# Call Center Outsourcing Improves Customer Service Engagement | Capterra > Learn how call centers support different business processes, and how outsourcing inbound and outbound calls can improve your customer service and lower operating costs. Source: https://www.capterra.com/resources/what-is-call-center --- Call CenterCustomer Services & Support # What Is a Call Center? Written by: David J. Brin David J. BrinAuthor David is the Managing Partner for the Code Ninjas franchise responsible for the Baton Rouge, LA market, where he facilitates the education of youth in progra... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/david-brin/) and contributor: Shep Hyken Shep HykenContributor Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journ... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/shep-hyken-guest-contributor/) Published April 3, 2024 | Updated on August 26, 2024 12 min read Table of Contents - [What is a call center?](#what-is-a-call-center) - [Call center vs. contact center](#call-center-vs-contact-center) - [Types of call centers](#types-of-call-centers) - [Why businesses hire a call center](#why-businesses-hire-a-call-center) - [How to decide if you should outsource call center services](#how-to-determine-if-your-business-should-outsource-call-center-services) - [Finding the best call center solution for your business](#finding-the-best-call-center-solution-for-your-business) ## Featured in this article Shep Hyken NYT bestselling author ## Learn how outsourcing inbound and outbound calls can improve customer service. Small businesses face unique challenges as they grow and build their brand. For example, when there are a limited number of employees, handling a growing volume of inbound or outbound calls can be overwhelming.  If you’re a small-business owner or customer service provider with a team that’s currently handling call center activities internally, you might be experiencing a rising tide of communication from increasingly demanding customers. You are probably also wondering if outsourcing your call center business processes is the right thing to do. In this article, we use insights from Shep Hyken [\[1\]](#sources), an NYT Bestselling Author and customer service and customer experience expert, to help break down the different types of call centers and the business initiatives they support and then delve deeper into what outsourcing those business processes might look like for your team. ## What is a call center? Call centers are either centralized departments within an organization or outsourced service providers that are responsible for handling inbound and outbound phone calls from any combination of existing external customers, internal stakeholders, and potential leads. Call centers, especially when outsourced, help small businesses overcome the challenges of increasingly high customer service expectations and remain competitive. ## Call center vs. contact center Before breaking down the various business tasks associated with call centers, it’s necessary to first differentiate at a higher level the difference between call centers and contact centers. ## Types of call centers There are different types of call centers, each serving a different business function, that allow small businesses with limited resources and staffing to meet the varying needs of customers and stakeholders. ### Inbound call center Inbound call centers are staffed by individuals fielding a massive volume of incoming calls. Often using customer relationship management (CRM) software to screen, log, and track call content, the employees or systems in an inbound call center handle service requests ranging from complaints to product or service information inquiries, scheduling, sales inquiries, and technical support requests. ### Outbound call center Outbound call center operations are focused heavily on supporting marketing efforts. Agents in these call centers are responsible for generating leads and executing marketing initiatives such as improving customer retention and encouraging repeat business, following up with customers post-purchase, and conducting customer or employee surveys.  ### Multichannel contact center The multichannel contact center model allows your agents to receive or send information via multiple methods of communication. Multichannel centers handle call traffic sourced from voice, text, social media platforms, emails, and other methods of communication.  These call centers can serve a wider segment of customers and provide additional value to the service experience. Data is often siloed by channel. ### Omnichannel contact center Similar to multichannel contact centers, omnichannel contact centers leverage technology to allow a call center team to manage customer interactions across phone, email, chat, SMS and text messaging, and social media platforms.  Unlike multichannel centers, however, omnichannel contact centers use cloud-based software to manage those interactions, and data from each channel is integrated into a single stream of data, allowing agents to provide a continuous service experience irrespective of the source of contact.  ### Automated call center Rather than relying on human agents to handle mundane and repetitive inquiries and frequently asked questions, automated call centers rely on automation tools such as chatbots and interactive automated voice agents to engage with stakeholders. This allows human service agents in a standard call center to handle more complex interactions. ### Virtual call center Traditionally, call centers are centralized operations where agents are gathered together working in the same space. Virtual call centers rely upon remote working arrangements to allow for the call center team to be geographically distributed at remote locations. This improves the ability to localize the customer experience and lower the overhead costs of having to maintain a centralized workspace for call center agents. ## Why businesses hire a call center The economy since 2020 has been extremely volatile, with recovery from the pandemic creating a highly competitive landscape for brands to navigate. As brands diversify their product and service offerings, it becomes more difficult for small businesses to establish a competitive advantage on the merits of what they’re selling alone.  The biggest sign that you need to hire a third-party call center is growth. If you have the need for more employees than you are able to hire quickly, it’s a pretty good sign that you need to consider hiring a call center. According to Hyken, one of the best things about going with an outside agency or BPO is that the call center agents have been trained on how to use customer service systems already, so all you have to do is train them on what your company does. It saves a lot of time bringing new hires up to speed and can get you the benefits of outsourcing earlier. Call centers provide small businesses with an effective method for achieving competitive advantage by allowing them to improve customer service standards and meet the ever-evolving demands of a growing customer base. As reliance on call centers evolves, Gartner anticipates that companies will invest upwards of $38.9 billion annually by 2027 in securing the resources to host their own call centers or paying service providers to do so for them. [\[2\]](#sources)  Let’s explore some of the reasons why businesses are hiring call centers. ### Reduce costs of providing customer service Consider the overhead costs associated with maintaining a cutting-edge call center supported by industry-leading automation and CRM software platforms, telecommunications equipment, hardware, and the most skilled customer service agents on the market. Now, imagine being a small business, with limited resources, having to invest in these resources several times in order to support multiple types of call centers to meet your business needs. Service providers in the call center space provide scalable options that include the infrastructure, necessary equipment, and staff at affordable rates to entrepreneurs and SMB leaders seeking to improve their brands. This ability to control costs is the reason that Call-Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) has grown to be a nearly $9 billion market growing at a rate of 19% annually. [\[3\]](#sources) ### Around-the-clock customer service expectations For two-thirds of millennials, real-time customer support is a must when they are considering their retail options, while a broader view shows that 72% of the general consumer population will gravitate toward companies that are able to provide the fastest response to customer service queries. [\[4\]](#sources) This has driven brands to embrace innovative call center solutions, such as virtualized and automated call centers that leverage conversational AI enhancements, in order to meet the demands of 64% of consumers who expect to receive immediate responses to their inquiries, regardless of the time of day. [\[5\]](#sources) Hyken explains that you get a lot of flexibility by hiring a call center. Let’s say you recognize patterns in customer behavior that indicate that you’re busier for a particular three months out of the year. To increase profits, you might want to consider hiring a call center during your busiest months. This will allow you to reduce overall spending on your own headcount during the least busy times of the year. Call centers run by CCaaS providers allow businesses to maintain a quality of life for their core employees by allowing those employees to work flexible work schedules, and still protect client organizations’ ability to truly meet the service demands and expectations of their community of existing and potential customers. ### Maintaining focus and dominating your niche By 2026, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) will account for $3.4 billion of spending on CCaaS. [\[6\]](#sources) On the surface, this can be attributed to SMBs having limited resources and personnel to dedicate to running and maintaining a call center. However, there is a strategic element in play, as small businesses and startups are often successful because they are owned and operated by individuals who are experts in the products or services they offer.  Many SMBs outsource business processes, such as call center processes, due to the limited available resources they have to work with when it comes to expanding. Business owners and leadership understand that taking on the organization and ongoing management of a call center will divert personnel and resources from business-critical processes. This will in turn reduce their ability to dominate their chosen niche.  