While the terms “call centre” and “contact centre” are often used interchangeably, they denote different things from customer communication and service standpoint. This article delves into some of the main differences between call centres and contact centres.
Features of a call centre:
The following are some of the key features, which are unique to call centres. First, call centres mainly focus on the manner in which incoming and outgoing calls are handled by the businesses.
The interactions are mainly voice-based. In regards to the scope of services, call centres always specialise in voice interactions, which
include responding to the different kinds of inquiries that are raised by the customers, support requests, as well as outbound telemarketing or sales calls.
It can thus be noted that call centres are generally limited to voice communication, and there’s generally minimal support for the other channels of communication like chat, email, or even social media. Besides, focus is mainly on voice-centric services.
Call centre technology infrastructures are majorly designed to ensure effective management and routing of phone calls. The agents are mainly trained for them to be in a position to manage voice interactions, with much emphasis on ensuring highly effective phone communication skills.
It is also worth pointing out that the traditional call centres always have a cost structure that is based on call volume, as well as duration. When it comes to analytics and reporting, the KPIs for the call centres generally revolve around voice, and mainly strives to assess the generall
performance, as well as the general effectiveness of call centres.
Some of the key performance indicators for call centres include first call resolution, average handling time, service level, occupancy rate, abandonment rate, customer satisfaction, net promoter score, call quality score, agent utilisation, adherence to schedule, contact resolution time, first response time, and cost per contact.
Monitoring these metrics can help the managers, as well as the supervisors to evaluate the quality of the service, the general efficiency, as well as the overall success of the operations of the call centre.
Features of a Contact Center:
Unlike call centres which mainly focus on voice or phone calls, there is multichannel communication in contact centres.
It generally includes a wider range of communication channels, which includes email, voice calls, live chat, social media, and in some cases self-service options via mobile apps or websites.
Secondly, contact centres offer different kinds of services beyond the conventional phone support. They ensure that the different needs of the customers are addressed effectively through the use of different channels.
Omnichannel support is also one of the key features of contact centres. Most contact centres aim to offer an integrated, as well as a seamless customer experience via different channels, and this enables the customers to transition properly between different channels while still maintaining context.
In regards to the technology infrastructure, contact centres always make use of highly advanced technology infrastructure for them to effectively manage interactions across different channels.
Contact centres always use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to ensure that there’s a holistic view of all the interactions that the businesses have with their customers.
The agents in contact centres, in most cases, are trained to be in a position to handle customer interactions across different channels, and as a result, they always need a broader skill set, which encompass written communication, as well as digital interaction management.
Contact centres always place a huge focus on the delivery of enhanced customer experience through the provision of flexibility, as well as convenience via different communication options.
In regards to scalability and flexibility, the contact centres are always designed to be highly scalable, as well as adaptable to the ever changing customer communication needs.
When it comes to analytics and reporting, contact centres always make use of highly advanced analytics, and this is mainly aimed at ensuring that the businesses gain proper insights into the behaviour of the customers, preferences of the customers, as well as the overall contact centre performance across multiple channels.
Conclusion
In conclusion, whereas a call centre mainly revolves around voice-based communication, contact centres generally embrace a wider, multichannel approach when it comes to customer interactions.
There was a shift from call centres to contact centres as a result of the evolution of customer communication preferences.
