Outbound call center solution: meaning, benefits, and must-have features
Call centres are, in most cases, considered to process inbound calls as their primary business purpose. An outbound call centre solution is regarded as an “add-on” solution for inbound contact centres because people think that outbound calls can’t be the main business activity of a call centre. Nonetheless, an outbound call centre solution, even if it is used in pairs with an inbound contact centre, is a really beneficial tool for any business, no matter which industry it is working in.
So, what is the definition of an outbound call centre? What are the primary industries which may need outbound call centre solutions? What are the must-have features of an outbound call centre? What benefits can it offer for your business?
Outbound call centre meaning
The outbound call centre is the business division that handles outbound calls (outgoing calls), which means such a department doesn’t service any customer support calls initiated by clients. Its main goal is to perform massive outbound calls for sales, lead generation, or feedback collection (or any other) purposes, but the most crucial part is telemarketing.
Outbound telemarketing is still an effective tool for generating sales and qualified leads, even though some people state it is “dead”, “useless”, and so on. Most studies prove that companies that do not invest in outbound telemarketing earn less money than those that invest in it. Moreover, the overall growth of the outbound sales market is still stable and even growing from year to year, which means outbound sales aren’t just an “old-but-gold” sales strategy but an efficient tool that has proven its relevance after dozens of years of successful work.
Outbound call centres don’t have to be separate departments; they can be part of a blended call centre—a contact centre that handles both inbound and outbound calls and other requests simultaneously.
Industries where outbound call centres are widely used
The outbound call centre is a really beneficial tool, but before we move to the exact benefits and advantages they can offer to you and your brand, let’s find out which industries use outbound call centres the most.
Insurance companies
The insurance industry is one of the most competitive business niches in the world, and that’s why the task of generating new customers and reaching out to potential customers is essential for insurance brands. The main influential factor in a buyer’s decision when purchasing insurance is price, but still, different insurance plans are very different in detail, no matter what type of insurance contract we discuss – car insurance, house insurance, or health (life) insurance. These vital details, which are difficult to find for buyers during their research, may become powerful arguments for sales pitches and help insurance agents get more customers.
Real estate
The situation in the real estate business is quite similar to that in the insurance industry because of the high competition and lack of trust from potential clients. Real estate agents are the most interested in getting new cold leads because they are often limited in the geographic frames of their business, which means that every lead becomes even more valuable.
Debt collection
Debt collection agencies can’t work without outbound call centre services, at least not because their primary business need is to make hundreds of outbound calls per day. This is almost impossible without outbound calling software, so debt collectors are the business niche that depends on outbound calling.
Benefits of outbound call centre
More sales
Outbound call centre software provides you with specifically designed software tools for outbound call automation, which means that the overall number of calls you can perform per day will be much higher than if you do outbound calls manually. This means that the overall number of successful calls will also be higher, but what is the most important fact is that such a tool as a Predictive dialer provides an average conversion rate of over 2,5% when manually it is lower than 1%.
Better agent satisfaction
Agents will feel frustrated if you push them to call hundreds of phone numbers per day manually, so one of the vital business goals is to avoid providing agents with routine and manual work, which may harm their motivation. The outbound call centre has powerful automation options for agent work, and this allows AI call centre agents to be involved in real-time conversations with clients only without spreading their attention to less important tasks that can be automated.
Higher connection rates
With the use of an outbound call centre solution, the average success rate (connection rate) is over 75%, while manually, it is rarely higher than 30%. The connection rate shows the percentage of dialling attempts that were answered by leads and finished through honest conversations between sales agents and clients. Even though various outbound calling tools have different average success rates, they all are significantly higher than they are for manual dialling agents.
What features should your outbound call centre include?
The three main features of an outbound call centre are its dialling modes, including Predictive, Power (Progressive), and Preview dialers.
Predictive dialling mode is an automatic dialling tool that is also the fastest dialling tool available. With an average dialling speed of over 100 dials per hour (compared to 30-35 manually), its main feature is the ability to dial a new phone number even when agents are in a live call, thanks to an advanced algorithm that allows the Predictive dialling mode to understand when the ongoing call will end.
Power dialer calls phone numbers from the list one by one, which means it is a bit slower than Predictive dialling mode, with over 75 dials per hour, but it needs only one agent to work correctly, while its “bro” needs at least five agents.
The preview dialer is designed to handle conversations with special customers. It shows customer cards before and during each call with detailed data about a customer, such as previous purchases, preferences, status, etc.
