Managing phone lines is a labor-intensive procedure that can become costly to operate in-house, especially for small businesses with limited resources. Call center services enable businesses to outsource customer service in a professional and transparent manner. We researched more than 50 options to help you select the best call center service for your company, taking into account everything from pricing to features to determine which services we believe are the best.
Services Provided by Call Centers
Call centers provide a diverse range of services that can be classified as inbound or outbound call center services.
1) Inbound Call Center Services:
Any incoming calls are covered by inbound call center services. Here are some examples of common inbound call center services:-
- Live answering
- Message taking
- Order management
- Call forwarding
- Complaint hotline
- Customer support
- Tech support
- Employee call-out hotline
2) Outbound Call Center Services:
Outbound call center services are when agents call prospects, suppliers, customers or anybody else on your behalf. Here are some examples of common outbound services:-
- Cold calling
- Lead generation
- Marketing campaigns
- Polls and surveys
What kinds of businesses profit from call centres?
Hiring a call center can help any firm that receives a high amount of phone calls or finds that its team is spending too much time monitoring phone lines. Businesses who wish to scale up their customer service, marketing, or sales activities can also outsource certain campaigns to a call center. To track leads and discussions, the best call centers can link with a client’s CRM platform.
What are the differences between the two types of call centres?
Inbound and outbound services are provided by call centers. Order taking, appointment setting, customer service, and tech support are all examples of inbound services. Lead generation, market research, and sales are all common uses for outbound services. This can include polling, cold phoning leads, and following up with prior customers, among other things. Inbound and outbound services are provided by some call centers.
Top 7 Best Call Center Service Providers For Small Businesses In 2021
In this article, you can find the Top 7 Best Call Center Service Providers For Small Businesses In 2021 list, which is as follows:-
1. TeleDirect
We chose TeleDirect as the best overall call center service for small businesses because it offers a comprehensive range of incoming and outbound services, including some that are more difficult to locate, such as cold calling. TeleDirect’s services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so your customers will always have someone to talk to, even on weekends and holidays. Depending on your specific requirements, you can choose between shared agents who manage many campaigns and dedicated agents who work entirely on your company. TeleDirect offers English, Spanish, and a variety of other languages, depending on your customer.
2. Go Answer
Go Answer provides a wide range of call center service and numerous plans to accommodate all call volumes. It is an open corporation that publishes its price plans online, which is not always the case in the industry. There is no minimum call volume or monthly billing amount, nor are there any long-term obligations. If your volume fluctuates from month to month, you can upgrade or decrease your plan at no additional cost. If you wish to close your account, there are no cancellation fees. Go Answer is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and claims that its operators will answer every call within the first three rings. Helpdesk services, order taking, a customer hotline, and simple answering services are examples of inbound services. Custom plans are available for businesses with specific requirements or with changing call volumes.
3. Stericycle
Stericycle Communication Solutions specializes in response call center service for the medical industry and medical offices. Stericycle has years of experience in the industry and knows the demands of healthcare providers and their patients. The company provides HIPAA-compliant services to ensure that sensitive patient information is communicated securely and in accordance with the law. Stericycle provides healthcare-specific services like as physician referral, on-call scheduling, and appointment reminders for patients in addition to the core answering services we searched for. Its fee varies depending on the client, but we were charged $711.90 per month. Clients must sign a one-year contract with Stericycle.
4. Signius
Many businesses simply do not receive a high volume of calls, but that does not mean that call center services cannot benefit them. Signius Communications makes it possible for low-volume businesses to outsource inbound call center services such as customer assistance and order entry at a cheap cost without losing quality. Signius does not provide outbound services or manage any other channels besides phone lines, therefore it is solely responsible for processing your incoming calls.
5. SAS
Because of its decades of experience across a wide number of verticals, Specialty Answering Service is our best overall option for answering services. It has all of the essential characteristics of an answering service that we looked for in our study, as well as a number of interesting services that could assist businesses of all sizes and demands. SAS offers a variety of options based on your predicted call volume, ranging from the pay-as-you-go economy plan to the enormous 10,000-minute plan.
6. XACT
XACT provides customizable plans and services, making it an excellent alternative for businesses of all sizes and stages of development. There are both shared and dedicated agent alternatives available. A variety of answering and call center services are available as solutions. Customer service, help desks, appointment planning, hotlines, email management, and web chat are examples of inbound and outbound call center services. Live agent answering, message taking, order taking, and appointment making are some of the answering services offered. XACT services are available to businesses of all sizes and sectors.
7. Contact
Because of its low base charges and low per-minute usage rates, Contact Communications is our top option for a pay-as-you-go answering service. The company is able to keep expenses low while yet providing all of the essential features we sought in an answering service. Contact Communications is an excellent choice for very small businesses, businesses on a tight budget, or enterprises that only wish to outsource a fraction of their call volume. Its services include live answering, order taking, appointment booking, tech support, and FAQs, allowing agents to serve as a direct extension of your business while callers are unaware they are interacting with an outsourced service. Contact Communications services begin at $19.99 per month, however the amount you will ultimately pay is determined by the services you demand and your expected monthly call volume.
