Call Center vs. Contact Center
Many people tend to think of a call center as people neatly organized into rows, sitting beside their phones, answering customer calls. So what is a contact center?
Contact centers are more than headset-wearing switch-board operators. The modern contact center handles phone calls, email, and online communication – including instant messaging.
Traditionally, contact centers have been called call centers. The newer name – contact center – reflects the fact that more than just phone calls are being handled. Many call centers have evolved over the years to do much more than just answer phones.
Some companies choose to separate the handling of customer contacts by medium. For instance, a company may establish a department for inbound calls, one for outbound calls, and a group for email. Some companies, especially smaller ones, opt to create “universal agents” who handle all contact types. Companies create universal contact agents for reasons of efficiency and service, and often because they find it easier to train agents in multiple communication methods than to train multiple agents in product or service information.

Overview
Improving Customer Communications
The Contact Center system answers the business need for solutions that cater to an environment designed to process many types of customer interactions
• inbound/outbound calls
• voicemail
• e-mail
• fax
• the Web

The traditional call center — a large facility located in a fixed location handling inbound or outbound calls — has given way to a more flexible environment, as well as new terminology that better reflects the various types of interaction your business has with its customers.
Today, customer contact centers can include anything from a telemarketing center to a human resource department. They handle multiple communication methods, including inbound calls, outbound calls, Internet, e-mail and fax.
Call centers improve customer relations by allowing a business to:

• Make ordering personal and simple
• Reduce on-hold times
• Ensure customers are greeted professionally with on-hold announcements
• Avoid interrupting calls to put other calls on hold
• Reduce the number of abandoned calls

In addition, customer contact centers allow businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively by enabling them to:

• Talk to customers live and avoid costly callbacks
• Distribute calls evenly to all staff members
• Route calls to agents with the proper skill sets
• Improve agent productivity
• Forecast staffing accurately using historical reports
• Reduce toll-free costs
• Gain greater control over call information
• Route after-hour calls to a service number