What is an outbound call?
An outbound call is one initiated by a contact center agent to prospective customers and focuses on sales, lead generation, telemarketing and fundraising. Calls can also be made to existing customers for renewal services, contact list updates, debt collection, market research or preemptive customer service.
Inbound vs. outbound calls
Unlike an outbound call, an inbound call is one that a customer initiates to the contact center. Some contact centers handle either outbound or inbound calls exclusively. Others, referred to as blended contact centers, deal with a combination of the two.
Inbound and outbound calls require different types of technology and different agent strategies. For example, inbound contact centers typically use interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which route customers based on their responses to the IVR's menu to a different support agent. Outbound contact centers might reach out for satisfaction surveys or market research.
Strategies for successful outbound calls
Outbound calls can be time- and resource-intensive for sales and marketing campaigns. To justify the investment, team leaders can employ one or more of the following strategies:
- Predictive dialing. Predictive dialing systems automatically make outgoing calls, dial phone numbers and screen out busy signals, voicemail, nonanswers and disconnected numbers so agents are only on the phone when a person answers. By making the most efficient use of an agent's time, call centers that use this technology can complete a high volume of outbound calls in a short period of time.
- Scripting to overcome annoyance. Consumers generally consider outbound calls intrusive. Prospective customers often begin the conversation wary or annoyed. Leaving flexibility in agent scripts to personalize calls is one way to counter this initial negativity.
- Blended agents. Making outbound calls can be draining for contact center agents. Managers can keep morale high by assigning contact center agents to make outbound and answer inbound calls depending on call volume. Such blended agents might have more success.
- Do-not-call lists. Many countries have enacted legislation limiting the number of cold calls businesses and contact centers can make. For example, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission maintains the National Do Not Call Registry, a list of phone numbers that telemarketers are prohibited from calling in most circumstances. This list was created in 2003 and fundamentally changed the way marketers in contact centers do business. Many other countries maintain similar lists.
Editor's note: This article was updated to include the latest information on call centers and contact centers.
