What Is an Outbound Contact Center? The Key To Making Your Campaigns More Effective
Contact centers are often the main way for businesses and their customers (or potential customers) to connect. We’re all familiar with the inbound model of people dialing customer support with an inquiry or complaint. But in an outbound contact center, it’s the business that calls the customer.
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In this article, we’ll look at what outbound contact centers do, why they’re important, and how you can use them to make your campaigns more effective.
What is an outbound contact center?
Let’s start off with an outbound contact center definition. An outbound contact center is a business operation or department staffed by agents who make outgoing calls to prospects or customers. They may do this to generate leads, sell products and services, or arrange meetings. Other use cases include market research, fundraising, and debt collection.
At this point, it’s important to note that there’s a reason we’re talking about contact centers, rather than call centers.
Call center: Call centers were the traditional model, back when the telephone was the only way for businesses and customers to interact. As you might expect from the name, agents in call centers make and receive phone calls.
Contact center: Thanks to modern technology, businesses can use additional forms of communication. Contact center agents still use the good old telephone, but they also interact with customers via multiple channels, from chatbots to video to SMS.
What is an outbound call?
An outbound call just means that the contact center or call center agent initiates the telephone call to a potential or existing customer. This might be a cold call (the first time they’ve ever contacted the recipient) or a warm call (such as a sales call to a qualified lead, or following up on a query).
In a contact center this interaction doesn’t necessarily have to be a phone call — a contact center agent could get in touch via another method such as email, text, or social media.
What is the outbound process?
The outbound process involves a contact center agent proactively reaching out to the prospect or customer, instead of the other way around. In this example, we’re assuming that the contact center has an automated system rather than using manual dialing.
1. The agent logs into their contact center management system.
2. The system automatically dials the first number on a list of contacts.
3. When the recipient answers, the system connects the agent to the call. (Or, if there’s no answer, the agent can leave a voicemail.)
4. The agent chats to the customer or prospect, basing the conversation on a flexible script. They’ll talk about the company or product, address any questions, and use active listening to gather information.
5. When the call ends, the system connects the agent to the next available contact.
6. If the right integrations have been set up, the system automatically logs call information. The agent may also take time to schedule a follow-up, pass a new lead to the sales team, or send additional information via email or SMS before making the next call.
Inbound vs. outbound contact centers: What’s the difference?
Inbound and outbound contact centers both facilitate interactions between businesses and customers or prospects. The difference lies in the direction of the interactions.
Inbound contact centers receive incoming calls or messages, usually from people requesting support or information. In an outbound contact center, as we know, it’s the agents who initiate outgoing communication.
Purpose: Inbound contact centers are often help desks or inbound sales hubs. Callers are often existing customers with problems or questions, or people who’ve heard about the business and are responding to marketing. Outbound contact centers handle lead generation and outbound sales, as well as proactive support and customer research.
Center agent skills: In an inbound or outbound contact center, agents require skills like good communication, active listening, and problem solving. Inbound agents may offer specific technical support, while outbound contact centers employ agents with sales and marketing skills.
Technology: Inbound contact centers use call management tools like interactive voice response (IVR) and smart routing. Outbound centers use automatic dialers for maximum efficiency, plus bulk SMS messaging and pre-recorded voicemails.
Regulations: For both types of contact centers, regulations about call recording and data protection are important. However, outbound contact centers have some additional considerations — for instance, they must not place cold calls to people on the Do Not Call (DNC) registry.
Metrics: Inbound agents tend to be measured on how quickly they answer incoming calls and how long it takes to handle an inquiry. Outbound agents and reps are often evaluated on conversion rate and the number of calls made per shift.
Inbound vs. outbound call center comparison
This table shows the differences in terms of features. Many contact centers (especially those that are hybrid) will use elements from each column, but this brief overview gives an insight into some key differences.
INBOUND
OUTBOUND
IVR (interactive voice response) menus to direct incoming calls to the right place
Auto-dialer tools and click-to-call capability for making outgoing calls
Automatic call distribution (ACD) to route calls to available agents
Call scripts to assist agents and reps
Chatbots to handle basic inquiries
SMS messaging and voicemail drop
Call recording for quality and compliance
Call recording for quality and compliance
Caller ID enables agents to identify callers and personalize interactions
Custom caller ID that displays a number local to the recipient, making them more likely to pick up
CRM integration for easy access to customer data when call comes in
CRM integration for checking data before making a call and automatic updating afterwards
Live coaching to help agents handle complaints and tech issues
Live coaching to help agents with engagement and objection-handling
Sentiment analysis to detect caller’s mood
Predictive analytics to determine the optimal times for outbound calls
Importance and benefits of outbound contact centers
Outbound contact centers allow your business to reach potential and existing customers for a variety of reasons. They bring multiple benefits, especially when you ensure efficiency with outbound call center solutions.
