Differences Between Departments & Contact Centers

  • Updated

Departments and Contact Centers may appear similar at first glance, however, they are actually quite different!

Both offer the ability to distribute calls to a group of users, but in brief, Departments are ideal for starting your business.

As your company scales, and call volumes grow, you'll benefit from the advanced capabilities of a Contact Center such as call monitoring and advanced analytics.

Let's take a look at the differences between Dialpad's Departments and Contact Centers.

Department vs. Contact Center Overview

SUMMARY Departments Contact Centers
Maximum Number of Seats 

Supervisors | Agents | Admins | Operators
25 200 for Pro, 500 for Enterprise
Automated Response Menu Yes Yes
Fax Number Yes Yes
Send & Receive SMS (US/CA) Yes Yes
Hold Queue Basic Advanced
Custom Hold Music

Yes

* Available on Pro & Enterprise plans only

Yes
Automatic Call Recording

Yes

- Simple 'On or Off' controls

* Available on Pro & Enterprise plans only

Yes

- Granular controls

Manual Call Recording 

Yes

No
Integrations with CRMs, etc. Yes Yes
Analytics
Basic Advanced
Call Monitoring (Listen In, Barge, & Take Over)

Yes

* User must have Admin-level permissions on an Ai Sales or Contact Center license

Yes
Live Call Transcripts (for Supervisor)

Yes

* User must have Admin-level permissions on an Ai Sales or Contact Center license

Yes
Real-Time Dashboard No Yes
Alerts (queue size, etc.) No Yes
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Surveys No Yes
Call Dispositions No Yes
Wrap-Up Time No Yes
Agent Screen Capture No Yes

Department vs. Contact Center Call Routing

CALL ROUTING Departments Contact Centers
Longest Idle Yes Yes
Fixed Order Yes Yes
Round Robin Yes Yes
Simultaneous Yes No
Random Order No Yes
Skills-Based Routing No Yes
Call Waiting  Yes, when using Simultaneous  Yes, only when making outbound calls
Queue Priority No Yes

Department vs. Contact Center Hold Queue

 HOLD QUEUE Departments Contact Centers
Hold Queue Limits  Yes Yes
Delay Announcement No Yes
Out of Hours Queue No Yes
Unattended queue No Yes
Advise Caller Position in Queue No Yes
Allow Caller to Exit Queue to Voicemail No Yes
Allow Caller to Request a Callback No Yes

Department vs. Contact Center Dialpad Ai 

Dialpad Ai (US/CA) Departments Contact Centers
Ai Call Summary  Yes Yes
Speech Coaching  Yes Yes
Real-Time Assist Cards No Yes
Live Call Sentiment No Yes

* Dialpad Ai is only available in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, UK, AU and NZ.

Department vs. Contact Center Analytics

ANALYTICS Departments Contact Centers
Wait Time No Yes
Service Level No Yes
Customizable Short Abandon Threshold No Yes
Call Disposition Usage No Yes
CSAT Survey Results No Yes
Agent Status reports  No Yes
Real-Time Dashboard No Yes

Keep in mind that, in order to create and manage a Call Center in Dialpad, you'll need a Ai Sales or Ai Contact Center license.