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Do you really think that a "Call Center" is the same thing as a "Contact Center"??
As a career-long direct marketer and operations leader (primarily Direct-to-Consumer), is it just me or do you think there is something incorrect about using the terms "call center" and "contact center" synonymously? Here are the wikipedia definitions below:
*** A call centre or call center is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, product services, and debt collection are also made.
*** A contact centre or contact center, also known as a customer interaction centre, is a central point of any organization from which all customer contacts are managed. Through contact centers, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally a part of company’s customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. Today, customers contact companies by calling, emailing, chatting online, visiting websites, faxing, and even instant messaging. This includes supporting social media communication channels.
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6 Answers
Sorry to disagree, I believe it's semantics in today's world. It began as a call center as the contact was solely by telephone, and matured to contact center which, of course, includes telephone. However, each of them and both of them are the entity that interacts with customers, regardless of touchpoint.
These should definitely not be used interchangeably.
Call centers are just what it sounds like... a center to take or make calls.
Contact center is a relatively new term in the past 2-3 years. How many ways do your customers contact you? Call, fax, email, text, tweet, Facebook, online, IM, smoke signals... A good contact center should encompass all these scenarios to ensure customers get the right information at the right time.
Call centers let the company set the expectation of how their customers interact: by phone and phone only. Contact centers are truly customer-focused and put the power of choice in the customer's hand.
"Call center" generally means single-channel - i.e. telephone.
"Contact center" generally implies multi-channel - phone, email, web, social, etc....
The terms do get used somewhat interchangeably - in either case it signifies 'agents interacting with customers' - the only real difference is the channels through which those interactions take place.
In my opinion there are very few (if any) call centres anymore. Most organisations have contact centres, where their people handle multiple methods of contact from voice to email to whitemail.
Even 15 years ago, when I was a "call centre agent" I received and sent whitemail and faxes, and so was I really a call centre agent?
The term "Call Centre" should be scrubbed, unless of course that's all that the centre does. If a centre only takes and makes calls however, they are missing a trick. All businesses should be using voice, email, IVR and perhaps webchat too, to get the most out of their staff and give customers more ways to make contact. It should be noted that voice is by far and away the most expensive form of customer contact as it's realtime, is one transaction at a time, and involves a person. Email is the least expensive, assuming you get your process right and it doesn't result in follow-up calls.
I believe the definition of Call that you are using is too narrow. Call isn't only isolated to a phone.
In the past young men when "courting" women, they would "call" on them...long before the invention of telephones.
One can call out to their friends, etc. In this case call really means to communicate, it could be yelling across the street, etc.
An umpire calling balls and strikes in a baseball game, isn't using a phone for this form of communication.
Basically, call is a form of communication, not tied to the telephone, so the names could be interchanged; however due to a negative connotation that "Call Centers" bring up, I prefer to use the term contact.
I believe the definition of Call that you are using is too narrow. Call isn't only isolated to a phone.
In the past young men when "courting" women, they would "call" on them...long before the invention of telephones.
One can call out to their friends, etc. In this case call really means to communicate, it could be yelling across the street, etc.
An umpire calling balls and strikes in a baseball game, isn't using a phone for this form of communication.
Basically, call is a form of communication, not tied to the telephone, so the names could be interchanged; however due to a negative connotation that "Call Centers" bring up, I prefer to use the term contact.
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