For many companies, outbound calls are the primary means through which agents communicate with clients. It’s important, then, to develop a comprehensive outbound call strategy. In this article, we’ll break down what exactly an outbound call strategy is, as well as offer some tips for how to improve your company’s outbound call strategy. Let’s get started.
What is an outbound call?
In the simplest sense, outbound calls are those placed by your agents to your customers. Call centers need to make these types of calls for a variety of reasons, ranging from sales and outreach efforts to calling back customers who requested information that your agent didn’t have on hand during the initial call.
Developing a sound strategy for outbound calling that makes use of all of the available tools at your disposal is crucial to staying ahead of the game. Below we’ll detail several ways you can improve your outbound call strategy.
6 ways to improve your outbound calling strategy
1. Specify your goals and KPIs
Conversion rate
Divide your total number of calls made by the number of successfully converted leads you have for a given period and you’ll get your conversion rate. It’s a simple metric, but one that gives a good general sense of how well your outbound calling strategy is working in ROI terms.
Average handle time
Another simple KPI, average handle time represents the average amount of time your agents spend on the phone with your prospects. As a general rule, you’ll want to keep this metric pretty low. After all, the shorter the average handle time the greater quantity of calls your agents will be able to make per shift. More calls equals more converted leads equals more profit for your company, simple as that.
Answer success rate
Also known as hit rate, this metric measures the percentage of numbers dialed that result in a successful connection between agents and prospects. It’s an especially important KPI to track when developing your outbound calling strategy, because it will inform your decision about which type of automatic dialer to use if you choose to use one. More on that later.
2. Analyze your strategy
Analysis and evaluation are a crucial step of the outbound calling strategy development process. Once you’ve decided on a preliminary strategy, ask for feedback on it from your colleagues, both in management and on the call center floor. Be receptive to recommendations regardless of from whom they come. The goal here is to develop a sound, workable strategy — so be willing to make adjustments if necessary!
3. Use a dialer
Managers know all too well that idle time can be a killer for call centers. Those few minutes an agent spends between calls twiddling their thumbs, so to speak, add up, and can lead to a noticeable amount of lost revenue month-to-month.
Dialer features cuts back idle time significantly.
With our Dynamics 365 embedded Dialer automating the tedious task of searching for their next number, your agents can save time, stay on task and complete more outbound calls per shift than you ever thought possible.
5. Click to call
If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to use an automatic dialing system, click to call functionality from Dynamics 365 can keep things moving quickly even if your agents are manually initiating their calls.
Instead of having to manually enter phone number digits, click to call lets your agents simply click on phone numbers within Dynamics 365 to initiate their outbound calls.
6. Measure results and don’t be afraid to switch things up
As with many business strategies, flexibility is an essential aspect of successful outbound call strategies.
The point is, every call center is different and something that works well for one group may not work as well for another, and vice versa. Solicit feedback from your staff at regular intervals and stay nimble — the perfect strategy for your contact center may be just around the corner.
The Bottom Line
We’ve outlined a number of tips and tricks for helping you improve your outbound calling strategy in this article, but the fact of the matter is none of it will matter unless you’ve got a solid foundation for success in place.