Here are some reasons why outbound call centers are important:
1. Proactive outreach
The outbound contact center model enables businesses to take the initiative rather than waiting for people to get in touch. By doing this, you’re creating opportunities and taking control of your sales pipeline. Through lead generation and data-gathering efforts, you can build up a picture of your audience and predict future behaviors.
2. Versatile use cases
Outbound contact centers can be used for all kinds of activities and campaigns. Agents can nurture new leads, check that customers are happy with their purchases, and offer promotions. They can also run customer surveys, collect money owed to the business, and raise funds for charities.
3. Increased revenue
Outbound contact centers allow you to reach a ton of people in a short space of time, thanks to efficient call flows and automated communications. By reaching more customers or prospects, you’ll raise brand awareness and conversions — and boost your revenue.
4. Excellent customer service
Another benefit comes from direct and personalized interactions, which increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. When the business initiates a conversation, the customer feels valued — especially when the agent is already aware of their preferences and needs. Survey data helps you to improve personalization.
Top 5 functions of an outbound contact center
As we’ve seen already, outbound contact centers can be adapted for multiple uses. What you use them for will depend on your business type and industry, but let’s take a look at five of the major functions of an outbound contact center.
1. Lead generation and qualification
Here, outbound agents have the task of identifying and qualifying new leads. Using a contact list, they make cold calls to introduce the product or service. As well as gathering useful information, they assess the person’s level of interest to determine the likelihood of conversion. The most enthusiastic leads are marked as “qualified.”
2. Collecting customer surveys and feedback
Outbound contact centers often carry out surveys, either for general market research or to gauge customer opinions on products and services. This helps businesses to understand their audience and market position, and to make informed decisions about product design, marketing messaging, and sales pitches. With contact center intelligence, you can analyze feedback for deeper insights.
3. Appointment setting
Once a lead has been qualified, outbound contact center agents schedule an appointment or meeting (often via phone or video rather than in-person) between the lead and an assigned sales rep. They’ll agree on a suitable time and date for the sales rep to call, and typically use a calendar tool to confirm this with both parties.
4. Correcting billing issues
If a customer hasn’t paid their bill on time, or if there’s some kind of billing problem — such as an expired payment method — an agent will reach out to help resolve the issue. Outbound agents also contact existing customers about subscription renewals.
5. Scheduled customer callbacks
A scheduled callback can mean a sales rep’s appointment with a lead, but there’s also a different type of customer callback. A hybrid contact center (a mix of inbound and outbound) may provide this service when call queues are long, offering the customer the option of receiving a callback at their convenience instead of waiting on hold.
Examples of outbound contact centers
In addition to the key functions listed in the previous section, there are many more use cases for outbound contact centers. Here are some common examples:
Telemarketing: A telemarketing call center focuses on making promotional calls to potential customers — typically through cold calling, but sometimes following up on leads. The aim is to introduce the company’s products and services and provide extra information where necessary.
Telesales: Often confused with telemarketing, telesales (as the name suggests) concentrates solely on trying to close deals via the phone. The reps receive qualified leads from telemarketers and take up the baton to nudge them toward conversion. Telesales is sometimes referred to as “inside sales.”
Omnichannel sales: In a contact center, the phone isn’t the only method of outreach. Agents aiming to sell, cross-sell, or upsell products and services will use various communication channels to get in touch with prospects or existing customers.
Customer support: Outbound customer support involves proactively reaching out to customers to answer questions and resolve issues. For example, agents might contact customers who’ve had a bad experience and try to persuade them to remain with the company.
Technical support: If there’s a known issue with a product or service, outbound agents may reach out to existing customers before they have to contact the business. They may send messages about a product recall or software upgrade, or proactively offer technical help based on feedback about a product that’s tricky to set up.
Collection and debt recovery: A business may set up a specific team or contact center for this purpose. Agents contact customers whose payments are overdue and help them to set up payment plans, or arrange debt recovery.
Fundraising: Charities and nonprofit organizations often use outbound contact centers for fundraising. Agents reach out to individuals or corporations to ask for donations or volunteers, and send messages about urgent campaigns such as disaster relief.
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KPIs for an outbound contact center
Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics are essential in outbound contact centers, as they reveal whether or not the center is meeting its targets. These will vary from center to center, according to the nature of the business and the specific goals it has set.
Metrics are used in outbound call centers to track individual and team productivity, as well as the quality of customer experiences. Here are some of the most important ones:
1. Call volume
This denotes how many calls an individual agent — or the whole team — makes in a given time period. What represents good call volume? It depends on the function of your center. Telemarketers may be expected to make hundreds of calls in a shift, while customer support agents won’t have such a high target. Call volume is also dependent on the number of agents available.
