Affordable Call Centers for Small Businesses

Outsourcing has turned so many services into commodities that the personal touch that used to distinguish one business among its competitors is rarer today than it has ever been. Consequently, that personal touch is also, perhaps, more crucial than ever for a business that wants to pull ahead in a competitive marketplace.
Delivering that “personal touch” may not necessarily mean that your own employees are responsible for all the contact your company makes with customers. If you choose wisely, you can get a fully outsourced call center service that can uphold your standards for good customer interaction.
You may also decide to develop your call center services in-house, in which case you can support your customer service or sales staff with technology that helps to route calls, offer multiple ways to interact with customers, and manage the information your customers provide. As a third approach to setting up your company’s call center, you may choose a hybrid option, relying partly on outsourced services and partly on your own call center system and personnel to take care of all your customer contact.
The good news for small businesses is that there are affordable tools and services in all these call center options. “Call centers are no longer formal, complex, and expensive solutions only for those with dedicated agents,” says Michael Margolis, chief technical officer for SMB solutions at telecommunications equipment manufacturer Avaya, based in Basking Ridge, N.J. “Managing communications — and integrating the management of that information along with other aspects of customer relations, including customer history — is now available to businesses of any size at a fraction of the cost from 5 to 10 years ago.

This buyer’s guide explains the functions that come with call centers, introducing the special functions that make a contact center different from the traditional phone-only interaction of the traditional call center. We explain the different levels of call center service and technology, from fully outsourced solutions to the software and hardware that will allow you to set up your own in-house contact center.
When you get the information you need to start shopping, we can help you get bids from targeted, qualified vendors. You fill out a questionnaire and our partner, BuyerZone, can match you with companies that can tell you more about their offerings. You can check out the following bid request forms:
call center services,
telemarketing services
call center software
IVR (interactive voice response) systems
If you already have a sales or service staff and are looking for ways to make their job easier while smoothing out your service, read an overview of the components that make contact centers such powerful tools in the What Is a Contact Center? section of this guide. You can also skip to the more detailed discussion of call center technology.
If you’re investigating call center options for a short-term project, you will probably be interested in the discussion of call center outsourcing options.
Our guide touches on the choices available for outbound call centers, but you can get more in-depth information about telemarketing options in the Buyer’s Guide to Telemarketing Services.