What’s the difference?
Call Center
This is an industry focused on serving accounts (clients) by taking and or receiving calls. This is when we encounter industry terms like Inbound and Outbound calls.
Inbound Calls
Have you called a certain number to ask for information or assistance? That is an incoming call from the customer to the call center, thus the term inbound calls.
Here are the concerns addressed through inbound calls:
1. ) Order taking concerns
2. ) Customer service
3. ) Billing Inquiries
4. ) Technical Support
5. ) Directory Assistance
6. ) Long Distance Service ( International/ Local Calls, Collect Calls, Prepaid Call Service, Bill to Account Call Service)
7. ) Sales inquiry
8. ) Driving Instructions among others
Outbound Calls
This is your usual telemarketing call. So every instance that you will receive a call from a company for a certain purpose, they are in the process of doing outgoing /outbound calls.
Let me share the purposes of doing outbound calls:
1. ) After sales service
2. ) Telemarketing call
3. ) Survey
4. ) Follow -up / Update calls
5. ) Event invitation among others
What are the calls that you experienced so far? Is it more of the inbound or outbound?
Contact Center
Aside from the usual telephony service of inbound and outbound calls, contact center serves its customers through fax, chat and email. These are some examples of concerns addressed by contact centers (aside from the usual telephony service)
1. ) Product inquiry coursed through website emails
2. ) Quotation request
3. ) Operating instructions
4. ) Before and After Sales Service
5. ) Order taking
6. ) Account update concerns
7. ) Case endorsement to development
8. ) Product incident reports among others
For call /contact center readers:
Please share more examples if you would like to add more to the list that I missed.
How about you?
What was the recent call /contact center experience that you encountered recently? I would love to hear your stories.
Keep blogging,
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This clears up any misconception I had on the differences between a call center and contact center. I thought they we’re one and the same thing.
