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What is an outbound call center?
An outbound call center is one in which call center agents make outbound calls to prospective or existing customers on behalf of a business or client. Calls made from the center can include telemarketing, sales or fund-raising calls, as well as calls for contact list updating, surveys or verification services.
A call center may handle either outbound or inbound calls exclusively or might deal with a combination of the two. An outbound call center uses distinct metrics to measure agent success, such as cost per call, revenue earned, total calls made and tasks completed. An inbound call center uses different metrics from the outbound call center.
These calls help increase sales, test unknown markets and most importantly help in the growth of the business. Usually, outbound calls are done through the help of modern technology, so many calls can be carried out in an hour, in order to get feedback from many customers.
Outbound call center services
Besides the ones aforementioned, other outbound call center services include:
Launch or update/upgrade a product or service
Cold calling campaigns
Warm calling campaigns
Customer acquisition
Welcome call
Reaching out to existing or prospective clients
Referral sales
Appointment setting services
Product/service marketing
Gathering market intelligence
Mortgage lead generation
Telephone surveys
Market research & surveys
Direct mail follow-up
Sales lead follow-up
Service satisfaction follow-ups
Collecting useful information
Customer satisfaction surveys
Debt collection, etc.
4 advantages of using outbound call center services
They have an accurate and careful approach
Outbound call centers follow a precise approach to make contact with existing or prospective customers, understanding their needs and then following up with a solution. Unlike other methods like door-to-door marketing or email approach, it helps companies to get in touch with the customers on a real-time basis and therefore finding a solution to their problems.
Easier to measure and test strategies
Outbound calling teams undergo great scrutiny with each aspect of the process is regularly monitored, measured and tested. Starting from the script used to call clients, to the tone of the caller and even the time took on each is thoroughly measured and recorded for quality control purposes. Also, there are various CRM (customer relationship management) tools that help with managing an outbound process and monitoring the qualitative aspects of the process.
Faster than traditional outbound sales teams
Traditional outbound sales teams travel door-to-door in order to conduct customer surveys or launch products. Due to the physical nature of the process, there is a limit on the number of potential customers that can be reached in a day, while geographical restrictions further limiting the reach of the teams.
Additionally, door-to-door teams might not always get in touch with the final decision maker with regards to the product, since most residential buildings have strict policies about people who enter the premises. In contrast, outbound call center teams can get in touch with the target market directly in real-time bypassing such limitations and touch-basing a large number of customers, compared to a traditional marketer.
Greater chances of a satisfied customer
One of the distinct advantages that outbound call center teams have over digital marketing is its human element. While filling a form, sending an email or extracting information from surveys has its own quantitative advantages, when it comes to solving a customer’s problems the ability to talk to a human representative is more effective and direct. These opportunities, where customers come forward with issues can be used to re-address the problem and then turn that into a positive thing for the company by showing responsiveness to the customer’s needs.