Inbound Call Center Definition

What do these different contact center terms mean?

Glad you asked.

An inbound call center is a customer service function that primarily handles incoming customer phone calls.

An outbound call center is more of a sales function that makes calls to customers.

A call center, in general, is often used as the same concept as “contact center,” but they’re different. Call centers predominantly work with calls and not other channels of communication.

A contact center handles multiple channels of communication, from voice (calls) to chats, texts, social media, platforms, email, etc.

Sometimes you will hear about an omnichannel contact center, and that’s a fancy way of saying a contact center that handles virtually all possible customer channels. This allows customers to get help when, where, and how they need it. Some customers might prefer to email, some might prefer to call, and some might prefer to use WhatsApp. An omnichannel contact center can handle all of this.