9 Steps To Starting a Virtual Call Center in 2025

According to Forbes, by the year 2025, 32.6 million Americans are expected to work remotely*, and your call center employees are no different.

Setting up a virtual call center (VCC) can benefit both you and your employees—they eliminate their daily commute and work from the comfort of home, and you get the ability to recruit workers around the world, reduce employee turnover, and keep your operational costs in check.

Even if you’re used to a more traditional setup, you’ll be surprised at how quick and easy it is to transition to a virtual call center—we’ll show you how in this step-by-step guide.

Key takeaways: 

• Reduce costs and turnover: Virtual call centers reduce overhead costs while allowing agents to work remotely boosting job satisfaction and retention.
  
• Enhanced customer experience: By integrating advanced technologies like VoIP and CRM systems, VCCs can provide better customer interactions and improve service quality.
  
• Continuous improvement: Regular training and feedback make sure that agents are well-equipped to meet evolving customer expectations and industry standards.

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Why Start a Virtual Call Center? 

Setting up a virtual contact center (VCC) offers location independence and flexibility. Without being tied to a physical office, your support team can work from anywhere, so you can recruit top talent from around the world and serve callers on an international scale. 

Unlike traditional call centers, which require costly overhead like rent and equipment, a VCC lets you run your operation remotely with just an internet connection. With VoIP tools, agents can field calls right from their smartphones or computers, saving you money while boosting customer service and your bottom line.

Here are some of the main benefits of a VCC:

• Cost savings: Virtual call centers reduce overhead by eliminating the need for physical office space, desks, and hardware. Forbes discovered companies that switch to remote work can save up to $11,000 per employee per year.
  
• Flexibility: Remote agents can work from any location and enjoy flexible schedules, leading to higher job satisfaction and lower employee turnover.
  
• Increased productivity: According to a study conducted by Owl Labs, 79% of managers feel their team is more productive when working remote. This can be attributed to fewer distractions, no commutes, and improved work-life balance.
  
• Round-the-clock availability: With a VCC, employees can be distributed across various time zones. This makes it easier to stagger shifts and extend business hours so you’re always available for clients, day or night.
  
• Omnichannel communication: Unlike traditional call centers, VCCs support multiple communication channels, including phone, email, live chat, and social media, improving customer engagement.
  
• Scalability: VCCs easily scale with business growth, accommodating more agents and adjusting to increased call volumes without requiring investments in infrastructure.
  
• Improved call quality: VCCs use IP networks, ensuring higher-quality voice data and fewer disruptions compared to traditional analog systems.

How to Start Your Virtual Call Center Business

Ready to get started? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up your virtual call center and the key components you’ll need to succeed.

1. Define Goals and Objectives

New hires need to be brought up to speed on the company’s vision, team objectives, and individual goals during training. Help them understand what success looks like, whether it’s based on customer satisfaction scores, average handle time, or other factors meant to improve call center performance.

2. Choose The Right Virtual Call Center Software

Virtual call center solutions offer capabilities that are more advanced than those in traditional contact centers. These centers support remote workers, and they also simplify and improve customer experiences. Look out for the following features to optimize the performance of your VCC:

• VoIP and Call Center Software: Choose the right software to help you track productivity, speed up onboarding, and boost overall performance. 
  
• CRM Integration: When a call connects, the call center CRM provides agents with access to detailed customer profiles, including customer details such as phone numbers, past interactions, purchase history, and personal preferences. This enables more personalized communication, allowing your team to address customer needs effectively and close sales more quickly.

• Call Recording: Some cloud-based calling systems offer Call Recording, which automatically captures, stores, and analyzes all your calls in one place. Gain valuable insights into your audience’s needs, talk/listen ratio, track performance, provide personalized feedback, and deliver targeted training.
  
• Real-Time Dashboard: Monitor KPIs, visualize performance metrics, and access actionable insights all from a single dashboard with the right call center analytics software.
  
• Sentiment Analysis: Call center monitoring gives you insight into what is happening in your remote call center at all times. Sentiment Analysis assigns each call an overall sentiment–positive, neutral, and negative—so agents can switch gears as needed.
  
• Workflow Automation: Streamline your call center operations by using Call Center Automation features like Workflow Automation to handle routine tasks like call routing, follow-up reminders, and data entry.

“We have a large team of agents who work remotely from different locations. CloudTalk allows them to easily log in and start making calls from anywhere, without any complex setup or installation required.”

Elay Sasson — Call Center Sales Manager at MyHeritage

3. Develop a Business Plan

Start by defining the types of services your cloud contact center will offer, whether it’s inbound support, outbound sales, or a combination of both.

Next, draft a detailed budget that encompasses all initial and ongoing expenses, ensuring you account for software, training, and potential hiring costs. It’s also essential to analyze market demand and competition to identify your niche.

Investing a few minutes now to think through these questions can save you hours later. While you don’t need a formal business plan, having a clear outline will help keep you focused on what truly matters. Here are some questions to ask yourself to guide you as you develop your own business plan:

• What are your goals? Are you aiming to boost sales or enhance customer support?
• What channels do you want to cover? Will you focus on phones, social media, messaging apps, live chat, or a combination?
• Who are your agents, and how many will you have on day one? Are you starting solo, working with your existing team, or planning to hire a larger group soon?
• Where will your agents work? Will they be remote, or will they operate from an office?
• Do you need physical phones, or will softphones suffice? Softphones offer flexibility and reduce hardware costs, but physical phones may provide better reliability in some setups.
• Is your call center designed to grow as your business scales? Scalability ensures your system can handle increasing call volumes, add new agents smoothly, and adapt to changing business needs.

