Many people use the terms ‘call center’ and ‘contact center’ interchangeably, but they are actually different. It is important that businesses understand the difference between the two so they can make the most effective choice for their business. So today, the team at Succurri is here to talk about the most important differences between a contact center and a call center.
What Is a Contact Center?
A contact center is an area of a business that handles all ingoing and outgoing communications, whether they are phone calls, text messages, voicemails, or emails. A contact center as a service can operate within a company or be a third-party organization that works with a company.
The main benefit of hosted contact center services is they offer lots of different ways to interact and engage with customers than just voice calls. Most contact centers have automatic tools to help them field and organize calls and communications. Contact centers deal with lead generation, tech support, telemarketing, and more.
What Is the Difference Between a Contact Center Vs Call Center?
Although similar, contact centers and call centers are not the same thing and are not interchangeable. The main difference between the two is their scope of operation. Call centers traditionally only handle phone calls and voice calls from customers. Contact centers handle all kinds of communications, including text, email, voice calls, and more.
In other words, contact centers provide a more holistic customer and agent experience because they cover a wide range of communications instead of just voice calls. In contrast, call center employees might only be able to perform a handful of functions, which can give customers a negative impression of your business and professionalism.
In both cases, call centers and contact centers exist to help customers with their technical problems and support issues. The best contact center solutions are able to properly sort customer queries to the right departments so they can have a speedy resolution.
The difference is notable to customers too. Nearly 88% of consumers say they would willingly pay up to 10% more for some product or service if they also get a better customer experience. Contact centers can boost customer satisfaction and improve customer retention rates.
The Benefits of Choosing the Right Contact Center
Choosing the right contact center consulting services can have a large effect on business productivity and operations. Below are just a handful of the benefits of choosing the right contact center for your business.
Maintain a Secure Environment
One of the most important parts of any kind of customer interaction is protecting their personal data. With the rise of remote work and digital work infrastructures, hackers have more potential access to customer data. Contact centers use the latest platform technologies to protect and secure customer data from malicious actors.
For example, contact center platforms often have encryption protocols that encrypt customer information, rendering it immune from hackers. Contact centers also have permission standards to control who can access sensitive information.
Better Customer Experience
Customers always appreciate when they can get a more holistic experience when talking to companies they buy from. Contact centers accommodate the entire range of communications, so customers have more opportunities to interact and engage.
For example, instead of phoning the call center for a question, a customer can send a text message or use internet chat to talk to the support team. The amount of communication options improve customer experience by diversifying and streamlining business-to-consumer digital channels.
Boost in Efficiency
Last but not least, a contact center can greatly increase business productivity. Instead of funneling all queries through phone lines in a call center, a contact center can handle multiple forms of communication at the same time. You can talk to customers via email, text, phone, and internet chat.
The increase in communication channels increases output and reduces bottlenecks on support lines. Customers can rely on a communication channel that fits their preferences, giving them more satisfaction with the process. Contact centers often have lower hold times and call volume than traditional call centers.
Advantages of Omni-Channel Contact Centers
One of the main benefits of an omnichannel contact center is that support team members can switch between multiple communication channels seamlessly to handle queries. Below are some additional advantages of switching to an omnichannel contact center.
Improve Hold Times
Having more contact channels can greatly reduce hold times for customers. Switching seamlessly allows support teams to reduce the amount of time they have to spend with each customer, which ultimately increases the number of queries they can answer.
Improve First-Call Resolution
Contact centers also fare better in first-call resolution statistics. Customers can choose a communication format that fits their needs and preferences, increasing the chance they get a satisfactory resolution on the first call.
Minimize Average Handle Time
Contact centers can also minimize handle time, which is the time it takes to complete one transaction with a customer. You can calculate the average handle time by dividing the total talk time by the total number of transactions.
Minimize Call Volume
Omnichannel contact centers can also greatly minimize call volume, reducing bottlenecks and improving customer support efficiency. Instead of channeling all customer queries through phone calls, contact centers can spread customer interaction over multiple channels.
Improve Workflow
Another great advantage of contact centers is how they can improve internal workflows. You can use contact centers to automate basic routine tasks, freeing up resources for more critical customer support tasks.
For example, you can use contact center tools to track metrics and fine-tune performance to optimize processes. AI tools can also help allocate call scheduling to avoid bottlenecks and reduce overall call volume.
Engage Customers
Last but not least, contact centers have great tools for engaging customers in a wide variety of ways. Contact centers give customers a choice in how they engage with companies, allowing them to choose their preferred communication style. Certain types of communication are also better for answering certain types of queries.
Choose Succurri Today for Your Contact Center Needs
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