SMBs understand it better serves the long-term profitability of the organization to outsource to a CCaaS vendor, as doing so improves productivity and efficiency, providing small businesses with unique advantages that allow their teams to compete with even the largest enterprise organizations in their niche. ## How to determine if your business should outsource call center services The decision to outsource any business process to a vendor, agency, or managed service provider isn’t always a foregone conclusion. Before the decision to outsource is made, your in-house leadership or a third-party consultant should work with department leadership responsible for customer service and support in your organization to perform a thorough analysis of your requirements and the capacity to fulfill them. [\[7\]](#sources) As you work through whether to outsource as part of your analysis, it’s important to take into account a number of factors in determining if it’s the right decision for your organization. ### Cost of the service There’s no guarantee that outsourcing will definitely be the most affordable option for your organization.  - Determine the costs associated with opening a call center, hiring agents and management, training staff, and operations and overhead costs of maintaining hardware, software platforms, and the space itself.  - Gather quotes from service providers for the full scope of services you require your call center or contact center to encompass.  If your business focus is highly technical or requires specialized skills to support from a customer service perspective, your costs from a service provider could be prohibitive. Cost can also be impacted by the volume of calls you anticipate the service provider having to field or place. Higher volumes of activity will also come at a premium. The question of cost requires leadership to decide if the benefits provided to the team are worth the cost of the investment internally or externally. ### Are the CCaaS provider’s agents going to be shared or dedicated? If your business operates in a niche that is heavily regulated or has stringent security requirements around client data and interactions, it’s important to know whether a service provider will be providing support with a shared team of agents or executing customer service initiatives through a dedicated cohort of agents. Agents in shared call centers are not specialized and handle multiple clients of the CCaaS provider. These agents are less skilled in your niche but are capable of handling non-specific activities such as answering basic inquiries, fielding service requests, and managing scheduling. Dedicated call centers assign a team of specialized agents knowledgeable and skilled in the services and products that the client provides. They provide a more robust customer service experience.  The type of agent that best fits a client’s needs depends on whether the call or contact center is going to be dedicated to inbound or outbound call traffic, what other channels of communication need to be managed, and the volume of calls you anticipate. ### Can a service provider support your call center needs? If you’ve reached the point that your volume of inbound or outbound communication necessitates outsourcing call center services, you have a fairly strong grasp on the types of calls that need to be supported, what business practices are involved, and what other channels of communication need to be supported. Hyken mentions that the biggest disadvantage of outsourcing to a call center is quality control. “You need to make sure that if you are moving to using an outside agency, that this agency has the same level of service, the same quality answers, and the same customer experience, if not better, than the customer would have had if they had been calling your company directly.” It's crucial to find a call center services agency that expands your existing bandwidth, meaning they must be able to field communications across the same channels you’re already active in.  They must also be able to support future initiatives and have experience in channels into which you’re planning to expand. ### Do they have a similar customer service philosophy and a positive reputation? While social channels are fast becoming the first point of contact for customer service, phone calls continue to be the overall preferred customer service outreach channel for consumers. [\[8\]](#sources) That often means that your call center is your brand’s first opportunity to make a positive impression on a customer.  