How to start a call center: It’s more accessible than ever

Customers don’t only focus on the products and services you deliver. They choose brands based on service and support, with more than half of consumers switching to a competitor after a single bad experience.

While churn is never going to be zero, customer success and support can be key differentiators, delivering better experiences and boosting loyalty. Whether you’re an SMB or a large enterprise, one thing that can make a huge difference in this regard is running an effective call center that facilitates positive interactions.

Let’s take a look at how to start a call center for your business.

How to start a call center for your business: Key takeaways

• Virtual call centers eliminate the need for physical offices, phone lines, and expensive equipment.
• Choose the right call center type based on your needs; inbound for customer service, outbound for sales, or blended for maximum flexibility.
• Use the right tools, including cloud-based contact center solutions like RingCentral RingCX that include essential features like automatic call distribution, call recording, CRM integration, and advanced AI capabilities.
• When building a contact center team, hire for soft skills like emotional intelligence and problem-solving, which are harder to teach than technical knowledge.
• Contact center training programs should cover product knowledge, communication skills, and compliance requirements.
• Optimize your contact center workflows through automation, AI transcription, and CRM integrations to minimize manual tasks and maximize agent efficiency.
• Monitor key metrics continuously, including first-call resolution, customer satisfaction, and agent utilization, to drive ongoing improvements in your contact center.
• Understand unique call center challenges, such as compliance requirements and changing customer demands to keep things running smoothly.

Starting a call center is an option for more businesses than ever before

The traditional methods surrounding how to open a call center used to be daunting and resource-heavy. Today, opening a call center is accessible to almost any type and size of business.

Platforms like RingCentral RingCX run in the cloud, where your team members can access your virtual call center. With cloud-based contact center solutions, you don’t need to invest in phone lines and communications equipment. You also don’t necessarily need an office, computers, and other devices required for physical call centers.

This means you only pay for what you need, with little to no upfront cost and fewer headaches. You can focus on running your business instead of dealing with the minutiae and overheads of running an on-premises call or contact center.

How to start a virtual call center: 10 simple steps

Starting a virtual call center doesn’t have to be difficult. Follow these 10 steps, and your business will be handling customer calls efficiently in no time.

1. Define your call center’s purpose and related goals

Every project or initiative starts with a purpose. You might be planning to offer 24/7 technical support over the phone, or you could be looking to launch telephone outreach for upcoming marketing and sales campaigns.

Having primary and secondary objectives will help steer your call center planning towards decision-making. Stick with SMART goals during this initial stage, such as:

• To achieve an average handling time (AHT) of less than four minutes and call abandonment rate of lower than 20%
• To deflect 20% of calls with self-service options
• To increase customer satisfaction by 25% and reduce churn by 10%

2. Identify the functions required to meet those goals

Up next, identify what’s needed to achieve your goals. Determine whether you’ll be making outbound calls, handling inbound calls, or requiring a combination of both. There is a diverse set of virtual call center solutions available, and many are only meant for receiving or making calls, not both.

Also, think about whether you want to communicate with a customer primarily over the phone or on multiple channels.Consider where your customers spend their time interacting with brands and which communication methods they prefer. This is an important component to consider early because running a multi- or omnichannel contact center has different requirements than operating a call center.

Due diligence is vital at this stage. Comb through consumer reports and industry trends. Research your target audience through customer feedback surveys to identify their preferred communication channels.

3. Decide on the type of call center you need

We’ve briefly touched upon this above, but your goals and your audience help define what type of contact center or call center you need. The following are your basic options to consider when designing a startup call center:

Inbound call center

An inbound call center mainly exists to receive and manage incoming calls from customers and clients. Occasionally, inbound call centers may also deal with prospects who seek more product information or need support with a freemium offering.

In general, inbound call centers handle:

• General customer service
• Technical support
• Orders
• Returns, exchanges, and refunds
• Renewals and cancellations
• Appointment scheduling
• Billing questions and payment processing.

Outbound call center

Outbound call centers primarily dial prospects and existing customers, including cold calling based on contact lists.

Outbound call centers handle:

• Prospect outreach
• Lead generation
• Telemarketing
• Sales campaigns or fundraising initiatives
• CSAT surveys and other market research
• Outstanding bills and debt collection
• Appointment reminders
• Promotions and upsell opportunities.

Blended call center

A blended call center handles both inbound and outbound customer calls. This gives you the greatest flexibility. At the same time, it requires a more complicated process to design and maintain. For example, some call center software is built mainly for either outbound or inbound calls, meaning you may need to combine multiple tools. Call center agents also require a more diverse set of soft skills and experience to work in a blended environment.

Virtual call center

A virtual call center is run fully remotely, with all team members accessing the system over the internet. This means team members can be based anywhere in the world and work at any time of the day or night.