4. Recruit and Train Call Center Agents

When you’re getting your VCC off the ground, customer support should be your top priority. The time and resources that you’ll invest in finding the right agents, onboarding, and training will pave the way for long-term success.

Start by establishing the qualifications and skills you’re looking for. Think about what makes an agent truly great—whether it’s excellent communication skills, empathy, or being tech-savvy. 

Once you’ve got your team on board, it’s time to set them up for success with a comprehensive training program. Onboarding new agents should be an engaging experience that equips them with the knowledge base they need to hit the ground running.

5. Set Up Your Virtual Infrastructure 

Make sure your team has access to high-speed internet and necessary hardware, such as headsets and computers, that meet the technical requirements of your contact center software. Consider setting up VPNs for secure access to company resources and have a plan for technical support to assist with any issues that may arise.

Collaboration tools like shared document platforms like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 are also key. They allow agents to access important documents, product information, and policies at any time, ensuring that everyone stays on the same page. 

Choose a reliable platform for real-time communication, like Slack or Microsoft Teams. This can help agents and supervisors quickly exchange messages, share updates, and stay in sync throughout the day.

6. Implement Quality Assurance Measures

One of the challenges of running a VCC is that if an agent has a question, they can’t just tap their supervisor on the shoulder. Your team won’t all be in the same room, or even the same building. That’s why it’s crucial to have all your policies, product info, and key knowledge sources easily accessible.

Sentiment Analysis empowers managers to gauge customer emotions during interactions, so you can identify areas for improvement and tailor responses accordingly. Topics Extraction helps to distill key discussion points from phone calls, which is key for training your agents. Call Recording enables supervisors to review conversations, assess agent performance, and make sure standards are being upheld. 

Call Monitoring and Agent Reporting can help you identify areas for improvement. Together, these services foster a culture of continuous improvement, helping teams deliver exceptional customer service.

7. Establish Customer Service Protocols

Managers are busy, and they shouldn’t have to micromanage every call. But with the right call scripts, they can empower agents to deliver top-notch service without hovering.

Well-designed call scripts give agents a solid framework to follow, ensuring they share the right information and maintain professionalism during interactions. 

An effective sales call script should include the following elements:

• A friendly introduction
• Confirm it’s a good time to talk
• Explain what your company can offer
• Address the prospect’s pain points
• Deliver the sales pitch
• Handle any objections
• End with a strong call to action

Remember, your customers are at the heart of everything you do. To keep improving, actively seek their feedback through surveys and follow-ups to help you serve them better.

“CloudTalk improved our team’s cost and efficiency. The script feature allows us to lead the calls in a much more systematic way, as well as all the action buttons to trigger actions directly into our backend.”

Yohann Bensadoun – Global Supply Growth at Glovo

8. Monitor Performance Metrics 

Keep a close eye on your virtual call center’s success by tracking key call center metrics like: 

• Average Response Time (ART): The average time it takes for an agent to respond to a customer query or pick up a call. Shorter times improve customer satisfaction.
• Call Resolution Rate: Measures how efficiently agents resolve customer issues. A higher rate means more problems are being solved without escalation or repeated contact.
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Tracks how happy customers are with the service they receive, usually gathered through post-call surveys. It’s a direct reflection of the overall experience.
• First Call Resolution (FCR): Indicates how often customer issues are resolved during the first interaction. A high FCR shows that agents are handling concerns without requiring follow-ups, which leads to happier customers.

Use this data to identify areas for improvement and optimize your processes. Consider implementing feedback loops where agents can share their experiences and suggestions for improving workflows.

Check out our blog on 10 most important call center KPIs you should be tracking for more key metrics to help measure performance.

9. Stay Up-to-Date On Industry Trends

Regularly monitor industry best practices and new tools helps you stay competitive and continuously improve your service. You can do this in a number of ways, including:

• Subscribing to newsletters and blogs
• Joining online communities and forums
• Experimenting with new tools and techniques

Encourage continuous learning by offering regular training sessions for your agents. E-learning platforms or virtual workshops are excellent ways to ensure your team remains up-to-date on the latest products, tools, and techniques. 

Providing self-paced learning resources also empowers agents to hone their skills independently, fostering growth and adaptability within your team.

Transform Your Operations with a Virtual Call Center

Setting up a virtual call center isn’t just about adapting to remote work—it positively impacts efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

Virtual call centers have been shown to significantly boost productivity while reducing operational expenses, making them a strategic choice for businesses seeking long-term growth. The flexibility to hire talent globally and scale your operations easily further solidifies the benefits of this model.

By focusing on the right technology, robust training, and continuous quality control, you’re not just keeping up with industry trends—you’re positioning your business for scalable success. A well-executed VCC enables you to offer around-the-clock customer support, improve response times, and ultimately enhance customer retention.

Sources

*Forbes Advisor