What is a contact center and why is it important? Customer service contact centers are crucial tools to product sales to potential and existing clients. This article will help you understand what a contact center is all about. 

What is a contact center?

A contact center is a department inside a company that manages client contacts and all customer-related transactions. Aside from inbound and outbound calls, a contact center also handles various other channels such as chats, SMS, emails, messaging applications, social media sites, official business websites, video calls, and more. 

Numerous forms of cutting-edge technologies are used by contact centers to track client engagements, promptly resolve customer issues, and collect agent interaction and performance data. Typically, contact centers are run by either an internal department or by an outsourcing firm.

Through its modern and highly customizable functions, a contact center provides businesses a seamless tool to handle their clients and their needs; thus improving customer satisfaction and experience. An omnichannel contact center is necessary in any organization’s call center in order to cater to the ever-changing consumer preferences. 

The evolution from a call center to a contact center

According to Contact Center World, consumers are changing their behaviors. About two thirds of people would rather handle their own difficulties than contact customer support. In addition, nearly 70% of customers say they like to use diverse channels while looking for solutions.

Customers can obtain the support they require in a convenient setting thanks to the contact center, which transforms the phone-based ecosystem for customer care and support into a worldwide resource. Contact center agents are more than just people who answer phones; they are essential brand ambassadors who carry out a consistent, branded, and personalized experience wherever they go.

4 types of contact centers

The inbound contact center

The inbound contact center is set up to answer phone calls only. Responding to client issues such as service enquiries, incoming sales inquiries, order fulfillment, technical challenges, and basic help desk issues is the primary goal.

There is still a high demand for inbound contact centers because many customers still prefer voice interactions with companies. Although These straightforward techniques might not be sufficient,  it will depend on the size of your company, your customers' needs, and the number of calls you get.

The outbound contact center

Businesses utilize the outbound contact center to actively connect with their clients in sales and marketing rather than waiting for consumer calls. This type of contact center can help businesses attract new customers. 

The main activities that take place in an outbound contact center include telemarketing, sales, cold calling, customer follow-ups, upselling, and lead development.

Without one of these outward platforms, every business with internal growth and expansion aspirations will struggle to succeed.

The multichannel contact center

The multichannel contact center offers support for social media, mobile apps, websites, chatbots, instant messenger, SMS, and more things in addition to phone and email communications. Even though they are still crucial in these contact centers, phones are only one of many instruments utilized in the multichannel environment to support the company  to provide  top-notch customer service.

Investing in a multichannel contact center can provide you a huge competitive advantage over your competitors if you are  trying to position your brand as the market leader.

The omnichannel contact center

The omni-channel contact center, similar to a multichannel center, uses a variety of access points to serve customers and enhance company communications. The omni-channel center can effortlessly incorporate all different communication entry points into one unified platform. This is its  key distinction. In contrast to a one-size-fits-all strategy, firms may now offer considerably more individualized services to each and every customer.

Everything is integrated in an omni-channel center, making all data openly accessible regardless of time and location. Agents can have a comprehensive perspective of the whole customer journey and simply access all the information they need to provide the kind of personalized service meeting modern customers’ expectations.

Benefits of contact centers

A contact center's main objective is to provide a seamless customer experience. Managing sales transactions, responding to  client inquiries, and providing support are all a part of that goal. To maintain consistent and continuous communication throughout the entire customer lifecycle, contact centers can offer the suitable resources, data, and context. Businesses can benefit from this in a variety of ways, including the following:

• Receive and quickly handle customer issues  
• Consolidate customer information for management
• Increase employee productivity
• Easily manage the quality of sales agents’ performance
• Synchronize omnichannel customer experience
• Save money on operating costs 

>>> Read more: 6 Benefits of Contact Center For Businesses

StringeeX - The omnichannel contact center solution for all!

StringeeX is a complete cloud-based contact center software that can be a replacement for a business’ PBX. It has features to support better customer care and record customer information. In other words, it is a comprehensive omnichannel contact center that brings a unified customer experience for better sales and customer service optimization. 

This omnichannel contact center provides various features which can benefit your business to enhance customer experience such as: voice call, video call, live chat, email/Facebook/Zalo management.

Let’s have a look at the case of Head HONDA Cao Son. 

To properly handle client information and boost sales from maintenance, car care, and customer satisfaction, the branch used StringeeX contact center.

Head Honda Cao Son's hotline numbers are converted to SIP numbers by Stringee so they may be used as call center numbers. The monthly call costs for Honda Cao Son decreased by roughly 30% as a result of this strategy. Additionally, rather than making one call at a time as they used to, call center agents can now call numerous customers at once at the same number.

Honda Cao Son can manage all client data, including phone numbers, car details, purchase history, and maintenance history on the system using the StringeeX call center software.

Conclusion

Now that you know what a contact center is and what benefits it provides, this information will help your organization provide excellent customer service to impress and increase customer base. A contact center serves as a business' frontline - therefore choosing the correct contact center is highly important. 

Want to learn more about how StringeeX contact center will improve your business? We're here to help! Send us a message here and we'll promptly assist you.