CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service)

Types of Contact Centers: Discussed in Detailed

Given the fact that contact centers are where most of the customer activity happens, this department needs robust tools and solutions to handle the load.

To help businesses manage call volumes in addition to keeping their efforts goal-aligned, they can choose from various types of contact center solutions.

Through this blog, let’s understand the types of contact centers that exist to make business functions easy. 

What are the Types of Contact Center Services?

Before advanced calling management technology came into the picture, call centers were about installing hundreds of phones and hiring that many representatives.

Today, however, modern soft technology has made it possible to understand how call centers can be made more efficient. In conjunction with business needs, technology has diversified call centers into various types. Let’s see what they are.

1. Inbound Contact Center

An inbound contact center only manages incoming customer calls. This essentially means that businesses cannot use such types of contact center solutions to proactively place any calls to customers, whether for marketing or advertising.

1. Inbound Contact Center
Inbound Contact Center

The major functions of inbound call centers include answering customer queries, order processing, loyalty programs, etc.

However, that doesn’t mean that inbound call centers lack in terms of technological implements. Various modern and intelligent software and tools help manage inbound contact centers effectively:

If your business sells products and services for which there could be customer queries, an inbound call center is the right choice for you.

2. Outbound Contact Center

Outbound call centers, contrary to inbound call centers, have the tools required by a business to be proactive in a variety of functions, like:

  • Telemarketing
  • Advertising
  • Lead generation
  • Customer surveys
  • Market research
  • Custom onboarding

Businesses leverage outbound call centers to create a brand image and generate brand awareness amongst the target audience.

The technology that outbound contact centers employ helps businesses keep track of their lead progress and data.

Businesses can expedite their outward, customer-centric initiatives by using features like:

3. Blended/Hybrid Contact Centers

Larger enterprises with huge operations typically go for blended call centers.

Blended contact centers combine the functions of outbound and inbound contact centers, allowing the business to provide everything from lead building to customer support through their representatives.

Blended/Hybrid Contact Center
Blended/Hybrid Contact Center

Such types of contact center services come with inbuilt automation capabilities that help businesses better route their calls and improve the overall efficiency of operations.

This type of contact center is ideal for businesses who wish to close sales via telephone and also are in the position to provide customer support over the phone.

Blended contact centers do require a hefty initial investment; however, once set up and customized, they prove to be quite the asset. Businesses can improve their customer satisfaction levels just by using such an efficient solution.

4. Virtual Contact Center

Digital transformation has overtaken the globe in one fell sweep. It has impacted the way inbound and outbound contact centers work. Much of businesses’ operations have gone virtual, and contact centers are no exception.

This is what a virtual contact center is: the digital cousin of inbound or outbound contact centers. A virtual contact center has the same set of goals and customer management protocols.

The only difference is that a virtual contact center operates a little differently. The customer service agents do not have to physically be present at the desk to make and receive calls.

Using cloud-based software, the representatives can log in to the company’s virtual contact center dashboard and manage their calls from anywhere in the world.

5. Automated Call Center

Automated contact centers help businesses run their call center operations using as little manpower as possible. The tools that automated contact centers are equipped with include:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Email automation
  • Messaging
  • Sending holiday wishes and greetings
  • Online call or meeting scheduling

The automation capabilities help take the mundane, clerical tasks off of the manual workforce. This type of contact center helps businesses make the most of their available workforce.

As such, automated contact centers are ideally suited for businesses that are looking to optimize their human capital for critical tasking.

By using this solution, the customer representatives of a business can help with business strategies while the automation tool looks after calls.

6. Multichannel and Omnichannel Contact Centers

While they may sound like the same thing, multichannel and omnichannel contact centers are actually different.

A multichannel contact center allows your business to contact or stay in touch with customers over a variety of channels.

For example, video calls, phone calls, email messages, and social media messaging – every interaction over these multiple channels would fall under the ambit of a multichannel contact center.

