A Contact Center: What Is It? The Why, What, and How
Call centers are a common sight. You’ve likely called one, watched one on television, or perhaps worked in one.
A bank of desks with callers taking and returning calls is a standard configuration.
Who is it that answers those calls?
Customers.
internal customers as well as current and prospective clients.
However, during the past ten years, the way clients access your business has evolved.
Search engines are the starting point of 68% of online activities.
Digital communication is the preferred way for Millennials and Generation Z.
Before calling you, 81% of customers explore a self-service alternative.
The call center now handles fewer voice requests than ever before, despite not being at all redundant.
The phrase “contact center” refers to this. Instead of calling it a call center, we call it a contact center when a company offers additional ways to get in touch.
Similar. but distinct. Even better.
In this article, we define a contact center, discuss several usages of the term, and begin to comprehend the advantages of contact center software.
What does the term contact center mean?
Customer communication is the responsibility of a contact center, a corporate function. This could be done through a phone call, SMS, email, social media post, or even a video.
A contact center is typically an office-based business, though some have begun working from home as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Some agents, the collective term for employees working in a contact center, continue working away from the office as a result of successful home transitions.
Even hybrid contact centers with some employees working in the office and some from home are already common.
You have the following roles in a typical contact center setup:• Agents
• Supervisors\Managers
• Coaches
• Quality Control Specialists
• Resource coordinators
• technical experts
These duties could overlap in some instances. For instance, senior supervisors may coach agents who are less experienced. Agents frequently advance to become resource planners, technical experts, or supervisors.
To help them do their duties more effectively, every contact center will include specialized software and/or hardware.
The following are some tools used by contact centers:
• Call center software
• desk telephones
• Headsets
• software for multichannel call centers
• Software for multichannel contact centers
• call logging
• Wallboards
• analytics and reporting
• customer surveys
• dialers that make outgoing calls
Although contact centers might signify different things to different people, we typically associate them with individuals who handle incoming transactions or place outgoing calls.
It is not limited to a location you call or a commercial activity.
Anywhere and by any method, we can get in touch with a company.
Every area of your company that a customer can contact is a contact center.
What function does a contact center perform?
Supporting incoming calls and web interactions is the usual function of a contact center.
Channels used by contact centers include:• voice calls
• Emails
• Internet conversation
• SMS
• Using social media
The contact center of a company serves as the first line of support. Whether it’s professional or informal, when someone has a question about bills, technology, or sales, they reach out to you via your phone number, web chat, email, or different messaging platforms.
Customers may use self-service tools to fix their problems without speaking with an agent. Outside of your regular business hours, you can still provide your clients with choices.
An inbound contact center’s main goal is to keep current clients by giving them a positive (or improved) customer experience.
The reach of contact centers includes marketing and sales as well. Without the need for manual dialing or contact lookups, outbound call centers use dialer technology to call pre-populated databases of contacts.
A contact center’s job in this scenario is to bring in new clients.
These positions can be filled by both call centers and contact centers. So, what distinguishes a call center from a contact center?
What distinguishes a contact center from a call center?
The availability of several contact channels is the primary distinction between a call center and a contact center.
Customers can call your company’s call centers and either get connected immediately to an agent or receive directions after making selections on an IVR. Customers can reach the appropriate individuals by selecting options 1, 2, or 3 for a certain department. The likelihood of first-call resolution rises as a result.
However, voice-only contact is limited to call centers.
Customers can reach you through a variety of channels in contact centers.
This is what we refer to as multichannel.
Here, we provide channels like SMS, web chat, email, and social media so that clients can choose their preferred mode of contact with you. Additionally, since there are fewer lines for agents, call wait times are decreased.
The majority of customers will choose the option that presents the least amount of difficulty. Or, in this instance, the contact channel with the quickest wait time.
“This technology enables us to develop our own outreach and servicing strategy where we may meet our clients in the channel of their choosing.”
We refer to this as being omnichannel when you have the option of combining the customer experience across channels.
Data and information from one channel are shared across all channels thanks to omnichannel contact center software.
Consider the times you tried to follow up on an email by calling a support team, just to find out they weren’t able to!
Because agents can access all consumer data regardless of the channel they specialize in, omnichannel eliminates that outcome.
So, when you contact an omnichannel support team by phone, they will be able to recollect all of your prior communications via SMS, social media, web chat, or email.
Your consumer does not need to reiterate their explanation. Additionally, your agents get access to the best resources for customer service.
Both call centers and contact centers can be set up locally, in the cloud, or using a hybrid deployment strategy. Cloud deployments have started to fast take the place of conventional on-premises contact centers that required hardware, maintenance, and continuing management due to the innovation and security developments in cloud technology over the past ten years.
When implemented through the cloud, a cloud contact center offers faster ROI than a conventional call center.
What are the advantages of a contact center?
A contact center’s key advantages (over a call center) are the many avenues you provide for clients to contact you.
While there are still many applications for call centers without additional channels, such as those that serve customers who are less technologically savvy or provide compassionate support over the phone, the majority of customer service and sales functions are aware of the advantages of offering a wide range of contact options.
Some advantages of contact centers are:
• Cross-skilled personnel
• Higher NPS
• Fewer wait times
• Improved brand consistency
• Improved brand consistency
• More satisfied customers
• More satisfied customers
• Improved first-call resolution percentage
• Agents available for specialized assistance
• Reporting and analytics across channels
In the end, offering a contact center (instead of a call center) enables you to serve your clients on their preferred channels. And that is already a tremendous advantage.
Comparing cloud contact centers to in-office call centers that only handle voice calls, more uptime, dependability, and flexibility are also advantages.
Consumer-style innovation is now available at business-grade because of the advancements made in cloud innovation and transformation over the past ten years.
According to a research by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), companies can save up to 30% of their customer care costs by outsourcing it to a contact center.
In addition, companies that have used call centers have noticed a 15% boost in client retention.
How should I begin?
For small and medium-sized enterprises who are just starting started or need to upgrade their customer service function, TeamSource offers call center and contact center services that are appropriate.