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What is a Contact Center? Types, Features, & Benefits
Learn how contact centers improve service efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.
Learn how contact centers improve service efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.
A contact center is a hub that manages customer interactions through multiple customer service channels, from live chat to voice. It relies on customer service software, AI, automation, and other tools to deliver exceptional customer experience and improve agent productivity.
Our research finds that 88% of customers believe their experience with a company is as important as its products. With customer expectations on the rise, contact center experience is more critical than ever.
Let’s dig into what a contact center is, why it’s important, and how contact center software can set your business up for success.
A contact center provides customer support across many channels — chat, email, voice, web, SMS, and more. Support teams use contact center software to engage customers and deliver consistent service, no matter how a customer reaches out. Unified customer data, omnichannel engagement, AI, automation, and other tools enable contact center teams to provide efficient, personalized support for every customer interaction.
Call center and contact center are often used interchangeably. But they’re not the same. Call centers only communicate with customers by phone, while contact centers engage with customers by omnichannel — voice and other digital channels .
Many contact centers also provide self-service options. This allows customers to get help on their own using chatbots, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, FAQs, and knowledge bases, any time — even at 3:00 a.m. on a major holiday.
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Understanding the different types of contact centers and how they work can help you choose the right one for your business and customers. Let's look at how types of contact centers differ when it comes to customer engagement and technology.
Keeping today's customers happy and loyal means providing excellent, efficient, and consistent service. Yet 69% of service professionals say it's difficult for them to balance speed and quality, according to our research. Here are some of the top contact center features that can help meet customer expectations.
Contact center CRM software provides a complete view of all customer data, including current and past interactions across all channels, previous purchases, account information, and more. This allows your contact center to handle a wide range of customer needs from a single platform.
Real-time views of customer interactions mean agents or AI chatbots can efficiently pick up where the conversation left off, so that customers don't need to repeat themselves. With access to complete customer histories, contact centers can also help to generate revenue by offering product suggestions based on past purchases.
An omnichannel contact center uses cloud-based software to manage customer interactions across multiple channels. It helps you deliver a connected experience across all channels — no matter how they contact you.
On average, today's customers use 10 different channels when making a purchase. A customer may choose to use chat, voice, or SMS for the same issue on separate occasions. What matters most is that they have a consistent experience. This is key to keeping customers engaged and improving loyalty.
AI customer service software boosts agent productivity by automating routine processes and tasks. In fact, our research finds that of service organizations currently using automation, 54% reported time savings as a major benefit.
AI provides agents with contextual, relevant responses based on CRM data and customer history. All customer conversations can be automatically summarized, documented, and added to a knowledge base — creating a system that continuously helps improve customer experience.
Contact center automation also improves agent productivity by analyzing and summarizing past cases, automating data entry for new cases, and routing customers to the correct agent.
If you've ever experienced a chatbot that led you to a dead end, you understand why customer satisfaction relies on intelligent routing. When a chatbot can't help, customers expect to be connected to a live agent or given alternate ways to get the help they need.
Universal Routing ensures contact centers provide the best type of support for different customer needs, including product, type of inquiry, agent expertise, and more. All work is routed through the same engine (i.e., chat, voice, and email) using the same routing logic. This ensures the mostappropriate agent is assigned, contributing to shorter resolution time and higher customer satisfaction (CSAT).
Self-service options give customers a convenient way to get help any time, day or night. In fact, our research finds that 61% of customers report preferring to find their own answers to simple issues using self-service resources such as chatbots and searchable help centers.
Customer self-service software frees agents up to focus on other tasks. AI is improving the breadth and quality of self-service resources with features like:
High-performing service organizations are using data and AI to generate revenue while cutting costs — without sacrificing the customer experience. Find out how in the 6th edition of the State of Service report.
Companies are using customer service strategies and tools to meet their customers' unique needs. Let's take a look at a few examples.
Today, many health care organizations use customer service automation to streamline appointment scheduling and management.
For example, when it's time to visit the doctor:
By providing a connected, automated customer experience across channels, health care organizations offload basic tasks from busy office receptionists and give their patients easy appointment management. Proactive appointment reminders and automated self-check-in also help keep health care organizations running smoothly.
Whether it's a business customer worried about losing online sales or a sports fan gearing up for a watch party, internet service providers (ISPs) need to fix connection issues fast.
For example, when a customer can't access the internet:
Customers are less frustrated when they get support right away and know what to expect; in this case, the chatbot provided a timeline for the phone call.
Many retailers now rely on social media to connect with customers. That also requires managing negative comments.
For example, when a customer posts a negative comment about a product on a company's social media:
By engaging directly on a social media platform and being able to generate resolutions quickly, retailers can keep their customers happy and improve loyalty.
To provide the best possible customer experience and give agents time to focus on the most complex issues, contact center teams should consider these strategies:
There’s a lot to think about when choosing the best contact center software for your organization — budget, business goals, vendor compatibility, integration with existing technology, and more.
Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind:
Contact centers are a crucial part of service operations. Investing in the right tools and technology is more important than ever. With 85% of decision makers saying service is expected to contribute a larger share of revenue this year, an exceptional customer experience is a key part of making that happen.
Satisfied customers are more likely to make another purchase, upgrade their services, and remain loyal. With the right strategy and tools, contact centers can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, gain new customers, drive revenue, and much more.
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