For customers, the experience is no different from a traditional call center. Not only that, AI-powered solutions like RingCentral RingCX enhance the customer experience by providing agents with live coaching and offering customer self-service for speedy resolutions.

Hybrid call center

A hybrid call center combines remote and on-site teams. This enables you to gather the benefits of in-person oversight and management while still being able to recruit global talent and provide 24/7 phone service and support. You still save money and improve flexibility while supervisors and managers maintain greater control.

Contact center

A contact center is just a call center that handles additional communication channels. These include live chat, email, SMS/MMS text messaging, and social media, and require additional resources to manage.

4. Map your budget carefully

The cost of starting a call center can vary widely depending on factors such as size and call center type. An on-premises call center requires heavy upfront and maintenance costs vs a virtual inbound call center, which only needs a laptop, headset, and an internet connection.

Consider these elements when planning your call center budget:

• Premises – Office space, utilities, insurance, and facilities management represent ongoing fixed costs that virtual call centers can eliminate.
• Hardware and telecommunications equipment – Traditional setups require phones, servers, and PSTN lines, while virtual solutions need only basic headsets and reliable internet connections.
• Call center software and related tools – Budget for monthly SaaS subscriptions, CRM integrations, and workforce management platforms that scale with your team size.
• Employee compensation – Factor in not just agent salaries, but also supervisors, IT support, and potential facilities staff, depending on your approach.
• Onboarding and training – Initial setup costs for learning management systems, training materials, and the time investment to bring new agents to proficiency.

Budget planning best practices include starting conservatively with a 10-15% buffer for unexpected expenses, and choosing frameworks that accommodate growth as your call center scales. Factor in agent training ramp-up and ensure your budget plans for growth.

5. Select the right call center technology

A key pillar of your call center operations is the technology behind it. This includes the hardware and equipment that form the backbone of your call center, such as IT and network infrastructure, as well as phone lines, telephones, and handsets or headsets.

For modern businesses, call center technology revolves around software. Your technology stack determines how effectively your team handles calls, monitors performance, and tracks key metrics.

Call center software encompasses:

• Cloud-based call or contact center platforms
• Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions
• Helpdesk or ticketing software
• Workforce management (WFM) tools.

You’ll need to find the right combination of tools that help you run your call center as intended. If you’re not going for an on-premises solution, however, a virtual or cloud call center platform is a must.

Virtual call center features to look for include:

• Automatic call distribution (ACD)
• Interactive voice response (IVR)
• Availability-, role-, and skills-based routing
• Call extensions, hold, and transfer
• Call queues and queue callback
• Call recordings
• Customer feedback surveys
• Call monitoring
• Automatic sales dialer
• Call center metric monitoring
• CRM integrations.

More advanced platforms like RingCX free your team from manual tasks and after-call work (ACW) while empowering them with AI-led agent coaching and real-time insights.

AI-powered solutions include:

• AI virtual agents for customer self-service
• AI-driven workflow automations
• Sentiment analysis with conversational AI
• Advanced analytics and reporting
• AI quality management with automated call scoring and predictive CSAT scores
• AI-assistance tailored to each role, including agents, supervisors, and managers
• Automatic call transcription with AI summaries and highlights
• Omnichannel routing
• Workforce management and planning capabilities.

6. Determine your staffing needs

Alright, you have the skeleton of a basic call center. You need to flesh it out and help it become a living, breathing concept. That means hiring enough of the right people for the right roles.

Common call and contact center roles include:

• Call center agents or representatives – These are your customer-facing team members on the frontlines. Agents primarily handle inbound calls for support and service, while reps focus on outreach and cold calling for telemarketing campaigns.
• Call center supervisors – These individuals lead teams of agents, monitoring performance, and providing assistance when calls need to be escalated or to coach agents to improve.
• Call center managers – Top-level roles that oversee daily operations and progression toward short-term and long-term goals. They collaborate with upper management to ensure the call center is aligned with the overall strategy of the business.
• Quality assurance (QA) analysts – They specialize in monitoring performance, call quality, and ensuring a CSAT baseline and other company standards are maintained.
• Workforce managers – Focus on optimizing staffing levels and scheduling to meet peak demand and minimize agent idle time. They use historical data and predictive analytics to forecast call volumes and allocate resources.

If you’re running an on-site call center, you may also require a facilities management team or need to outsource facility services.

7. Design your onboarding and training programs

Effective onboarding directly impacts your ability to train and retain staff. This consideration is crucial because losing staff means losing institutional knowledge and expertise, and it can take 6-12 months to train an agent to proficiency. Not to mention that one study calculated the average cost to train one call center employee to be over $6,500.

