We often use the terms “call center” and “contact center” interchangeably. But are they really the same? Both serve as “gateways” or initial points of contact for businesses and organizations. Both handle inbound and outbound phone calls and use some form of call quality monitoring to maximize their efficiencies. But there are some distinct differences between the two.
The Call Center
Call centers focus mainly on phone calls, with some call center systems being separated into “inbound” and “outbound” sections. Inbound agents attend to areas such as product inquiries, questions and complaints, and often provide some type of support, technical or otherwise. The duties of outbound agents include surveying and marketing and research, and customer and prospect follow-up. Of course many times these tasks are integrated, and agents must be well-versed in all areas.
The Contact Center
Although contact centers often perform many of the same functions as call centers, these entities are known to use a wider range of methods than just phone calls to communicate with customers and inquirers. For instance, contact centers use avenues such as websites, email, instant messaging and even traditional mail to exchange information with prospects and existing clients. In this sense, a little more versatility is often required of contact center agents as opposed to their call center counterparts.
The Nuts and Bolts
As mentioned, one major similarity between call centers and contact centers is that they both monitor call quality through the use of call monitoring and call recording software. Regardless of the mission of a call or contact center, these systems facilitate the meticulous mining of business intelligence that is often buried within countless hours of phone conversations between agents and customers.
Along withspeech analytics technologies, call monitoring and recording systems help management uncover trends, improve processes and boost agent effectiveness through targeted education and training. Though the terms “contact center” and “call center” may always be seen as synonymous in most circles, call center monitoring and recording solutions have been an unmistakable boon to the industry as a whole.
Many facets of a business can benefit from call recording and speech analytics solutions that give them the ability to mine the audio of recorded conversations to capture the customer experience.
To learn how to implement an affordable, cloud-based call recording and speech analytics solution, contact CallFinder today. Our Web-based CallFinder solution utilizes recording and search analysis to monitor 100% of your inbound call interactions with customers, no matter which department you work in.
