Call Center vs Customer Experience Team: What Is The Difference?

If you’re an administrative professional or job seeker exploring customer-focused roles, you’ve likely come across opportunities in both call centers and customer experience teams. While they may sound similar on the surface, these roles serve different functions within a business and require distinct skill sets. It’s important to understand their individual structures and fundamental differences when applying to roles, so you have a better opportunity to interview for positions that interest you.

Whether you are a new college grad exploring different role opportunities, or a seasoned employee looking for a career shift, it’s helpful to know what each role you apply for entails. In this article, we’ll break down the structure, purpose, and ideal candidate profiles for both call center and customer experience roles—so you can make an informed decision about your next career move.

Differentiating Administrative and Customer Service Career Paths

In the world of professional support roles, administrative and customer service positions often intersect—but they aren’t one and the same. Administrative roles typically involve behind-the-scenes operations such as scheduling, data entry, and office coordination. On the other hand, customer service roles involve direct interactions with customers or clients, providing support, answering questions, and resolving concerns.

Understanding where call center and customer experience positions fall within this spectrum can help you identify where your strengths lie, where you may need to seek experience and certifications to fill the gaps, and how your background translates.

What Is a Call Center?

Purpose and Function

A call center is a centralized department where agents handle inbound and/or outbound calls, primarily focused on resolving customer issues, processing transactions, or conducting outreach. The primary goal is to provide efficient, consistent, and timely communication—often on a high-volume scale. A call center can be build around one company or organization, or service dozens of companies at a time depending on the structure.

Structure of a Call Center

Call centers are typically organized into specialized teams based on the type of support offered. For example:

• Inbound teams focus on assisting customers calling in with questions or concerns.

• Outbound teams may handle sales calls, surveys, or follow-up communications.

• Technical support teams address specific product or service issues.

Supervisors and quality assurance managers oversee performance, script adherence, and service metrics. The work environment is fast-paced, highly structured, and performance-driven.

What Is a Customer Experience Team?

Purpose and Function

A customer experience team goes beyond handling individual inquiries—they focus on the entire customer experience journey. This includes touchpoints before, during, and after a transaction to ensure a positive and consistent interaction with the brand.

Customer experience professionals analyze feedback, identify trends, and recommend process improvements to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Their work often involves collaboration with marketing, product development, and sales teams.

Structure of a Customer Experience Team

These teams may include:

• Customer experience specialists who engage directly with customers to gather feedback or resolve more complex issues.

• Customer success managers who maintain long-term relationships with the team’s important clients.

• CX analysts who track trends and evaluate service quality, while providing insights on the data they analyze.

• Operations coordinators who streamline tools and processes across departments.

This structure is typically less rigid than a call center and encourages collaboration and innovation across roles.

Traits of a Successful Call Center Employee

If you’re considering a call center position, here are some of the top qualities that employers look for:

• Strong verbal communication skills and a clear speaking voice. Ability to talk with anyone that calls in or that you reach out to.

• Multitasking abilities in a fast-paced environment. Call centers are constantly busy and noisy, and you should be able to work in this space.

• Patience and empathy to manage a variety of customer emotions, understand their frustrations, and handle their questions.

• Attention to detail to follow scripts and processes accurately, conduct calls consistently and listen to the caller’s needs.

• Resilience and stress management to handle high call volumes and tight KPIs while worker on a larger team.

Call center roles are great for professionals who thrive in structured settings and enjoy helping people solve immediate problems efficiently.

Traits of a Strong Customer Experience Team Member

Customer experience roles require a broader focus and a more strategic mindset. Employers often seek individuals with:

• Emotional intelligence and an ability to see the customer’s perspective, as well as leading them in the right direction towards a solution.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to speak with anyone about their problem.

• Problem-solving abilities that go beyond a single interaction and work through multiple roadblocks.

• A collaborative nature to work cross-functionally with other team members to tackle various issues.

• Analytical thinking to identify patterns and recommend improvements on a daily basis.

This path is ideal for candidates who enjoy thinking about the big picture of the customer experience journey and contributing to long-term brand success.

Key Differences Between Call Center and Customer Experience Roles

Both roles are essential to business success—but they offer different day-to-day experiences and growth opportunities.

How to Determine the Right Fit for Your Career

No matter how much you explore about each position, you know more about your own personality and where you hope to see your career head in the future. When considering whether a call center or customer experience role is right for you, reflect on the following:

• Do you prefer a structured environment with clear performance metrics? A call center might be a great fit.

• Are you more interested in improving customer relationships and working on long-term solutions? A customer experience team could align better.

• Do you enjoy fast-paced, multitasking environments with clear guidelines? Call center roles offer that.

• Are you a natural collaborator who enjoys problem-solving and identifying trends? Then customer experience could be your path.

You should also think about your long-term career goals—some candidates use call center roles as an entry point into customer service, while others grow within customer experience teams into leadership or strategy positions.

Ready to Explore Your Next Career Move?

Whether you’re looking to transition into customer service from an administrative background or want to grow within the field, understanding your fit between a call center and a customer experience role is the first step.

At Professional Alternatives, our experienced administrative and customer service recruiters are here to guide your job search and connect you with top employers looking for professionals just like you. Check out our currently open administrative jobs to apply to roles that interest you. Not finding anything that matches your goals? Submit your resume to be automatically considered for positions that match your skills and career path.

Ready to find your perfect fit? Reach out today to speak with one of our recruiters and start your journey toward a rewarding new role.