Contact Center vs Call Center: Differences & Similarities

Call centers and contact centers are two communication platforms that enable businesses to connect with customers for support, sales, and many other use cases.

While the two solution types share many capabilities–like voice calling, routing, and queueing–they differ in features, channels, and capabilities.

This article will compare contact center vs call center solutions, outlining key differences, features, types, and when to use each.

• What is a Call Center?
• What is a Contact Center?
• Differences
• Similarities
• Call Center Features
• Contact Center Features
• Pros and Cons
• Use Cases
• Metrics to Watch
• Which One to Choose?
• FAQs

What is a Call Center?

A call center is simply a team, on-site or remote, that takes in customer interactions via phone. While they conduct business through voice calling, modern call centers play a key role in providing inbound support to assist customers and bolstering outbound operations like sales teams or customer outreach in the form of surveys.

Most people envision call centers as physical offices with rows of agents using landlines. This is an outdated stereotype as most call centers operate virtually. They run on teams using cloud-based Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms to work from anywhere. CCaaS systems integrate tools like VoIP calling or AI-powered analytics and assistants into their workflows.

How Does a Call Center Work?

Call centers use specialized software to accommodate high volumes of customer interactions. Here’s how they function:

Inbound vs. Outbound Models

Inbound call centers focus on receiving callers seeking customer service and tech support. Features include:

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menus to route calls and reduce hold times to keep customers and staff engaged at all times
• Call queues to manage wait times
• Skills-based routing to connect customers with the right agent to minimize unnecessary call transfers

Outbound call centers initiate calls (usually for sales, collections, or targeted upselling). Key tools include:

• Auto dialers streamline outreach
• Scripting tools guide agents even during active calls, providing tools to assist with company and regulatory compliance
• CRM integrations track customer history, giving you a roadmap into their journey and alerting you to potential churn or upsell opportunities

Core Technology

Cloud-based CCaaS platforms replace traditional landlines, offering:

• Remote access for agents working from around the globe and on different time zones
• Real-time analytics to get insights like call volume trends and agent performance
• AI features like live call transcription or sentiment analysis

Agent Tools & Supervision

• Agents use dashboards with call transfers and holding, CRM data, and script prompts
• Supervisors monitor teams via call recording, performance dashboards, and AI-driven scheduling

How Does a Call Center Work?

A call center consists of one or more agents who provide customer service over the phone. These agents typically use call center software, or a CCaaS application, to make and receive calls. While traditional call centers were located in the company office and used a landline phone system, most modern call centers have remote agents and use cloud-based phone systems.

In most cases, each agent receives a business phone number, which they can access through the application’s desktop interface. From the desktop dashboard, call center agents have access to various essential phone system features: call controls like call transfer and call parking, IVR menus and auto attendants, voicemail, call queues, and more. Call centers also include sales features like outbound auto dialers, in-depth customer contact profiles, and live call transcription. CCaaS platforms also include supervisor-support tools, like AI-based scheduling and call monitoring, which help administrators manage large teams of agents.

What is a Contact Center?

Contact centers are one-stop hubs that aggregate customer interactions occurring through numerous channels (think voice, email, chat, SMS, social media, or wherever your customers are). In contrast to traditional call centers who tend to prioritize voice calls, contact centers are equipped to provide omnichannel support.

Modern contact centers are augmenting their human agents with automation (like chatbots and IVAs) to handle inquiries faster while keeping customers and staff happy. With 87% of millennials prioritizing convenience over anything else[*], businesses use contact centers to deliver seamless experiences. Contact centers can resolve issues via live chat, handle scheduling appointments over SMS, or troubleshoot through video calls.

Key Channels & Use Cases

How Does a Contact Center Work?

Contact centers unify omnichannel communications, AI-driven automation, and cloud-based tools into a single workflow. Here’s how they operate:

Omnichannel Operations

• Unified Dashboard: Agents manage all channels (email, chat, social, etc.) from one CCaaS platform, ensuring no customer query falls through the cracks
• Smart Routing: AI routes inquiries to the best-suited agent based on skills, channel, or urgency (e.g., a billing question via chat goes to finance-trained agents)
• Context Preservation: Customer history syncs across channels—no repeating issues when switching from chat to phone

AI & Automation

• Chatbots/IVAs: Handle routine queries (like tracking orders, FAQs), freeing agents for complex tasks
• Sentiment Analysis: AI detects frustration in messages and escalates to human agents when needed
• Agent-Assist Tools: Real-time AI suggests responses, pulls CRM data, or translates languages mid-chat

Cloud-Based Platform Features

• Remote Flexibility: Agents work from anywhere with internet access
• Automated Workflows: Triggers (include missed call become follow-up SMS) streamline tasks and ensure all touchpoints are met
• Supervisor Tools: Monitor performance, track SLAs, and optimize staffing with live analytics

Analytics & Improvement

• Real-Time Dashboards: Track metrics like response times, channel volume, and CSAT
• Historical Trends: Identify peak times or recurring issues to refine strategies

Contact Center vs Call Center: Key Differences

Call centers and contact centers both play a big part in sales and customer service. Call centers are a team of agents, providing customer support primarily through phone calls. On the other hand, contact centers support communication across a variety of channels in addition to voice not limited to SMS, instant chat, video, social media, and email. They offer a more flexible and connected customer experience.