As you search for an outsourcing solution, it’s important to ensure that the service provider has a positive reputation for delivering a quality experience to customers. Talk to former and current clients, read reviews, and have exploratory consultations to ensure they are a good fit with your company culture and can match your passion for service. Further, establish a clear expectation of service quality and ensure that the CCaaS agency is comfortable meeting those minimum requirements. ## Finding the best call center solution for your business When deciding on which company to outsource to, Hyken has some parting advice: “They might be on the outside, but you want to make them part of your team. After all, the customer doesn’t know or care that you outsource; they think that they’re talking to your business and expect and deserve a great customer experience.” Ready to take your customer service game to the next level through a call center digital solution or outsourcing? Whether you’ve landed on expanding your internal bandwidth through the use of a cutting-edge [call center software platform](https://www.capterra.com/call-center-software/) or you’re looking to partner with a call center-focused agency, you can explore each directory and find a solution that works best for your business needs and ensure your team is able to improve productivity, focus on growth, and still ensure that they’re protecting and improving the customer experience at every opportunity. If you’re still not sure which solution best suits your needs, you can explore other Capterra resources and gain additional insight with these resources:   - [Capterra Value Report: A Price Comparison Guide for Call Center Software](https://www.capterra.com/resources/call-center-software-pricing-report/) - [Category Compare: Call Center Software vs. Contact Center Software](https://www.capterra.com/resources/call-center-vs-contact-center/) - [5 Key Call Center Software Features and Top Products That Offer Them](https://www.capterra.com/resources/call-center-software-key-features/) ## Capterra's 2026 Software Buying Trends Report ### Download our 2026 Software Buying Trends Report to see how successful software adopters avoid disappointment and how your business can, too. * * * Sources 1. [Shep Hyken](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/), LinkedIn 2. [Forecast Analysis: Contact Center, Worldwide](https://www.gartner.com/document/4345399?ref=solrAll&refval=401757132&), Gartner 3. [Competitive Landscape: Contact Center as a Service](https://www.gartner.com/document/4154399?ref=solrAll&refval=401756808&), Gartner 4. [The Ultimate Customer Service Statistics Roundup](https://www.ultimate.ai/blog/customer-experience/customer-service-statistics#:~:text=Two%2Dthirds%20of%20millennial%20customers,service%20\(Salesforce%2C%202023\).), Ultimate AI 5. [Why Small Businesses Should Hire a Call Center](https://ideasunlimitedonline.com/5-reasons-why-small-businesses-should-hire-a-call-center/), Ideas Unlimited 6. [4 Strategies for Contact Center as a Service Vendors to Capitalize on SMB Growth Opportunities](https://www.gartner.com/document/4021017?ref=solrAll&refval=401757058&), Gartner 7. [How to Choose Your Best-Fit Vendor for Contact Center as a Service](https://www.gartner.com/document/4532899?ref=solrAll&refval=401757082&), Gartner 8. [Call Center Statistics: Taking the Pulse of Customer Service](https://www.cmswire.com/contact-center/16-important-call-center-statistics-to-know-about/), CMSWire * * * Looking for Call Center software?Check out Capterra's list of the [best Call Center software](https://www.capterra.com/call-center-software/) solutions. ### Was this article helpful? * * * ## About the Authors [### David J. Brin](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/david-brin/) David is the Managing Partner for the Code Ninjas franchise responsible for the Baton Rouge, LA market, where he facilitates the education of youth in programming, game design, and STEM education fundamentals. A lifelong learner, David combines a passion for strong business practices and solid marketing strategies honed throughout his 20-year career in the food and beverage industry with his desire to share those best practices with other business owners to create content for Capterra. When... [### Shep Hyken](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/shep-hyken-guest-contributor/) Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books and has been inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in the speaking profession. Shep works with companies and organizations that want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. ### RELATED READING - [Free CRM Software vs. Paid: Features, Costs, and Comparison](https://www.capterra.com/resources/free-vs-paid-software-for-crm-guide/) - [How to Unlock Real AI Benefits in Sales and Marketing](https://www.capterra.com/resources/ai-benefits-sales-marketing-software/) - [5 Key Help Desk Software Features With Top Products That Offer Them](https://www.capterra.com/resources/help-desk-software-key-features/) - [Help Desk Software for IT Support: Features and Benefits 1,300+ Users Value](https://www.capterra.com/resources/it-help-desk-software-features-benefits/) - [Checklist for SMBs: How to Choose the Right Customer Service Help Desk Software for Your Business Size](https://www.capterra.com/resources/choosing-customer-support-help-desk-software/) - [What is CRM Software and What Does a CRM System Do?](https://www.capterra.com/resources/what-is-crm-software/) - [CRM Software with AI Features in 2026: Benefits, Features, Costs, and FAQs](https://www.capterra.com/resources/crm-software-with-ai-features-guide/) - [Contact Management in CRM: Features, Benefits, Best Practices, and FAQs](https://www.capterra.com/resources/contact-management-in-crm-guide/) - [How Help Desk Automation Drives Stronger Support Performance](https://www.capterra.com/resources/helpdesk-automation/)