How to Set Up a Virtual Call Center the Right (& Easy) Way

Setting up a virtual call center is easier and faster than you might think.

A lot of people waste too much time trying to plan every detail to perfection. But the best approach is to jump in and learn by doing.

This guide explains how to set up a virtual call center in just four steps (or three if you don’t need to hire).

How to start a virtual call center in four steps

You don’t need to spend months to launch a virtual call center. The entire process should involve some basic planning, the right call center software, and (maybe) a remote team. Once it’s live, you can make adjustments and experiment with new features as needed.

Using RingCentral to set up your virtual call center is my top recommendation. But these steps still work even if you’re using something else.

Be sure to check out our RingCentral review and our guide on the best call center software if you’d like to learn more about your options.

Step 1: Set the groundwork

This planning phase should only take a few hours at most. In most cases, it doesn’t even take that long. All we’re doing here is thinking through the basics just enough to know what we need before we go any further.

Here’s what you should be thinking about:

• Are you setting up an inbound or outbound call center? Maybe one that does both?
• What is the purpose of your call center and what are you trying to achieve?
• How much money are you willing to invest upfront? What about your monthly or annual budget?
• Are you strictly handling phone calls, or will you have a multichannel contact center?
• Do you need to hire employees? How soon does this need to happen?

Don’t get too deep into the weeds here.

All you need is a simple call center business plan that defines your goals and general sense of direction.

Make sure you’re not overthinking things too much, and definitely don’t wait until your plan is “perfect” (or you’ll never start). As I said earlier, you’ll figure everything out along the way.

Step 2: Sign up for RingCentral

I recommend RingCentral for most call centers because it works equally well for small businesses, growing call centers, and even high-volume omnichannel operations.

Small or new call centers can get by just fine with RingEX. This is RingCentral’s business phone plan – it starts at just $20 per user per month (if you pay annually) and includes all the lightweight features you’ll need.

It’s less than half the price of a dedicated call center solution, and it supports unlimited inbound and outbound calling throughout the US and Canada.

All RingEX plans come with SMS messaging, an IVR call menu (which is a must-have for call centers), and AI-powered call transcriptions. But I recommend starting with the Advanced plan if you can — it adds automatic call recording, advanced call monitoring features, and CRM integrations for just $5 more per month.

Pro-tip: Change the number of users slider to 1-5 on the pricing page— you’ll see an option to try any of RingCentral’s business phone plans for free. 

For high-volume call centers, fast-growth, or larger teams, I recommend starting with the RingCX Contact Center plan. It comes with the basics plus a range of advanced features that’ll help you improve contact center CX for agents and callers.

Some of these advanced features include:

• Unlimited domestic inbound calls.
• Per minute outbound usage pricing.
• ACD, IVR, and skills-based routing.
• 20+ contact center support channels.
• Queue callbacks.
• Call recordings.
• Service desk integrations.
• Customer surveys.
• Built-in AI assistance.

RingCentral’s contact center plans start at $65 per agent per month.

This is a great deal when you consider how feature-packed the plan is on top of top-tier reliability and five-star customer service.

Before moving on, choose a RingCentral plan and go through the signup process. You should set up voicemail, extensions or lines for your team, a basic IVR (with pre-recorded greetings), and CRM integration at the very least.

All the other bells and whistles can come later while you wait for volume to start picking up. Remember, the main goal here is to get everything launched as fast as possible.

Step 3: Build your team (if needed)

You can skip this step if you’re not planning to hire anyone right now. It’s a good reference if you decide to add to your team later, but it won’t be super helpful for you until then.

For those of you who do need to hire employees to run your virtual call center, I recommend slowing down for a minute and thinking carefully about the roles and responsibilities you need to hire for.

If you’re small, a few generalist agents might be enough. But that’s not the only type of job that exists in a virtual call center.

Do you need a manager to oversee your agents? Do you need to recruit people in different time zones who are available to take calls at different hours?

What skills are the most important to the stage you’re at right now?

Depending on your call volume and goals, you might have two different job listings — one for inbound customer service and another for outbound sales. These are two very different roles with different requirements and skillsets.

You may also want to hire a quality assurance analyst among other roles for workforce optimization, agent engagement, and more.

From there, you should set up an onboarding flow for remote employees. This could include pre-recorded training, video calls with yourself or other team members, setting up payroll information, or reading through SOPs and documentation.

Thinking through this ahead of time ensures each new hire gets off to a great start.

For the actual recruitment and hiring process, you have two options. The first is outsourcing the bulk of this work to a recruiting agency. It’s more expensive, but it’s less work for you to handle on your own. They’ll find candidates, qualify them, and send you the best options so you can make the final decisions.

Alternatively, you can save some money by handling the recruitment process on your own.

This can work just fine if you’re only hiring a handful of people. All you have to do is post your job to platforms, like Indeed or other Indeed alternatives.

If you’re hiring more than five or six people, I recommend using an applicant tracking system to keep everything organized. Some of them link directly to job platforms, allowing you to see and manage submissions from multiple locations in one place.

