don’t need as many employees as a traditional call centre would.