2. Contact rate
To measure the contact rate, you compare the total number of contact attempts made in a day or month with the percentage of successful connections — that is, the number of recipients who answered the call or message. This helps to evaluate the quality of your contact list and qualified leads.
3. Conversion rate
This metric tells you how many outbound calls result in the desired outcome. For example, a “conversion” may mean that the prospect or customer agrees to a meeting, makes a purchase, or becomes a subscriber. Most centers will look at the percentage of leads who turn into paying customers.
4. Call duration
When you judge agents on the length of calls or interactions, you need to look at the actual outcome as well. Some short calls lead to conversions, while a lengthy call that gets you nowhere is unsuccessful. In other cases, short call duration indicates the agent couldn’t keep the customer on the line. Plus, call duration doesn’t account for time spent following up after the call.
5. First-call resolution
First-call (or first-contact) resolution means that the issue was resolved completely in the first interaction, with no follow-up required. This isn’t an appropriate metric for cold outreach, as it’s unlikely that the initial call will result in conversion. It’s useful when you’re proactively contacting existing customers or doing a scheduled callback.
6. Abandonment rate
This is more commonly used in inbound contact centers to measure how many people hang up before their call is answered. But outbound centers can also use abandonment rate to find out how many people hang up as soon as they realize it’s a cold call, or put the phone down halfway through a sales pitch.
7. Agent productivity
Apart from measuring how many calls an agent makes per shift, you also need to check their wrap-up time (completing post-call activities like recording information or setting an appointment for a sales rep). If wrap-up times are high, it shows that agents are taking too long between each call. A high average handle time (AHT) can also indicate that they’re straying from a concise script.
How to choose the right outbound contact center software for your business: Key features to consider
As we’ve touched on already in this article, it’s important to use the right tools to operate your outbound contact center efficiently. As you might expect, there’s plenty of choice when it comes to outbound call center software, so here are a few important features to look for.
Smart dialing
You want your agents to reach as many prospects and customers as possible, so speeding up the dialing process is a no-brainer. Automated systems help to boost productivity and reduce human error, and there are several types of smart dialing technology:
A click-to-call feature (sometimes called one-click calling, or click-to-dial) saves agents having to type in each phone number on their list, so they can initiate outbound calls quickly.
A power dialer automatically moves to the next number on the list as soon as a call is completed, so reps don’t have to decide who to call next
A predictive dialer automates dialing as well, but also predicts agent availability, and only connects calls to those who are ready. This optimizes agent utilization and reduces idle time.
A preview dialer pulls up useful information about the prospect or customer before the call connects, giving agents a heads-up and enabling them to personalize the call.
CRM integration
It’s essential that your outbound contact center software can integrate with your CRM system. This prevents agents from having to log customer information and recordings manually after each call, as the systems sync and do it automatically. The data is then easily accessible for all agents.
If you integrate your CRM with your dialer, relevant information will appear automatically ahead of a call. With some systems, you can make outbound calls right from the CRM, meaning there’s no need to toggle between different apps.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics features are another must-have, as they’ll enable you to see how your outbound contact center is performing at any given time. Look for software with dashboards for full visibility, especially if you’re managing more than one contact center location.
Analytics help you spot trends and problems, giving you the opportunity to improve performance. You’ll see if an agent needs extra coaching, or if you’re not scheduling enough agents for busy periods. Report on specific campaigns, track keywords and phrases on calls, or run AI sentiment analysis to see what customers really think.
Call scheduling
It’s useful for outbound contact centers to have software for scheduling calls, either in advance for a sales appointment or at specific intervals for follow-up calls or reminders about payments or subscriptions.
If you integrate a calendar tool, you can generate notifications for both the agent and the customer or prospect to confirm a scheduled call and remind them just before. Smart dialers can also schedule calls for when each agent becomes available.
Campaign management
The right software will help you to organize and manage outbound sales and marketing campaigns. You can start with lead generation to create a contact list, and segment the list to target specific audiences with a suitable script.
As the campaign goes on, you can remove uninterested or unreachable customers from your database (or move them to a separate section) to boost campaign performance. Meanwhile, analytics dashboards show you the metrics you need to make quick decisions about campaigns.
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Best practices for outbound calling
So, we’ve looked at some of the software features you’ll need to make your outbound contact center more efficient. But what else can you do to enhance the experience for agents and customers? Here are some top tips for keeping your center running smoothly.
1. Managing people
Contact centers have a notoriously high turnover rate. According to research by Metrigy, it jumped from 21.8 percent in 2022 to 28.1 percent in 2023, and was projected to reach 31.2 percent in 2024. Therefore, agents need careful management to prevent them burning out and quitting.
