The need to establish a contact center can arise at various stages of a business’s growth or organizational development. This may be tied to scaling operations, increasing customer numbers, or the growing complexity of products or services. Often, high competition forces companies to enhance their customer service quality. In any case, management inevitably faces the question: “How to organize an in-house contact center?”
Based on extensive experience in this field, we present a step-by-step plan for creating your own in-house call center or omnichannel contact center.
Key Stages in Creating a Contact Center from Scratch
1. Needs Analysis
A contact center enables businesses to ensure efficient customer interactions, increase satisfaction levels, optimize service processes, collect valuable customer analytics, and strengthen the company’s positive market image. When building a contact center from scratch, it’s essential to determine which of these needs your center will address.
What is a Needs Analysis?
Needs analysis is the first and most crucial step in creating a contact center. It involves defining the company’s objectives, assessing the volume of customer inquiries, selecting communication channels (phone, live chat, email, etc.), and identifying the key call center KPIs that will measure the center’s performance. This process clarifies the required contact center functions and their impact on customer experience.
How to Conduct the Analysis?
This process involves collecting and analyzing customer data, such as expectations, behavioral patterns, and common inquiries. It’s recommended to conduct customer surveys, review historical inquiry data, and account for industry specifics. Collaboration with other departments like marketing and sales is also crucial for a complete understanding of customer needs.
Example Needs for a Contact Center
In e-commerce, the needs for a contact center might include rapid responses to order status inquiries, assistance during purchase processes, and handling returns and complaints. Other essential features are 24/7 support, multilingual services for international clients, and CRM integration for personalized communication. Such analysis highlights the need for automated systems like chat bots or IVR to prepare the contact center for scaling.
2. Strategy Development
Developing strategies for an in-house contact center requires a comprehensive approach to building an efficient customer interaction system. Initially, it is crucial to define the goals the contact center aims to achieve and select the optimal communication channels for customer engagement. Conducting in-depth market and competitor analysis is also essential to understanding customer needs.
The next step involves creating a detailed implementation plan, covering staff recruitment, employee training, selecting software and equipment, and developing customer service standards. Establishing a system of KPIs, monitoring, and performance evaluation is vital for identifying issues and making timely adjustments.
3. Calculating the Required Budget
Establishing a contact center from scratch requires meticulous budget planning, encompassing both fixed and variable costs.
Fixed Costs
These include expenses for renting or purchasing office space, procuring equipment (computers, headsets, servers), obtaining software licenses (CRM, telephony), and setting up workstations. Additionally, costs for agent training must be factored in.
Variable Costs
Variable costs cover employee salaries (agents, managers, technical staff), utility payments, internet services, equipment maintenance, and software updates. They also include costs for increasing staff during peak periods.
Recommended Reading: Headcount VS FTE: How Many Agents Does Your Contact Center Need?
Unforeseen Costs in Setting Up a Contact Center
When budgeting for an in-house contact center, it is essential to consider unexpected expenses. These may include equipment repairs, security system upgrades, adapting to legislative changes, penalties for non-compliance, or additional costs for ensuring uninterrupted operations (generators, backup communication channels, etc.). To avoid overspending, it is recommended to allocate a 10-15% reserve in the budget for unforeseen expenses.
A detailed plan with accurate calculations will help mitigate financial risks and ensure the successful launch of an in-house contact center.
4. Establishing the technical infrastructure
There is a common misconception that building a contact center only entails employing agents, providing them with laptops and headsets, and connecting to IP telephony. In actuality, constructing the technical infrastructure is far more complicated.
Equipment
First and foremost, starting a contact center from scratch necessitates providing agents with all of the essential equipment, including computers or laptops, headsets, VoIP phones, routers, and servers. Larger contact centers may necessitate the creation of a specialized data center to store information and support operations. The following resources contain a comprehensive list of contact center equipment requirements.
VoIP Telephony and Virtual PBX
One of the key decisions in setting up an in-house contact center is selecting an VoIP telephony provider and virtual PBX services. VoIP telephony, which enables calls over the internet, offers significant savings compared to traditional telephony. Virtual PBX solutions provide efficient call routing, call recording, analytics, and other useful features, easily adapting to the evolving needs of a business.
This approach allows for the creation of a flexible and scalable contact center infrastructure, boosting agent efficiency and ensuring high-quality customer service. Using IP telephony and virtual PBX systems enables companies to focus on business growth while automating routine tasks.
Cloud Solutions and CCaaS Platforms
Modern contact centers increasingly adopt the “Contact Center as a Service” (CCaaS) model. Cloud platforms like Sirius offer comprehensive contact center functions—from call management to analytics—while integrating with CRM systems. This significantly simplifies management and allows agents to work remotely.
Software for Contact Centers
The cornerstone tools include CRM systems for customer management, analytics platforms for monitoring KPIs, IVR (interactive voice response) systems, and process automation solutions such as chatbots, autodialers, and WFM systems. The right combination and integration of contact center software enhance efficiency and service quality.