Create agent-friendly knowledge bases such as company portals, wikis, and forums. Use a learning management system (LMS) to deliver module-based training. These are especially critical to deliver educational content to disparate and remote teams.

Implement performance monitoring and skill assessments to tailor training programs around the strengths and weaknesses of each individual. Your comprehensive training program should cover:

• Product and service knowledge – Deep understanding of your offerings and common use cases
• Technical proficiency – Mastery of your call center platform and CRM systems
• Communication skills – Active listening, empathy, and professional phone etiquette
• Problem-solving techniques – Root cause analysis and escalation protocols
• Compliance training – Industry regulations and data protection requirements.

Design your training program before you start hiring. Having a structured onboarding process in place ensures consistency and helps new agents feel confident from day one.

8. Establish efficient workflows and processes

You don’t only want your call center team to be effective, you also want them to be efficient. For example, you hire people for their ability to empathize with customers, strategize, and solve problems, not necessarily for how well they document virtual paperwork.

Map out the workflows of each role. Identify which processes can be eliminated, integrated, or automated. It’s all about minimizing the time your team spends on manual and repetitive tasks.

Live call transcriptions reduce time spent on post-call work. AI virtual agents deflect lower-tier calls so your agents can solve more complex issues. Outbound and inbound call center software integrations with your CRM and other tools eliminate app switching and auto-populate forms.

One real-world example would be LA’s go-to for modern primary care, The Doctor. The company used RingCentral’s AI-powered platform to increase efficiency by 30% and reduce its call abandonment to less than 1 per day.

9. Build your contact center team

Now it’s time to put your contact or call center team together and promote their ability to perform.

Focus on soft skills during hiring

Sure, you can teach someone your product knowledge or how to navigate your CRM. Critical soft skills such as emotional intelligence, active listening, and the ability to stay calm when a customer is frustrated, however, are arguably more important.

Recruiters can scan resumes for keywords like “written and verbal communication” or “problem-solving” skills. Use role-playing scenarios during interviews to assess the necessary abilities for each role with greater clarity.

Leverage global talent

With a virtual call center, you can recruit from a global talent pool, making it easier to find people with the right technical and soft skills for each role. This expanded reach means you’re not limited by local labor markets or geographic constraints when seeking specialized expertise.

You can also hire agents in different time zones to provide round-the-clock customer support naturally.

10. Continuously monitor and improve

Congratulations, you’ve started a call center. You haven’t crossed the finish line, however. The race has only begun. Keep yourself on pace and on track by monitoring the right call center metrics, including:

• Average handle time (AHT)
• Average speed to answer (ASA)
• First call resolution, also known as first contact resolution (FCR)
• Call abandonment rate
• Cost per call
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score
• Customer effort score (CES)
• Conversion rate
• Agent utilization rate.

Use call center analytics tools and dashboard reporting to continuously monitor performance. Establish baselines for each KPI using industry benchmarks and adjusting those as you begin to analyze historical data.

Prioritize areas below baselines and align adjustments with your objectives.

How to start a contact center: Any different considerations?

Throughout this discussion, we’ve often said “call or contact centers” as if they are the same thing. For many in the business world, these phrases are used interchangeably. However, technically, they are two different things representing phone communication vs omnichannel communication.

Modern businesses are increasingly shifting to contact centers to meet consumer preferences and expectations. This is no more obvious than when looking at the growth of the global contact center software market. Fortune Business Insights predicts the market to grow from $63.9 billion in 2025 to $213.5 billion by 2032.

Contact centers and call centers have distinct differences when it comes to setup and operations:

• Agent skills – Team members must be competent in additional skills, including verbal and written forms of communication, asynchronous communication, and multi-tasking.
• Training – Onboarding and training materials must cover every channel you use, from phone calls, to live chat, to social media conversations.
• Contact center tools – You’ll require an omnichannel contact center platform and integrations that enable your team to communicate with customers on multiple channels for seamless interactions.

Common challenges when starting a call center and how to overcome them

There are many challenges involved in creating and maintaining an effective call center. Let’s examine some of the most common obstacles and how to navigate them:

Staying compliant

Maintaining legal compliance is non-negotiable for call centers. Many laws and regulations govern the how, when, and what of communicating with consumers. This includes handling sensitive customer information, cold calling times, and contact opt-outs.

Some critical compliance requirements include:

• TCPA – Restricts telemarketing calls and requires written consent for automated calls and texts.
• GDPR – Governs how personal data is collected and processed in the European Union.
• HIPAA – Protects patient health information through secure communication and proper data handling.
• CCPA – Gives California consumers rights over their personal information and data deletion.

You’ll need to be familiar with the regulations that apply to all of the countries of your target audience segments. Avoid fines and reputational damage by using a contact center solution like RingCentral RingCX, which is ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, and PCI DSS compliant.