Below we discuss how each tackles tech stacks, CX capabilities, agent workflows, and scalability and provide a table overview quickly outlining how these two differ.

Tech Stacks

Call centers tend to run on older systems like PBX (Private Branch Exchange), basic IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and auto-dialers. These tools are proficient for taking on large volumes of calls but just do not cut it for modern digital channels handling newer technologies.

Contact centers, however, use more advanced and connected tech stacks. They often include cloud-based platforms, CRM systems, AI-driven analytics, chatbots, smart call routing, and knowledge bases. This setup lets them support multiple communication channels and deliver personalized, data-backed customer experiences. 86% of customers expect seamless channel switching.[*]

CX Capabilities

In a call center, customer experience is mostly voice-based. While this works for simple queries, today’s customers expect faster, more flexible support across digital channels.

Contact centers provide a smoother, more connected experience. 73% of customers say they use multiple channels to resolve their issues.[*] Customers can reach out via chat, email, social media, or even video and even switch between channels without repeating themselves. AI and automation take it further by offering predictive support, proactive outreach, and round-the-clock self-service options.

Agent Workflows

Call center agents typically take calls one at a time, follow rigid and set scripts, and lean on call queues to manage their teams' workload. This approach is oriented towards rote high call volumes but lacks the modularity needed for other channels.

In contact centers, agents have to juggle multiple conversations across different channels like chat, email, social, and voice which requires precision and the right toolkit. 65% of agents say they experience burnout with single channel workflows.[*] With CRM insights, past interaction history, and AI assistance, they can tailor responses to be faster and more personalized. The result? A more dynamic, informed, and collaborative work environment.

Scalability

Call centers depend heavily on physical hardware, making scaling up a slow and expensive process. Adding agents or services often means buying more equipment or expanding office space.

Contact centers, built on cloud technology, scale much more easily. Cloud contact centers deploy 3 times faster than traditional setups.[*] They support remote work, quick onboarding, and automation that cuts down on manual tasks. This makes it simple to adjust during busy periods or grow with the business that way no major infrastructure upgrades are needed down the line.

Contact Center vs Call Center: Similarities

While contact centers and call centers feature different channels, the two technologies have many similarities. They both utilize phone service to connect with customers and enable support, marketing, and sales use cases.

Similarities between a contact center and call center:

• Audience: Contact centers and call centers both allow a company to communicate with its customers and vice versa
• Bidirectional communication: Companies can use a call center or contact center to reach out to customers, and customers can use these same technologies to contact the company
• Use cases: Call centers and contact centers are both commonly used for marketing, sales, and customer support
• Phone as the centerpiece: Although contact centers include other channels, phone service is a critical component of call centers and contact centers
• User dashboard: Software for call centers and contact centers provides agents with a dashboard that unifies their tasks call history

Call Center Features

Below, we outline the most important features to look for in a call center.

• IVR and ACD
• Call routing
• Call forwarding
• Auto dialer
• Analytics/Reporting
• Call monitoring
• Call queueing

IVR and ACD

Call Center IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) both route inbound calls, helping customers reach the right agent or department.

IVR and ACD facilitate customer self-service by directing inbound calls to specific users, messages, or voicemails based on answers the caller provides to pre-recorded menu options, called an IVR call flow. Based on the caller’s input, IVR and ACD systems route the call to agents based on skills and availability.

Call Routing

Call routing analyzes caller intent based on the customer’s profile or IVR menu selection, then forwards the call to the optimal agent or queue. Most call center software supports multiple routing styles, including skills-based routing, round-robin routing, time-based routing, and relationship-based routing.

Call Forwarding

Call forwarding allows an agent to transfer the call to another phone number or agent. Agents can set up automatic forwarding if they’re busy or unavailable, and call centers can set up automatic forwarding coordinated with business hours or IVR menus.

Auto Dialer

Outbound auto dialers automatically dial recipients from a list, detecting voicemails and non-answers and only connecting agents once a live recipient has answered the call. If the auto dialer reaches a voicemail or busy signal, it leaves a message or hangs up. By wading through ring tones and voicemails, auto dialers are a valuable tool for outbound and sales-focused call centers.

Analytics/Reporting

Analytics display historical and real-time call center metrics, KPIs, and reports. These statistics and visuals cover categories including channel activity, agent performance, call center activity by time of day and day of the week, call quality, queue activity, and more.

Call Monitoring

Call monitoring lets admins listen to telephone conversations between employees and callers in real time. Call center supervisors can silently listen in and monitor the call, whisper private guidance to the agent, barge in to join the conversation, or take the conversation over.

Call Queuing and Automated Callbacks

Call queueing organizes inbound calls into queues, which are call-waiting groups that place callers on hold in the order they called. Call centers use queues for departments like sales, customer support, technical support, billing, and more.

Contact Center Software Features

Below, we outline some of the most important contact center features.

