For many businesses, call or contact centers operate as the hub of their customer communications. Call center agents take inbound calls from people who need help, working to improve customer experiences as well as nurture pre-existing relationships with those who call.
Outbound call centers, on the other hand, have a completely different function. Though both outbound and inbound call centers may look similar, the calls and conversations they make and have are focused on different goals.
If you want to learn more about inbound vs outbound call centers, this is the guide for you. We’ll walk you through the specifics of inbound and outbound calling, tips for optimizing your outbound contact center, and answers to common questions.
Ready? Let’s get to it.
What is an outbound call center?
First things first; what is an outbound call center? Let’s split the question into two parts.
What is a call center?
A call center is a business department composed of agents who interact with individuals outside of the company—usually customers or prospective customers.
Traditionally, those interactions were all over the phone—hence the “call” in call center. Today, other communications channels—like live chat—are also popular. That’s why call center and contact center are often used interchangeably. As they will be in our guide.
What is an outbound call?
As you might guess from the name, call center outbound calls go out from your call or contact center.
Sales calls made by reps looking to generate leads, for example, are common instances of outbound calling.
Inbound vs outbound call center: The main differences
- Outbound call centers: While working in an outbound contact center, agents reach out to prospects, customers, and others—often for lead qualification and sales efforts.
- Inbound call centers: An inbound call center, on the other hand, accepts communications coming into the business, managing the customer story to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Types of outbound call centers: Outbound call center examples
Agents who work in an outbound call center may connect with leads through a variety of methods and for a number of reasons.
Those will be determined, at least in part, by the type of outbound call center it is:
Sales-oriented outbound call centers
These call or contact centers are the most recognizable examples of outbound call centers.
They’re designed to generate revenue by direct outbound sales calls. Agents or sales reps contact prospects with the intention of closing a deal.
Lead generation outbound call centers
These call or contact centers are similar in that their ultimate goal is to aid sales. Lead generation activities, however, happen earlier in the sales pipeline.
Agents in this type of call center aim to draw new prospects to the company so you can sell to them later.
Market research and survey outbound call centers
Outbound calling isn’t always about sales. A market research call center is one where agents reach out to ask for peoples’ opinions or feedback—often via surveys.
Proactive customer service outbound call centers
You don’t always have to wait for customers to contact you with issues. A proactive customer service call center sees agents reach out to customers instead.
Perhaps a product update means one of the functions will work slightly differently. Your outbound contact center agents might get in touch with existing customers and users to let them know before it causes a problem.
Why do outbound call centers matter?
So, what’s the importance of outbound call centers to businesses? Does it really matter if you operate one or not?
They’re good questions, and here are a few principal benefits of outbound call centers that may help to answer them:
They can help drive revenue
Outbound contact centers used for the traditional sales purposes are effective in reaching more prospects, closing deals, and driving revenue.
They can help you build better customer relationships
Proactive customer support via an outbound call center is good for your customer relationships. Reaching out to them to offer help or guidance—sometimes that they didn’t even realize they needed—shows how much you care.
It helps to build trust and therefore loyalty with your customers. Those are the foundations for longer-lasting relationships and increase your chances of turning customers into brand advocates.
They can boost productivity
Getting in touch with customers proactively can also be a boon for productivity. After all, forewarning customers of changes or potential issues means fewer panicked calls if things do go wrong.
What’s more, if you choose the right outbound contact center solutions they can integrate seamlessly with other tools to create more efficient workflows across your center.
See RingCX in action
The best outbound call center solutions: Outbound call center features you can’t do without
At a minimum, outbound call center services should offer you:
Dialer tools
With a solution like RingCentral RingCX, these tools include predictive dialers, preview dialers, and progressive dialers:
Predictive dialers
Some calls end in voicemails, busy signals, or disconnected numbers, so the dialer also estimates the number of calls that will go through to keep agents busy and queues full. A predictive dialer improves efficiency and frees up agent time so they can focus on connecting with customers, not making more calls.
Preview dialers
Progressive dialers
Customizable caller IDs
Adapting caller IDs to suit prospects or customers is an outbound calling best practice. With RingCentral RingCX you can set up caller IDs for campaigns or users, and manually select your chosen ID for calls, too.
Call recording
A healthy database of recorded calls—both good and bad—is great for guiding agents to improve their own calls. Supervisors and managers can listen to the recordings, pick out strengths and weaknesses, and tailor training accordingly.
Outbound call center FAQs
Think about the features that are must-haves to meet your goals. Then, consider your budget, the level of support offered by a call center provider, and the reliability of their software. Find a solution that ticks those boxes and you’ve got the best outbound call center software for you.
Next, create your outbound strategy. Getting outside guidance from a consultancy firm is a great option if you are building your outbound contact center from the ground up.
Agent training is your next greatest priority. Don’t just throw agents, customer service managers, or virtual receptionists into the mix because they have experience in a call center. Offer the education, support, and resources any employee needs to become an effective outbound agent. When your team is ready and able to succeed, your contact center will, too.
While you can still operate a physical center if you wish, virtual call center software like RingCentral RingCX makes that a choice, not a necessity. If you prefer, all your agents or sales reps can work remotely—all they need is access to your chosen software-based solution.
Just make sure that if you do choose to go down the virtual route, your solution has all the features you need. Things like call monitoring functionality are an absolute must for tracking agent performance and offering effective coaching at distance.
For example, some businesses will genuinely only need call center software—if they’re planning on limiting communications to just the phone. Others, however, will want to meet customers and prospects where they are and operate an omnichannel outbound contact center.
RingCentral RingCX is a contact center solution designed to be easy to deploy and use, for organizations of all sizes. It has all the dialer options you need for outbound calling, as well as a raft of further features and seamless integration with RingCentral RingEX, for your internal communications.
Answer success rate (ASR) is a simple yet important outbound call center metric. It demonstrates the percentage of calls dialed which are actually answered by your prospects, leads, or customers. A lower ASR may suggest a problem with your database of contacts or general calling strategy.
Calls per agent is another straightforward but informative metric for an outbound call center. It tells you how many calls each agent makes in a given time period. If one of your agents is making far fewer than the others, it’s something to look into. Just remember, though, it’s not necessarily always a problem. Perhaps they’re keeping leads engaged for longer and making more sales!
Finally, conversion rate is another essential outbound call center metric for those engaged in sales calling. It tells you the percentage of your call center’s total calls (or contact center’s total interactions) that ultimately result in a successful outcome—be that a sale or perhaps the booking of a sales call.
