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The difference between call centres and contact centres

Published in Callcentres

A room full of call centre staff. Soundproofing between desks, partitions lined with important papers and family photos.

Call statistics on a large central screen.

We all have a certain image of a call centre - or is it a contact centre?
In this article we answer the question of what is the difference between a call centre and a contact centre.

The difference lies in the type of customer contact handled.
A call centre is a department or external organisation that handles incoming and outgoing telephone calls.

A contact centre is more than a call centre: in addition to inbound and outbound calls, a contact centre also handles email and chat calls.

Other differences

Different types of customer contact also have different requirements. For example, employees should be trained separately for each communication channel, such as answering emails or chatting.

Large organisations often assign agents to one type of interaction, while other companies offer their agents variety with a mix of emails and phone calls.

Not all call centre software is capable of handling email or chat, so moving from a call centre to a contact centre may involve different licensing costs.

Why are there different terms ?

In recent years, the number of interactions via email, phone and chat has grown enormously.

Companies that deal with all forms of customer contact use the term contact centre to describe themselves.

There are also those who find the term call centre to have a negative connotation. They associate a call centre with intrusive phone calls.

Frequently asked questions:


We are happy to supply phone numbers for call centres. We can link phone numbers to CRM packages and call centre software. This allows you to choose the best supplier for each product.



Tell our support team which call centre you work with and we will route the calls partly to your call centre and partly to you. You can go to a special page to set when you want to take calls and when you do not.



The terms facility call centre and contact centre are used interchangeably to refer to a company that provides customer contact answering services.



You can record all phone calls so that you can listen to them later. If you also outsource email and chat, you can request the history to identify areas for improvement.



There are many differences between contact centres. Look at who specialises in a particular industry and/or market, such as consumer or business. Also ask how often customer service agents are trained and how often you can provide training. And make sure you have a good feeling about the team leader, he is an important person!

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