Keeping staff engaged

Unfortunately, virtual call centers bring a unique problem; keeping agents engaged despite working from home. According to a Gallup Poll, 2024 saw a 10-year low with only 31% of employees engaged with their work. Agents who feel isolated deliver poorer customer service and are more likely to quit.

With average call center turnover rates hovering around 42%, keeping agents engaged is crucial for maintaining consistent service quality and controlling recruitment costs.

Follow these best practices to keep your team connected and engaged:

• Set up team messaging channels for formal and informal conversations
• Schedule regular check-ins with voice and video calls
• Create peer recognition programs
• Use gamification to reward accomplishments such as training completions and hitting individual KPIs
• Develop career plans with tailored development.

The goal is to recruit and support a team with flexible training, peer support, and career progression paths. Engaged employees will deliver better customer service, enhance productivity, and reduce turnover.

Adapting to changing customer demands

Customer expectations are constantly changing. A 2024 report found that 87% of customer support teams saw an increase in customer expectations from the previous year.

Here are a few ways in which customer demands are changing:

• Omnichannel expectations – 98% of Americans own a smartphone, and they increasingly want to interact with brands on multiple platforms, including email and social media.
• Personalization – 76% of customers expect personalization, while only 50% of consumers think companies do a good job at it.
• Self-service – 77% of customers believe that quick and easy self-service is important to the overall CX.

Use customer feedback surveys, industry reports, and sentiment analysis to stay ahead of changing preferences.

How much does it cost to start a call center?

In many ways, asking how much it costs to start a call center is like asking how long a piece of string is. Different sources will give you differing cost estimates. To get a more accurate picture, consider what areas you need to invest in to build the call or contact center that you want and need.

Here’s how the expenses break down across key budget categories for a traditional vs virtual call center:

Traditional vs. virtual call center costs

In general, you’ll spend more for an on-site solution. To illustrate the financial impact of your approach, let’s examine two hypothetical but realistic scenarios for the same startup SaaS company looking to launch a 10-agent call center:

Traditional call center scenario:

• Office space: $2,500 per month
• On-premises service: $1,000 per month
• PSTN installation: $2,000 upfront
• Equipment: $400 per employee (laptops and headsets)
• Staff salaries: $3,000 per month, per employee
• Total first-year cost: $408,000

Virtual call center scenario:

• Office space: $0
• RingCX service: $65 per agent, per month
• Equipment: $25 per agent (headsets only, agents use their own laptops)
• Staff salaries: $3,000 per month, per employee
• Total first-year cost: $368,050

Using our fictional examples, that’s a difference of nearly $40,000 in the first year alone. Coming back to the real world, The Escape Game cut costs in half after switching its contact center operations to RingCX.

The right technology is the foundation of a successful call center

Whether a traditional on-premises or virtual call center, you want to drive your operations forward by using the right technology. RingCentral RingCX provides you with a unified contact center platform powered by AI.

Launch an omnichannel contact center where your team can connect with customers and prospects through phone, video, email, chat, and SMS/MMS texting. Help your agents focus on what they do best by eliminating post-call work with call transcriptions and AI summaries.

Our AI assistant guides your agents with sentiment analysis and live coaching to help them find solutions without escalating to a supervisor. AI workforce management insights help optimize your staffing levels, and intelligent virtual agents act as an effective first line of defence, providing immediate, 24/7 customer service.

For outbound teams, our sales dialer ensures your reps spend more time with prospects while intelligent routing helps agents reach better prospects and close more deals.

Get in touch with our team and start your virtual call center with RingCentral today.

FAQs about starting a call center

Does my business need a call center?

Your business may need a call center if you handle high call volumes, need to offer consistent customer service quality, or want to centralize support operations. Businesses with complex products, multiple time zones, or growth plans often benefit most from dedicated call center operations.

Could I outsource instead?

Yes, outsourcing can reduce costs and provide immediate expertise. However, you’ll have less control over agent training, brand consistency, and customer experience quality. In-house call centers offer better customization and alignment with company values.

Do I need a physical premises to start a call center?

No, you don’t need a physical premises to start a call center. Virtual call centers eliminate the need for physical office space, allowing agents to work remotely with just headsets and internet connections. This approach reduces costs, taps into global talent pools, and gives you ultimate flexibility.

Can I use AI instead of call center agents?

AI isn’t meant to replace your agents. It can handle routine inquiries and deflect simple calls, but human agents remain essential for complex issues requiring empathy and problem-solving. The most effective approach combines AI for initial interactions with human agents for escalations and personalized service.

What technology is non-negotiable when starting a call center?

Essential technology includes a cloud-based call center platform with automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, call recording, and CRM integration. Reliable internet connectivity and quality headsets are also mandatory for consistent service delivery.

Updated Sep 09, 2025