What is a contact centre?
A contact centre is a facility or department in an organisation that manages inbound and outbound customer interactions across multiple channels, including phone calls, webchat, web collaboration, emails, and voice-over IP (VoIP).
What is the function of a contact centre?
The primary function of a contact centre is to offer customer service, technical support, and sales assistance through the customer’s preferred channel. However, companies can also use it for surveys, telemarketing, lead generation, upselling, and cross-selling.
Contact centre versus a call centre
Although similar to a call centre, a contact centre is distinct in two ways:
- Call centre agents only interact with customers via telephone calls, while a contact centre provides omnichannel support.
- Call centres help customers by routing calls to the relevant agents or departments. Contact centres use advanced customer self-service (CSS) tools such as chatbots and FAQ web pages to help customers solve their problems independently.
Contact centre technologies
Contact centres need sophisticated technologies to ensure maximum agent efficiency and customer satisfaction. Below are the key software tools that most contact centres use:
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) systems
Predictive dialer
Intelligent call-back
Call recording systems
Knowledge management system
Email response management system (ERMS)
Workforce management (WFM) software
ACD systems analyse large volumes of incoming calls and automatically distribute them among agents based on predefined rules, such as agent availability and support type.
A predictive dialer is a tool that automates outbound calls using preset algorithms to support business objectives. Answered calls are routed to available agents, ensuring minimum agent idle time and optimal connect rates.
This feature allows customers to select the call-back option instead of waiting in a caller queue.
Call recording captures all customer interactions, enabling the contact centre managers or supervisors to review calls as required. Call recording also supports real-time analytics reporting to deliver business insights.
A knowledge management system is a centralised knowledge base for all customer data. Storing customer information in a centralised repository helps to locate the relevant information quickly and provide a superior customer experience. It also simplifies agent training.
An ERMS is an automated solution for processing incoming emails and routing them to the relevant agents.
WFM solutions streamline and automate agent scheduling and staffing. They also help in managing staff performance.
Types of contact centres
Contact centres can be cloud-based, on-premise, virtual, or hosted. Each type has distinct advantages.
Cloud-based contact centres
On-premise contact centres
Virtual contact centres
Hosted contact centres
Cloud contact centres are easy to deploy and can offer superior omnichannel support. They are scalable, customisable, and have fewer upfront costs.
Hosting the contact centre on on-premise servers gives an organisation better control over its hardware, software, and security features. However, this solution is fast becoming obsolete as it involves significant costs, space, and IT support.
Virtual contact centres are ideal for businesses with remote-working agents. They are cloud-based and require no specialised hardware.
Hosted contact centres are facilities outsourced to third-party service providers. Outsourcing the contact centre infrastructure or contact center consulting services enables organisations to minimise the costs of ownership and maintenance.
