A call center or contact center offers customized solutions for specific needs.

Throughout the history of our blog, we have given you an overview of what a call center and contact center are and the benefits they can bring to your company. However, one of our main challenges we face is to clearly delimit the functions and utilities within the organizations we work for.
The first thing to make very clear is the preponderance that the concept of customer experience (CX) is having in the business world. It is a vision that has been reshaping business today where everything revolves around what the customer’s final perception will be after coming into contact with a brand. This has been revolutionary because companies that have focused on the customer have proven to be 60% more profitable and therefore will mark the difference between those that stay and those that are left behind.

Once this is understood, it is easy to know why many companies are turning to the services of a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) call center to manage their communications with customers more efficiently. It has the tools that allow them to improve the customer experience. Hence the importance of knowing what a call center is and how it can help improve CX.

What does a call center do nowadays?

As we have mentioned in other posts, a bpo call center is a company that has an operational infrastructure designed to manage interactions between its clients and their customers through telephone calls.

As you probably already know, the main objective of a call center is to provide efficient and effective customer service, whether providing technical support, customer service, sales or any other type of service. And the fact is that these places not only answer calls from users for clarifications or complaints, provide information or technical support, make reservations or appointments, purchases or take orders, but also allow calls to users for telemarketing campaigns, surveys or collection.

However, what you may not know is that, nowadays, call centers play a fundamental role in the customer experience, since they are the direct point of contact with the company to solve queries, make purchases or receive technical assistance. The importance of an efficient and well-managed call center has become even more evident in the digital age, where customers expect to be able to communicate with companies through a variety of channels and get quick and accurate answers to their queries. That is is the evolution from a call center to a contact center!

Do you know the difference between a call center and a contact center?

It would seem that they are the same and that one term has simply become more fashionable than the other in recent years. However, although both serve practically the same purpose, they are actually an evolving concept.

This evolution came from technology: while traditional telephone call centers rely on a PBX, i.e. a private branch exchange, more recent ones have opened up to VoIP, i.e. over IP networks, making it easier and cheaper to communicate between calls.

The next step was channels: while a call center focuses primarily on managing inbound and outbound phone calls, a contact center broadens its scope to include a variety of communication channels that the digital era has enabled. This means that a contact center is able to offer a multichannel service, allowing customers to communicate with the company through the channel of their choice, be it phone, email, online chat or social media. This omnichannel contact center capability is essential to adapt to customer communication preferences in the digital age.

Omni-channel not only enhances the customer experience, but also provides greater opportunities for the company in terms of customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. Allowing customers to choose their preferred communication channel increases convenience and reduces friction in the process of interacting with the company.

Whether your company hires a call center or a contact center, it can benefit your company in a number of ways:

1. Improving customer experience by providing fast, friendly and efficient service.
2. Allowing you to manage a high volume of communications more efficiently, which are continuously improving to ensure quality of service.
3. Providing flexibility to adapt quickly to changing business needs without your company having to undergo unplanned hiring or the opposite.
4. Helping reduce operating costs by outsourcing customer service functions.
5. Allowing the company to focus on its core business by delegating customer service tasks to a staff with high expertise in customer service, which guarantees a high quality service even if your brand is new in this area.

What should a good call center have?

A call center or contact center adapted to the new market needs must have several key elements to ensure quality service and meet the needs of its customers. These elements include:

Trained staff: They must be well trained in communication skills, empathy and problem solving in order to provide exceptional customer service. Ongoing training is essential to keep staff up-to-date on company procedures, policies and products, as well as to constantly improve their customer service skills.

Advanced technology: It is essential to have up-to-date technology systems and tools that allow for efficient management of customer interactions, as well as data collection and analysis to continually improve service. This may include customer relationship management (CRM) systems, call routing software, data analytics tools, and social media management platforms, among others.

Personalization capabilities: The call center must be able to adapt to fluctuations in demand and scale its operations as needed to ensure minimal wait times and timely service. This may involve implementing workforce management strategies such as flexible scheduling, shift management, and temporary or remote staffing as needed.

Focus on customer satisfaction: Going back to the initial theme of CX, the primary goal of a good call center should be customer satisfaction. This does not necessarily imply providing fast service (as was the case with traditional call centers where advisors had to have the line cleared as quickly as possible), but rather friendly and efficient service that solves customer needs and problems effectively. Implementing customer satisfaction surveys, monitoring the quality of interactions and collecting feedback are key tools to constantly evaluate and improve the customer experience.

Meeting business objectives: In addition to satisfying customer needs, a good call center should contribute to the achievement of the business objectives of the company it works for, either by increasing sales, improving customer retention or reducing operating costs. This may involve implementing clear performance metrics and objectives, as well as working closely with other departments in the company to ensure alignment of objectives and strategies.

Both a call center and a contact center are an essential tool for companies that want to provide exceptional customer service and adapt to the demands of today’s market. There are certain key points to review before hiring a contact center to see if it can help companies achieve their business objectives and differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace:

1. Analyze the volume of customer communications: If your company receives a high volume of calls, emails or text messages from customers, it urges the help of a contact center BPO to manage these interactions efficiently.
2. Assess the complexity of customer inquiries: If customer inquiries are complex and require specialized knowledge, a contact center BPO with a single trained staff will do the rest of the work.
3. Consider the availability of internal resources: If your company does not have the internal resources necessary to manage customer communications effectively (call center, CRM software, etc.), outsourcing these functions to a contact center BPO that generates customized mechanisms and reports is a cost-effective solution.
4. Think about customer service quality: If your company is struggling to deliver quality customer service due to resource constraints or lack of expertise, a contact center BPO can help improve service quality and customer satisfaction. The expense will be a great investment in the medium to long term.
5. Evaluate the ability to adapt to changing business needs: If your company needs flexibility to adapt to changes in customer service demand, a contact center BPO can provide the scalability needed to manage these fluctuations.
6. Consider operational costs: If your company is looking for ways to reduce operational costs without sacrificing customer service quality, outsourcing functions to the right contact center BPO can be cost-saving rather than an extra expense.

The key to a useful call center for the companies it serves lies in the ability to adapt to changing market needs and maintain a customer-centric approach at all times. By investing in the right people, technology and processes, companies can partner with a high-performing contact center that serves as a strategic asset for long-term growth and success.