A call center is a facility that only provides inbound and outbound customer service or support operations. As a result, call centers only provide support for incoming and outgoing calls. In other words, they only provide consumers with mobile assistance. However, when it comes to contact centers, companies like Sales Capital provide customer service through a variety of communication platforms, including smartphones, websites, email, and social media. As a result, the most significant distinction between a call center and a contact center is the communication mechanism and the customer experience.
Contact center customer support offers a more efficient omnichannel experience for consumers and employees. Making the distinction between a contact center and a call center in Sri Lanka, including how to adapt it to business needs, is critical to delivering a differentiated and productive customer experience. Knowing the difference between a call center and a contact center, as well as how to adapt it to the needs of a company's brand, is important when selecting the right outsourced customer service provider. Many other considerations must be considered by an organization when determining which call center or contact center is better for its needs, in addition to the key differences outlined here.
The most critical distinction between a call center and a contact center is that, as previously stated, contact centers communicate with customers in a variety of ways, including by phone, email, social media, and other means. Where a call center specifically handles communication over the phone, a contact center manages a wide range of communication channels, including text, email, and live chat forums. While contact centers allow agents to conduct a call across multiple channels, call centers limit themselves to focusing on one form of communication, such as voice calls. As a result, contact centers cover both digital and conventional telephone service networks. Furthermore, contact centers have an integrated infrastructure that allows customers to switch communication channels at any time without disrupting the current service flow. Customers can choose how they want to connect with businesses, much as they can with a contact center, resulting in predictive and proactive communication at a low cost and increased customer loyalty. Contact centers are set up to encourage self-service through emails, chatbots, and text messages. These self-service options minimize the amount of time call center agents spend on hang and increase customer service employee efficiency.
The ACD system of a call center forwards incoming calls to the appropriate agent based on configuration, varying from call center to call center. Virtual call centers, for example, can use their software to create remote agents to manage phone calls as in a central call center. Sales Capital, for example, continued to perform contact center activities remotely via the ACD system in 2020 during the last COVID-19 pandemic without interruption.
A call center can either be a stand-alone company (e.g. a call center) that focuses primarily on voice communication that is only channeled, or it can be an "omniche" contact center, a company that stands in the middle of the two and focuses primarily on all - voice communication that is only channeled. It can be a "contact center" that relies on voice as the primary communication medium or a contact center that handles all voices and communication channels at all times. If a company needs customer service, a contact center is the best option because it creates a strong connection between the customer and the service provider through Omni-channels.