On the other hand, an omnichannel contact center not only allows the business to interact with customers over various channels but also collates all the data onto a single platform.

Every interaction your business has with a customer over any channel is unified into a single customer profile that is comprehensive and representative of that customer.

7. In-House/Outsourced Contact Centers

In-house contact centers and outsourced centers are exactly what they sound like.

An in-house contact center is one that a business owns and runs by itself. On the other hand, outsourced contact centers are hired by businesses as a way of easing their responsibilities.

In-house contact centers, by nature, offer more control over the functioning and management since they are owned by the business that runs them.

They do require a large initial investment to get all the equipment, software, manpower, and office space arranged. However, the business can freely decide how it uses its resources to run the place.

Outsourced contact centers are mostly independent by way of technologies, manpower, methodologies, and space. Businesses can select the services they want, but it limits the control they have over this operation.

8. Offshore Contact Center

Offshore contact centers are a kind of outsourced contact centers. The only difference is that they are located in countries where manpower is available at more affordable salaries, like Indonesia, the Philippines, India, etc.

These contact centers provide cost optimization benefits to businesses that wish to focus on other aspects of growth.

With that said, offshore contact centers can pose certain crippling limitations if not selected wisely.

For example, language barriers could create problems with query resolution, and the solution could get lost in difficult conversations or accent problems.

However, as growing small businesses require cost-effective solutions to provide a certain benchmark of services to their customers, offshore contact centers may just be the right choice.

Wrapping Up

Among the types of contact centers discussed, the one you ultimately select for your business would depend on your growth strategy, requirements, budget, and preferred mode of operations.

For small and growing businesses, offshore and virtual contact centers provide more cost-effective usage and flexibility. On the other hand, for established, larger enterprises, blended call centers make more sense.

If you are looking for a comprehensive solution for a contact center – whether managed physically or virtually – that can handle automation, inbound and outbound calls, and even analytics and reporting, give JustCall a try.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is BPO in call centers?

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Much like the name suggests, by way of BPO, businesses outsource their contact center services to agencies that can cater to their call volumes.

It helps businesses reorganize their resource allocation and growth strategies while they decide how to proceed with creating a contact center.

What technology is used at call centers?

There are quite a few technological implements that are in popular use in business contact centers:

  • Call recording
  • Remote desktops
  • Omnichannel, multichannel, and cross-channel technology
  • CRMs
  • IVRs
  • Collaboration technologies

…and many more. These software-based solutions help businesses capitalize on their customer service ethos by delivering exemplary experiences.

What is call center automation?

Call center automation can be defined as delegating mundane, tedious, clerical tasks to intelligent software.

For example, data entry and collation can be automated at the source of data collection, reducing countless manhours that the contact center staff would otherwise use for manually entering call and customer data.

Automation, in the meanwhile, can deal with basic-level queries and customer requirements that don’t require human intervention (like order updates).

What metrics should be tracked at inbound call centers?

There are eight key metrics that an inbound call center should be tracking for optimum performance:

  • Abandoned call rate
  • Average after-call work time
  • The number of calls blocked (as a percentage)
  • Average time spent in queue by a customer
  • First-contact successful resolution of queries
  • Average handle time
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Average response time, or speed of answer
Is a virtual call center good for business?

Yes, given that businesses increasingly operate over the cloud nowadays, a virtual call center can make your operations really smooth.

It helps you save the cost of equipment and office space. Your business can even improve the employee turnover rate by allowing them the flexibility to work from anywhere.

Vijaya heads the Global Support team at JustCall, where he has played a pivotal role in expanding the support team and diversifying its channels and services. Under his guidance, the team consistently earns top customer satisfaction scores. With a passion for team-building, Vijaya is committed to empowering his staff to deliver unparalleled customer experiences. In addition to his managerial responsibilities, he is a certified Leadership Coach, specializing in helping leaders overcome their unique challenges to achieve success.

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