• Multiple communication channels
• Agent interface
• Omnichannel routing
• Workforce optimization
• Workflow automations
• Multichannel analytics

Multiple Communication Channels

Multichannel contact centers typically serve customers through the following communication channels:

• VoIP phone: With call center functionality and features–routing, queueing, analytics, monitoring
• Social media messaging: Conversational or bot-based messaging via social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook
• Social media monitoring and posting: The ability to track your social media engagement, monitor all posts and mentions, and make posts or respond to other users on social media platforms
• Live or automated webchat: 1:1 or automated chat functionality built into your website or mobile app. Webchat often serves as the medium for automated chatbots, with customizable conversation scripts.
• SMS text messaging: Have conversational SMS interactions with customers, or send bulk and automated messages that link with CRM and customer databases for a variety of use cases–account updates, order confirmations, promotions, user authentication, and more.

Customizable Agent Interface

Contact center agents use a customizable and dynamic agent dashboard, enabling them to manage all customer interactions across all communication channels simultaneously.

The dashboard lets agents monitor queues and virtual messaging inboxes. During live interactions, agents have access to relevant information like the customer profile, journey history, CRM information, and the ability to take live action in databases–such as altering an order or applying a discount.

Omnichannel Routing

Omnichannel routing analyzes all inbound customer queries across channels and routes them to the correct agent, where they appear in the agent’s inbox. Similar to call center routing, omnichannel routing uses several metrics–such as the contact’s channel, background, and self-service menu selections–to route the task to the optimal agent.

Workforce Management and Optimization

Workforce Management (WFM) tools automate supervisor tasks like shift scheduling, staff forecasting, and evaluating agents.

Built-in AI engines track channel activity and agent FTEs to forecast schedules, populating these shifts in agent dashboards, allowing agents to request changes, and enabling agents to trade shifts. Supervisors can view live queues, read transcripts, make timestamped written comments for in-depth feedback, and create evaluation templates for expedited evaluation.

Workflow Automations

Contact center solutions include built-in AI support that automates many agent and supervisor workflows.

Natural language detection (NLD) software generates live call transcripts, analyzing conversations live to provide insights for agents. Users have access to live to-do lists, customer sentiment, canned responses, and recommended knowledge base articles.

Multichannel Analytics

Multichannel analytics track and display metrics for all activity within the contact center, organizing these KPIs into real-time and historical dashboards that can be sorted by time, date, user, queue, department, channel, and reporting category.

Common Contact Center KPIs:

• Channel usage by time of day and weekday
• Agent performance
• Average Handle Time (AHT) and first contact resolution rate
• Agent Turnover Rate
• Cost Per Contact

Contact Center and Call Center Pros and Cons

Industry Use Cases: How Different Sectors Use Contact and Call Centers

Every industry has unique customer service needs whether it’s quick issue resolution, secure transactions, or seamless multichannel support. Here’s how different sectors use call and contact centers to meet those demands.

Healthcare

Healthcare providers depend on contact centers to handle everything from appointment scheduling to telehealth visits and insurance inquiries often across phone, email, and secure messaging. With 83% of patients prioritizing seamless digital interactions[*], HIPAA-compliant platforms are essential.

Since patient privacy is non-negotiable, HIPAA-compliant platforms with strong security and audit features are a must. Many organizations opt for cloud-based solutions with built-in compliance tools to streamline operations.

Banking & Financial Services

Banks and financial institutions use call centers for quick transactions like balance checks or fraud alerts and contact centers for deeper customer engagement (think digital onboarding or personalized financial advice). 61% of customers abandon financial services due to poor digital experiences.[*] Security is paramount, so PCI-DSS compliance, encrypted channels, and robust verification systems are standard in their contact center setups.

E-Commerce

Online retailers thrive on fast, flexible support. Their contact centers handle customer inquiries via chat, email, social media, and phone to focus on speedy resolutions, order tracking, and returns. Many use AI chatbots to tackle routine questions, freeing up agents for more complex issues. Omnichannel communication is a must-have: 90% of retailers using them report higher customer retention.[*] These are key to ensuring a smooth, branded experience no matter how customers reach out.

Travel & Hospitality

This industry blends call centers for bookings and urgent requests with contact centers for managing everything else: flight updates, cancellations, loyalty programs, and special needs. 68% of travelers prefer messaging over calls.[*] Real-time updates and multilingual support are crucial, helping travelers at every step of their journey, from planning to post-trip follow-ups.

Metrics That Matter: KPIs for Call Centers vs Contact Centers

Tracking the right performance indicators helps businesses evaluate the effectiveness of their call or contact center operations.

Contact Center vs Call Center: Which One to Choose?

Between a call center and a contact center, the best fit for your business depends on your communication goals and the ways you want to contact your customers.

If you mainly deal with customers via phone for customer support and sales use cases, a call center's queueing, routing, and auto dialer functionality will provide plenty of support at an affordable and efficient price.

On the other hand, if your customers would like to reach you through multiple channels–including through your app or website, via email, and via social media–an omnichannel contact center would enable you to provide a higher degree of customer service. In general, the industry seems to be trending toward omnichannel contact centers, which are expected to maintain a 13.6% annual growth rate through 2030.

FAQs