Step 4: Observe, iterate, optimize

Now that plan is in place and your call center is officially up and running, this is where the real work starts. In reality, it actually never ends but it isn’t as daunting as it sounds.

Because we moved quickly through the initial stages, it’s time to start observing. Here are some questions you can ask to get the ball rolling:

• What’s working well?
• What’s too complicated or taking too long?
• Is anything going differently than you originally planned or hoped?
• Do you need to hire more people? Or hire different people?
• Should you update or optimize your onboarding process?
• Is it time to start experimenting with or deploying new features?

Every few months, you should sit down and think about how to resolve current problems and optimize your systems.

A good place to start is by evaluating the call center metrics that have an impact on customer and agent experiences. These KPIs can tell you things that are tough to uncover by simply listening in on a phone call.

If hold times are too long, it might be time to set up queue callbacks.

Are customers dropping out of your phone tree or regularly connecting with the wrong agent? Automated IVR testing can help resolve those problems for good. Having a tough time measuring customer satisfaction? AI-powered sentiment analysis or dedicated speech analytics software can help.

Over time, this will become a natural part of your workflow.

Agents will feel more comfortable speaking up when things aren’t working, you’ll get more familiar with the software you’re using, and everyone will improve together.

Benefits of setting up a virtual call center (even if you’re small)

There are many advantages to setting up a virtual call center.

Beyond the obvious,  like driving more sales and giving your customers the ability to reach you by phone, here are some other perks to consider:

• Scalability — Virtual call centers aren’t bound by location or size constraints, which means you can grow from a five-person call center in Seattle to a 50-person call center across the entire US without having to change your infrastructure.
• Cost savings — It’s so much cheaper to set up a virtual call center since you don’t have to pay for office space, desks, chairs, electricity, utilities, extra insurance, and all of the other expenses that come with a traditional office environment.
• Fast deployment — You can get started quickly and onboard new users in a matter of hours without a complex tech stack or hardware that requires an IT professional to set up. You also likely won’t need IT for quite a while.
• A wider talent pool — It’s unlikely that all of the best call center agents looking for work live within an hour of your business. By going virtual, you can hire anyone nationwide.
• Better brand perception — Customers tend to associate call centers with larger, more established businesses. Even if you’re running a solo or five-person operation, you can give off this impression by offering a smooth inbound calling experience.
• Improved customer satisfaction — At the end of the day, your customers will be happy if they can get a real person on the phone who is knowledgeable and able to answer questions. Your customers don’t care if those people are remote.
• Access to advanced features and integrations — Compared to traditional phone systems, virtual call center software comes with tons of features that would otherwise cost a fortune to implement. Plus you can integrate with CRM software, help desk software, and other powerful tools to streamline your processes and provide even better customer service.

I’ve been managing remote teams for years and I can tell you that my staff is happier, I’m able to hire the best folks for the job no matter where they live, and we still get everything done.

When your agents are happy, it translates to better interactions with your customers. Happier customers (almost always) equals a happier business.

How much does a virtual call center cost? Not as much as you think

The cost of a virtual call center depends on the number of seats and features you need.

Say you’re running a solo ecommerce shop and want to set up a virtual call center by yourself to handle customer support calls. You could just get a RingCentral business phone plan for $20 to $35 per month, and it will be more than enough to handle calls on your own.

Even if you need to hire a few more people, it’s just a matter of multiplying the number of employees by the monthly cost of your call center software.

Full-fledged virtual call center centers handling a higher volume of both inbound calls, outbound calls, and potentially support through other communication channels will pay a higher rate per user because they need more functionality.

However, they may be able to get high-volume discounts depending on the software they choose.

RingCentral, for example, requires you to talk to sales for higher level plans and larger teams because you may qualify for custom pricing.

That said, RingCX plans start at $65 per month per agent. $65 x 10 agents = $650 per month, $65 x 25 agents = $1,625 per month. You can use this same equation to get a close ballpark before talking to their sales team.

You’ll also need to account for other costs, like:

• Internet.
• Computers.
• Headsets.
• Routers.
• Desk phones.

With the exception of internet services, most of these other expenses are one-time costs. Many of them may also be covered by the employee themselves, depending on your agreement with them.

I have a complete guide that breaks down call center software pricing if you want to get deeper into the weeds.

Traditional vs. virtual call centers: There’s a clear winner

Traditional call centers operate in a traditional office environment. They require physical space, infrastructure, electricity, and all the other things you normally think of with an office.

The positive of this setup is that it’s easier for your agents to collaborate, the team is probably easier to manage when they’re all in the same place, and you’ll have more opportunities for team bonding.

On the other hand, you can deploy a virtual call center from anywhere with internet access.

So far, I’ve talked a lot about how great remote work is. But there are also some trade offs as well. For starters, each employee needs a stable internet connection. If even one agent has a less than ideal connection, you’ll suffer through calls and customers won’t be able to hear them.

Aside from that, it’s significantly more challenging to collaborate as a team when you’re all in different locations. Time zones can also play a factor as well.

To me, these trade offs are worth it every time.

As long as you have great call center software (I recommend RingCentral), managers should have everything they need to monitor their team, check for quality, train, and keep an eye on everything no matter where their team works.