Cloud-based solutions and CCaaS software substantially reduce startup costs while offering flexibility and robust functionality. This is an optimal choice for companies seeking modern technologies without significant investments in physical infrastructure.
Recommended Reading: UCaaS vs. CCaaS: What’s the Difference?
5. Recruitment and Training of Staff
Qualified staff is the cornerstone of an effective contact center. Setting up your own service center requires recruiting for various positions, such as agents, project managers, analysts, automation specialists, and service quality experts. All employees must be trained on the specifics of your product or service and undergo regular skill enhancement.
Training involves integrating new employees into company processes, familiarizing them with the product and technical tools. For agents, it’s crucial to organize training sessions on client communication, conversation scripts, and CRM systems. Team leaders should be provided with courses on team management and KPI tracking. Quality specialists and analysts need to be trained in working with monitoring and reporting software. Developing training materials and conducting regular assessments will help maintain high professional standards across the team.
Recommended Reading: Call Center Agent: The Future of the Profession and 5 Strategies for Staff Training
6. Setting Up Work Processes
The core processes of an omnichannel contact center include:
- Handling incoming inquiries across various channels (calls, emails, chats, social media, and messengers).
- Outbound calls (sales, surveys, payment reminders, and information updates).
- Queue management and routing inquiries to the appropriate agents or departments.
- Resolving customer queries at the first-line support level (FAQs, basic consultations).
- Transferring complex issues to second-line support or relevant experts.
- Providing real-time support via chatbots, live chats on websites, social media, and messengers.
- Generating reports and analyzing performance for process optimization.
- Implementing quality standards and evaluating efficiency.
To successfully organize a contact center from scratch, it is vital to establish quality service standards. These include response time requirements, clarity in communication, and maintaining an appropriate tone when interacting with customers.
The implementation of KPIs (such as Service Level, FCR, NPS, and CSAT) allows for the assessment of agent productivity. Regular performance analysis through reports and customer feedback helps identify weaknesses and improve processes. Monitoring systems, including call recording and service quality evaluation, ensure control and adherence to high customer service standards.
7. Launch and Testing
Before launching a newly established contact center, it is crucial to test all technical infrastructure, including software, VoIP telephony, cloud platforms, call routing, and the operation of all omnichannel systems. Additionally, it’s essential to verify the proper integration of CRM, call recording systems, and reporting tools to prevent technical issues during operations.
The team must also undergo testing with real-world scenarios prior to the launch. This may involve running several test shifts to ensure that agents and other employees are familiar with the systems, processes, and quality standards. This approach helps identify potential weaknesses before full-scale operations begin.
After successful testing, the official launch of the contact center takes place. At this stage, special attention is given to monitoring performance, gathering feedback from agents and customers, and making necessary adjustments to ensure the smooth operation of the contact center from the start.
In-House Contact Center or Outsourcing Services?
As you can see, establishing a contact center from scratch is a complex task that requires significant effort, time, and financial resources. In some cases, the costs of setting up an in-house contact center become prohibitive for businesses. In such situations, outsourcing contact center services can be a practical solution, allowing companies to focus on their core activities while entrusting customer service to professionals.
To better understand what suits your company’s needs — an in-house contact center or outsourcing — a comparative table can provide valuable insights:
| Criterion | In-House Contact Center | Outsourced Contact Center |
| Initial Costs | High: equipment, software, recruitment, and training | Low: payment for ready-made services |
| Launch Speed | low: up to 3–6 months | Fast: ready solutions can be implemented within weeks |
| Flexibility and Scalability | Limited: difficult to scale quickly | High: rapid scalability as needed |
| Quality Control | Full control by the company | Control through SLA and reporting |
| Technical Support | Additional costs for IT support | May be included in the service package |
| Company Focus | Divided attention between customer service and core business | Full focus on core activities |
| Access to Innovation | Limited: investments in modern technologies take time and money | Constant access to advanced technologies and solutions |
| Staffing | Requires recruitment, training, and management | Ready professional team or experienced HR for quick hiring |
| Risks | All risks lie with the company | Risks minimized due to the experience of the outsourcing provider |
Conclusion
So, how do you create a contact center from scratch, step by step? As outlined, this is a complex process that involves analyzing business needs, building technical infrastructure, recruiting staff, and designing business processes. It demands significant financial and time resources, along with meticulous planning.
The stages of organizing an in-house contact center include need analysis, budgeting, establishing the technical foundation, training agents, and implementing quality standards. Together, these steps make the cost of launching a contact center quite substantial. However, an alternative solution could be outsourcing the contact center, which spares businesses many of these challenges.
If your company needs a reliable partner for contact center outsourcing, turn to Global Bilgi. We ensure the highest level of service for your customers, allowing you to focus your efforts on core business objectives.
