Are you more focused on outbound sales, inbound customer service or a mix of both? Believe it or not, there are various call center models, each tailored to suit different business needs.
Familiarizing yourself with how they differ from each other is a good place to start. And of course understanding what a call center is all about in the first place to get you started the right way.
What is a Call Center?
Call centers create a vital bridge between businesses and their customers. They handle both inbound and outbound calls, acting as a hub for customer contact.
Call center agents do much more than just answer questions and solve problems – they build customer relationships. They route inquiries to the right departments, record important customer information for reports and are the engine powering high-quality customer support.
Beyond customer service, call centers are massive drivers of sales and lead generation by connecting with large amounts of potential and existing customers. They can even streamline operations by gathering feedback on customer preferences and trends, which plays a critical role in continuous improvement.
Understanding the fundamentals of the various call center models is essential before diving in. Let’s explore some of the most common examples.
Types of Call Centers
#1 Inbound Call Center
Inbound call centers focus mainly on incoming calls for anything related to customer service, acting as the first point of customer contact.
Their goal is providing excellent service with quick and efficient problem-solving, handling everything from account queries to technical support and order processing. Plus, agents can gather valuable insights and feedback directly from the customer, allowing the business to continually improve their product or service.
Tools to use
- Automatic Call Distribution software ensures no call goes unanswered, a hugely important asset for inbound call centers.
- A virtual receptionist powered by IVR and Text-to-Speech technology automates the handling of everyday queries.
- Speech analytics and recognition tools analyze every interaction to boost customer satisfaction.
#2 Outbound Call Center
Outbound call centers are the opposite of inbound: they focus on outgoing calls to both potential and existing customers. Rather than supporting existing clients, they work primarily to expand the company’s customer base.
Through telemarketing, proactive customer service, market research, lead generation, sales, customer onboarding, and retention and churn prevention, outbound call centers are pivotal to revenue generation. They drive growth with proactive outreach – an important strategy for market expansion.
Tools to use
- AI-predictive dialers maximize outbound calling strategies by boosting call rates by up to 400%. Together with Answering Machine Detection, they ensure that agents are only connected once the call is answered by a human.
- Real-time dashboards provide full visibility over agent performance and productivity, helping to elevate outbound call center performance.
#3 Blended Call Center
Blended call centers combine both inbound and outbound strategies, giving businesses more flexibility. They’re great resources for large companies with an existing customer base, who are also expanding into new markets, as they drive sales and provide solid customer support.
Blended call centers can be more operationally challenging than simple inbound or outbound centers: exceptional agent training, investments in specialized tools and software and solid productivity measurements are just the basics. But they can lead to excellent sales opportunities and revenue potential, as well as increased customer satisfaction.
Tools to use
- Real-time dashboards that provide a comprehensive overview of performance metrics.
- A strong contact center software that can scale alongside your business.
#4 Virtual Call Center
Virtual call centers are excellent resources for international businesses operating across multiple time zones and markets. Agents are remotely connected by cloud-based technology, meaning they can be based anywhere in the world.
Virtual call centers aren’t bound by typical 9-5 working schedules, either: they can operate round-the-clock, facilitating 24/7 support for customers regardless of where they’re located. This makes them a scalable solution that can grow with businesses, adapting easily to slow or busy periods without drastic staffing changes.
Virtual call centers are the perfect mix of humans and technology: many repetitive, routine tasks are automated, allowing agents more time to work on complex issues. They open businesses up for a wider range of customer interactions. Plus, they get rid of the rent, infrastructure and hardware costs that come with running a physical office.
Tools to use
- Text-to-Speech technology is hugely beneficial for virtual centers in automating how routine queries are handled, cutting down on call wait times and improving customer satisfaction.
- A software that supports Omnichannel communication, enabling customer contact over whatever platform suits the customer.
#5 In-house vs Outsourced Call Centers
In-house call centers are directly operated by the company itself, while outsourced ones involve hiring a third-party. Choosing one depends on how much control you want over the call center’s operations and what resources you’re willing to invest.
In-house call centers are more costly in rent, infrastructure, training, software and other tools. Agents need to be trained in complex issues and consistent messaging to maintain effectiveness. But their biggest advantage lies in having full control over all aspects of operations.
On the other hand, outsourced call centers or BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) are much less of a hassle to operate. Once your BPO is onboarded, you can basically step back – the only caveat being minimal control over operations, which can sometimes lead to poor results. They’re cost-effective, scalable, and offer specific industry expertise, but can come at the cost of brand representation and quality control.
#6 Multichannel Call Center
Multichannel centers can be either inbound or outbound, depending on the business’ needs.
They facilitate customer contact across various channels, like phone, SMS, email, social media and messaging platforms, that work independently of each other. Agents are usually assigned a specific channel and won’t have access to information on other platforms.
They’re a good starting point for businesses opening up various means of customer support, but their personalization capabilities can be limited. Agents have to switch between different platforms to get a comprehensive overview of customer histories, leading to higher wait times and reduced customer satisfaction.
Tools to have
- Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) that provides full visibility over customer interactions across various channels.
- Flow builders that enable custom call flow design and IVR menus.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relevant to the business that measure and boost productivity.
#7 Omnichannel Call Center
Omnichannel call centers are a level up from multichannel call centers. While they also facilitate multiple communication platforms, they go a step further by integrating them into a single interface. They enable agents to easily switch between channels in one place, providing full access to customer information and previous interactions.
