At the heart of every business and industry is the importance of customer service. However, sometimes the priority of customer service is undercut by pressing business operations. When client communications, such as phone calls, emails, and text messages become a burden, it may be an opportune moment to consider outsourcing your communications to a contact center, call center or answering service. To find out which one will work best for you and your business, you first need to know the differences and similarities between them.
To begin, it is important to know that contact centers, call centers, and answering services all share a common trait: answering the phone on one’s behalf. However, beyond just picking up the phone, there are other traits that differentiate the three services.
Call center services are typically broader and more general. They can have many employees and are able to receive and answer high volumes of calls. Call centers can serve virtually every industry by compiling orders, offering customer support and technical support, and then sending the relevant information back to their clients. Call centers serve as a great option for larger business to consumer (B2C) businesses who need help efficiently handling a high volume of low-complexity calls all at once.
Contact centers also field phone calls from customers, but they also offer omni-channel communications beyond the telephone. With a contact center, such as ASuperior Contact Center, you can also have your emails, texts, and online chat monitored and responded to quickly. In addition to this, ASuperior offers other services that help ensure a great customer experience, such as setting appointments, answering FAQs, offering bi-lingual translation and more. The multi-channel services that contact centers offer are great for businesses who need to craft a personalized and tailored communication plan.
Answering services are set up to take a variety of different calls from numerous industries. An agent at an answering service handles shorter phone calls, getting the important information (name, number, and reason for the call) and relaying it back to the business, or transferring the call to the correct person. Answering services are ideal for small business who just need a little help handling their volume of incoming calls.
In the end, ASuperior Contact Center can assist in determining the best communication options for your business to best suit the needs of your customers and your business. All three of these services – call centers, contact centers, and answering services, strive to ensure that your customers’ calls are answered and responded to with efficiency and professionalism in mind.
Whatever your needs, ASuperior Contact Center can help - 24 • 7 • 365.
