Did you know that call centers around the world employ millions of people? If you have been guilty of using the words contact center and call center interchangeably, and are wondering “what is a call center?” you are in the right place. We are going to share more about a contact center vs a call center plus more.
Keep reading to learn what each one is and the top benefits of call centers.
What Is a Call Center?
Call centers are departments that take inbound calls from customers and sometimes also make outbound calls to customers as needed. A traditional call center will have customer service representatives that handle customer questions and inquiries as they come in.
There are certain call centers that also provide other services like billing, telemarketing, and debt collection. Most call centers have autodialers to help improve the speed of calls coming into the center.
These are some of the top benefits of call centers:
1. Maximize Sales
One of the major benefits of a call center is that you can use it to qualify leads ahead of time. You can have a dedicated number of call center agents that qualify the leads.
For example, they can upload thousands of contact lists to a specific call center software and qualify the leads by calling them individually. If the lead passes the qualification requirements then that agent can transfer them to a dedicated salesperson.
Another way that you can maximize sales with a call center is by taking advantage of your existing customers to help you generate new purchases. There can be a dedicated group of agents that can call clients to present them with new offers based on all of their previous purchases.
2. Personalized Service Experience
The better your customer service experience is, the better it will be for your business which is where call centers can help. For example, they can use a feature that is called “call recording” and these recorded calls can be used to review how effective agents are being during the call.
The recorded calls can also be used by agents to listen to the previous calls with the client and review them to take notes before calling a client back. This will give the customer a more personalized experience instead of having to repeat themselves every time they speak to a new agent.
Another personalized feature is call routing. This allows the agents in the call center to route calls to the correct agent to avoid multiple transfers and frustrated customers.
3. Client Retention
Utilizing a call center correctly can truly improve client retention which equates to saving money in the long run. Call centers can contact existing customers to either extend their contracts or agreements or purchase a new product.
Every time there are new offers, your customers can be contacted with personalized options or promo deals because they are already existing clients.
4. Market Research
A call center can help a business understand the needs of a client and the client’s preferences. Knowing this kind of information will help you prepare a market study before you run a marketing campaign. Agents can gather a ton of insights from customers by calling them and asking certain survey questions.
Either an actual call can be made to every single customer in the database or call centers have the option to use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology.
5. Resources Are Utilized Efficiently
As long as the call center has optimized processes in place and the proper tools the customer service agents are able to handle customer issues on a first call. This means that there are fewer callbacks and a much higher productivity rate.
Agents that have clear call metrics will be able to handle their calls within a certain time. The speed of the call will demonstrate how quickly a representative is able to respond to the client’s concerns for calling in.
Whenever reps do not show that they are taking care of the customers because they are not using the resources at hand they can be required to go through some extra training to ensure that they can handle a customer’s concern.
6. Insights
Something else that call centers help with is monitoring numbers in real-time. You are able to monitor things such as how many clients are in a queue, the wait time, and if there are any abandoned calls.
There is also the ability to listen in on a representative while they are on a call without the customer hearing. This allows those agents that are still in training or are newer to the company to have a bit of hands-on help. Gaining insights into how agents are treating the customers will always improve the client experience and help the business.
What Is a Contact Center?
A contact center is a department that is able to handle outbound and inbound customer interactions. The main difference is that a contact center agent has the ability to interact with customers via different types of channels. They can interact via texts, emails, the web, messaging, and social media.
Feeling Like a Call Center Pro?
We hope that now that we answered the question “what is a call center?” you have a different picture of a center instead of the typical endless rows of desks with agents talking on the phone.
Did this blog post help you learn something new today? Keep browsing the rest of this section to catch the latest reads.