They’re instrumental in customer personalization as they unify the entire experience, allowing customers to easily contact businesses without having to repeat themselves. They speed up average handling times, which ultimately cuts down on call wait times and results in better customer satisfaction.
Tools to use
- A powerful call center software capable of unifying all communication platforms.
- Analytics and speech recognition tools that provide real-time data on agent performance and customer satisfaction.
#8 Automated Call Center
Automated call centers live up to their name: they automate basic customer enquiries and use intelligent call routing to connect customers with agents when necessary.
Automated call centers support customers by leveraging AI to provide real-time support with chatbots, natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition.
Automated call centers are widely used for sharing news about product updates and promotions, as well as for appointment reminders, online scheduling and email marketing.
Tools to use
- AI-powered chatbots that automate customer responses and cut down on repetitive tasks.
- IVR menus that guide the customer through self-service options.
Choosing the Right Call Center for Your Business Needs
Every company is different. Choosing which type of call center to implement depends on your specific business needs.
Define your goals & objectives
Start by outlining your primary objectives: customer service, sales, lead generation, technical support, or anything else your business is aiming for.
Set your KPIs based on your goals and business strategy. For example, businesses focusing on sales would monitor conversion rates, whereas those geared towards customer service would value first-call resolution. Aligning the business’ strategies with the call center’s objectives will help in determining both your long and short-term goals.
And don’t forget to think about scalability: will your needs grow or change over time? If so, consider all potential threats to your call center, and where you can capitalize on opportunities.
Understand your needs
Understand your business’ needs by evaluating the volume of calls you’re expecting to make or receive, as each call center experiences different levels of inbound or outbound calls.
Next, determine the complexity of the expected interactions: will they be predominantly simple queries or more specialized support requests? This will guide your hiring strategies and give you a good idea of how much automation you’ll need.
Then anticipate the call center’s service levels to decide whether 24/7 availability or regional time zone coverage needs to be factored in. For businesses dealing with high call volumes, round-the-clock support may be a necessity. And if callers are coming from all over the world, multilingual support might be useful.
Evaluate technology & software features
Investigate essential software features depending on your call center’s priorities, whether they be customer support, lead generation or sales, to ensure your business can run effectively. If it’s customer satisfaction, IVR can provide a self-service option that cuts down on call wait times. Or if you want high outbound call volumes, a predictive dialer can boost call rates and optimize agent productivity, while a real-time dashboard can make it easy to monitor metrics in real time.
Ensure that the chosen software supports omnichannel communication to integrate all platforms into one interface, allowing for easy scalability and better customer experience. It should also have robust security features such as encryption, and comply with GDPR, HIPAA and other data protection regulations.
Consider location & type
Factor in your location and preference. There are good and bad aspects to every type of call center, which means you need to weigh the pros and cons: is a local call center more restrictive than an offshore one that can support different time zones and languages? Is one more cost-effective than the other? The location has to align with the customer’s needs, language and culture.
Consider whether one makes more sense than another: if you’re focused mainly on sales and marketing, is an inbound call center necessary? If outbounding is the primary goal, consider focusing solely on outgoing calls.
And it’s important to decide whether you’ll be offering remote work: virtual call centers can be more flexible and save cost, while in-person centers can be more centralized and targeted.
Analyze cost & budget
Choose the pricing model that caters to your organization’s needs. You may find a pay-per-call system more beneficial, while another call center finds it more valuable to pay-per-agent.
And remember to factor maintenance costs and setup for in-house versus virtual solutions into the pricing model. Many softwares may need to be updated, and other technologies changed to suit the needs of the business.
You might even consider the benefits of outsourcing to cut down on operational costs if your expenses start to climb. Make sure to balance costs with quality of service and customer satisfaction, as any deviation in either direction could throw the call center off-balance.
Assess quality & reliability
See how customers are responding to a competing call center to guide your strategies in the right direction, as customer feedback and competitor’s reviews are valuable resources when setting up your call center. Plus, ensure your agents are trained in quality standards and compliance, and provide continuous improvement opportunities for them to build on their skills.
And make sure to implement performance metrics like call handling time, abandonment rates, customer satisfaction scores and first-call resolution rates to get valuable insights into your call center’s effectiveness.
Conclusion
Choosing the right call center type for your business needs will determine how quickly you can accomplish your goals, whether they be exceptional customer service or powerful outbound sales strategies. Each call center has a different model that offers various advantages, from inbound support objectives to outbound sales drivers.
Aligning your call center strategy with your goals means assessing business objectives, technology needs, location, and budget to understand what you need to succeed.
Whether a blended or automated solution, virtual or in-person, outsourced or in-house, the right setup will guide your customer service strategy. Streamlined operations and unlimited growth are just a step away with the right call center.
With Voiso’s innovative features, your call center can reach new heights:
- Omnichannel capabilities that unify communication channels, making it easy to meet your customer where they are.
- Real-time dashboards that provide full visibility over agent and contact center performance.
- AI Speech Analytics that turn customer interactions into valuable insights.
- AI-Predictive Dialer that boosts calls by 400% and improves answer rates by 5x.
- Flow Builder that incorporates IVR for custom call flow design.
Talk to us today to see how Voiso can revolutionize your call center.
