Contact center, call center, help desk—all of these terms are used by companies when they tell their customers who to call if something about the product goes wrong; so does that mean that those terms are synonyms?  Many would think so. They are tightly interconnected but they refer to different things.

Contact Centers

A contact center is the umbrella under which everything else is nestled.  It utilizes an incoming/outgoing system of customer connection.  An important part of multichannel support, a contact center uses call centers to manage incoming inquiries and messages, while also incorporating e-mail newsletters and support, live chat, snail mail, and other forms of customer interaction. 

Companies often use contact centers as the basis of customer relationship management (CRM). Contact centers are also called customer interaction centers or e-contact centers.  Often specialized software is used to store contact information, route information to other people or departments, track contacts, and gather data.

Call Centers

A call center, on the other hand, is the branch of a contact center that deals only with incoming and outgoing phone calls.  A business may have separate call centers focused strictly on incoming calls or outgoing calls.  The incoming calls can include customers needing help with the company’s product and other inquiries, while outgoing calls often consist of follow-up surveys.  Call centers can be located anywhere, so companies often outsource their call centers to a managed services business to help them save costs. 

Outsourcing a United States call center overseas seemed to be a less expensive alternative to local support, but there were some shortcomings with that approach that have caused companies to pull their call centers back to the U.S. One of the problems was accented English that the customer had difficulty understanding.  This is one reason why many customers prefer online customer service outlets and help desks.

Help Desks

Help desks, although similar to a call center, is typically an internal IT support desk geared toward supporting a company’s other employees with their technical issues.  This can include everything from password resets and issues with a single desk-top computer to network problems and updates for the various software packages in use.

As you can see, there is a distinct difference between a contact center, a call center, and a help desk even though they all have over-lapping qualities.  A contact center is a must-have for every company, but instead of just being a call center, be flexible and offer your customer more options by having email, live chat, and other interactive media as part your contact center repertoire. 

Does anyone have different definitions for these terms? Do you call your contact center something different? We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment so we can find out what everyone thinks.