Of course there is a difference... those of you who are sitting there saying "both services answer the phones don't they?" you are right. The core service description is the same. Its the service delivery that differs.
Virtual Telephony means you receive a service that partners with your company, its products and/or services focusing on a more descriptive and responsive delivery. Your company deals with a very small team, usually 2-3 operators answering your calls. The service provider generally caps how many possible calls will be coming into their system. Therefore this service is more personal and customised.
A call centre provides your company with a service that is limited to the knowledge of the operator at the time. That knowledge is usually limited to what pops up onto their screen. The call centre team can be anywhere from 6-500 operators. A call centre will add more lines to their system to accommodate more customers. Therefore this service is more equipped to manage high volumes.
Virtual Telephony Pros and Cons
personalised and customised callers believe they are calling your company and don't realise they have called a service provider able to easily accommodate your changing needs your callers get to know the operators as less likely to change immediate one-on-one training for operators some services only available work hours, then voicemail for after hours unable to take high volumes
Call Centre Pros and Cons
limited knowledge available to pass on to callers can be perceived by clients as a messaging service difficult to sell your products/services to the provider who in turn can passively sell to callers (no buy in) available 24 hours mass training settings able to take high volumes
RARE REALITIES APPLICABLE TO BOTH SERVICES
We all miss calls, whether there is a technology glitch or the caller felt they waited 2 seconds too long, it happens. Operators occasionally miss a beat or cough or something like that. This is a human driven service, it happens. Messages sometimes go astray, especially emailed messages. There is no control over when it will be delivered and lets face it the Internet sometimes misses a beat. Good reporting has this covered.
HOW TO CHOSE
Work our your priority:
just need a short message sent of caller details (chose call centre) need a service that understands my product or can learn my product (chose a virtual telephony service) have a mass campaign and need to take address details (chose a call centre) need someone to field varying enquiries (chose a virtual telephony service)
And so on... so do think about what your priorities are for the service you require and the decision should be easy.
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