Apart from offering fair compensation and a positive company culture, you can support them by monitoring performance and offering support to those who need it — such as extra training or in-call coaching. Set clear but reasonable expectations and always recognize good performance
2. Managing processes
Efficiency is the key to maximum outreach and revenue opportunities. Use automated tools for dialing and recording information, and create standardized workflows with consistent but adaptable call scripts that help agents take the right action.
Monitor your KPIs and metrics to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks in your processes. Talk to your agents to find out what would make their jobs simpler — such as allowing more time for post-call activities, or adjusting staff schedules.
3. Managing technology
We’ve discussed the features to look for in outbound contact center software, but you also need to make sure it integrates with your existing tech stack. With all your data in one central place, and with unified communications for omnichannel outreach, you’ll be able to save time and money.
Keep up to date with the latest technology development, such as AI tools and social selling. Whatever technology you choose, make sure it has good customer support and allows you to upgrade your plan when needed.
4. Training and development
Provide full training to help your agents develop their skills, such as active listening, navigating tricky questions, and overcoming objections. They’ll also need in-depth knowledge on your company’s offerings — and you’ll need to include training on how to use contact center technology effectively.
You can use contact center call recording for training, alongside live coaching where managers can listen in on agents’ calls and offer assistance discreetly when it’s needed. Training should be ongoing to cover items like new features, changes in compliance laws, and industry developments.
5. Compliance and security
It’s vital that you comply with laws and regulations surrounding data security and privacy. In the U.S., the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) includes rules about outbound dialing methods and pre-recorded messages, while the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry is a list of numbers you’re not permitted to call.
Compliance with these and other laws will prevent legal action and reputational damage. Some tools will automatically suppress phone numbers on the DNC registry. You also need to verify that any software you use has robust security to protect your and customers’ data.
Get on the road to closing more deals with Vonage Contact Center
Whether your outbound contact center focuses on telesales, market research, debt collection, or fundraising, you need it to be as efficient as possible. It’s crucial that agents have the tools they need — including skills and technology — to contact high numbers of customers and prospects.
By standardizing call flows, training agents, and following best practices, you can streamline contact center operations and improve experiences for agents and customers. But one of the main requirements for a successful outbound contact center is the right software.
With Vonage Contact Center, you have all the essential functions in one platform. That includes smart dialers, CRM integration, live coaching, real-time analytics, and workforce management. You can also manage all your communication channels via a unified system, meeting customers wherever they are.
Get in touch to learn how Vonage boosts contact center performance.
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Still have questions about outbound contact centers?
The three types of contact center are outbound (making outgoing calls), inbound (receiving incoming calls), and hybrid (a combination of the two). Of course, it’s not just about phone calls — all types of contact centers use other communication methods, too.
In an outbound contact center, a team of trained agents makes outgoing calls (or other interactions) using a predefined list of prospects or customers. They’ll typically be logged into an online system that automatically goes through this list and dials each number in turn, connecting the agent when the recipient picks up. Once the call is over and the agent is ready to make another, the dialer moves on to the next number.
It depends on the center’s function. Outbound agents might be marketers or salespeople, leading prospects and customers toward conversion. They might remind customers about bill payments, conduct surveys, or persuade people to make charitable donations.
Apart from having conversations, they also carry out post-call activities like logging details or passing qualified leads to another agent.
Customer experiences are critical for any type of contact center. Outbound agents are most likely to handle sales and marketing, so they need to listen to the prospect’s pain points and present a solution. When agents create positive experiences, prospects turn into paying customers, and existing customers stay loyal.
It’s worth remembering that many people dislike receiving sales calls (especially cold calls), so agents should always be considerate of the recipient’s time, and remain polite in the face of rejections.
Outbound sales is about being proactive, reaching out with a solution that fits the prospect’s needs. Research is important for personalizing the interaction and making sure the sales pitch is relevant and valuable.
The data gathered from customer interactions is useful for improving marketing messages and product features, to increase future sales. It will also indicate which existing customers are open to upselling or cross-selling.
First, decide what type of outbound contact center you want to set up. Define your objectives, identify your target market, and put metrics in place to measure progress. You’ll also need to implement the right technology, from your chosen contact center software to additional tools like a CRM.
Then you can hire agents who possess the right skills and experience, and polish these up with training that’s relevant to the business. Develop your call scripts for consistency and make sure agents know how to comply with relevant regulations.
Once the contact center is up and running, gather data and use analytics to monitor performance, employee engagement, and customer behavior. Use the information to make continuous improvements.
Whether your contact center is inbound or outbound, you have a decision to make on outsourcing.
If your business doesn’t have the resources required to run an in-house contact center, then outsourcing it can be a good idea. On the flipside, running your own center will give you total control over operations as well as data security.
It’s possible to have your own team of agents for handling interactions, but outsource back-office services such as admin and data analysis with business process outsourcing (BPO).
