Outbound Calls: Know Everything About It -

Until recently, consumers only had a few options for getting in touch with a business.

Customers may get in touch with businesses in a wide variety of ways nowadays, including chatbots, email, live chat, Zoom calls, social media, and more. Even now, most customer service concerns are handled over the phone.

However, there are additional difficulties and expenditures associated with phone-based customer service. The good news is that the costs of establishing and managing phone support may be reduced with the use of outbound contact center software and outbound calling services.

Smart call routing and other time-saving capabilities are only two examples of how smart software may improve the effectiveness of phone assistance. To help you make an informed decision, we’ll be covering the ins and outs of outbound contact center software in great detail on this page.

Concept of an Outbound Call Center

There used to be a physical location where agents worked, complete with desks, phones, and computers, known as an outgoing call center. It is now possible to run an outgoing call center entirely online.

A call center that makes outbound calls to customers and potential customers is called an “outbound call center.” It is common for outbound contact center agents to be attempting to do some kind of research, fund-raising, or sale. Outbound call centers are less frequent than inbound contact centers, although they exist to provide proactive customer care.

What is the Purpose of Outbound Calls?

Any of the following describe activities that might benefit from an outbound contact center for your company:

Conducts business over the phone by selling or scheduling appointments
Carries out surveys or interviews by telephone to gather data.
Provides in-depth, preemptive client service by telephone
Promotes renewals by contacting current clients

Even if your company isn’t involved in any of the aforementioned activities, you should still think about setting up a contact center. A dedicated outbound call center may improve the efficiency of any operation that regularly makes many phone calls.

Who Needs Outbound Call Center Software?

Companies in the healthcare, IT, finance, retail, and e-commerce sectors are the most frequent users of outbound contact center software. However, contact center software is widely used by businesses across many different sectors.

The services of an outbound call center often include the following.

Companies often use outbound call center services to handle a portion or all of their outbound calling needs. While the specific services provided by each outbound contact center may vary, most include at least one of the following:

Generating Leads
Making an appointment
Timed follow-up calls
Opinion polls
Recurring billing, upselling, and telesales
Retaining Current Clients
Analysis of the Market Competitors

In-house outbound calling requires a solution that doesn’t get in the way, such as those offered by outbound call centers. In other words, you should go for a solution that has the basics covered.

While more advanced solutions may provide a wider range of benefits, these are the basics to keep in mind while shopping around:

Integrations

If they want to provide the best possible service to the individuals they are contacting, outbound call center employees need to know as much as they can about them. Agents may customize their interactions with customers based on their preferences, past purchases, and other information gleaned from their accounts. For this reason, it’s critical to have a system that seamlessly integrates your outbound contact center software with your customer relationship management and/or support desk.

The good news is that the vast majority of outbound calling solutions come equipped with at least rudimentary connectors. Through computer-telephony integration (CTI), most systems also allow you to easily monitor incoming and outgoing calls from inside your office. However, you’ll discover that the finest outbound calling center software has even more connectors that help you standardize the telephony process for your agents, managers, and customers.

Call Monitoring

The task of overseeing agents in an expanding outbound call center grows in proportion to the center’s size. For this reason, it’s helpful to tag, record, and monitor phone calls.

Calls may be categorized any way you choose using tags, whether it by agent, client group, time of day, or anything else you might think of. In this approach, retrieving call records and analyzing them for purposes such as employee evaluations, training, and disciplinary action is quick and painless.

Managers also need the ability to listen in on calls to maintain tabs on agents in real-time, which is why call monitoring is so crucial. For new employees, this may be extremely helpful since supervisors will know exactly how to help them if a call isn’t going well.

Reporting and Analytics for Call Centers

Managers and agents may listen to and rewatch particular conversations thanks to calling recording, while analytics can give broad insights into the center’s overall performance. Analytics and reporting for call centers allow managers to track metrics, assess employee output, and identify areas for improvement. Call center analytics provide insights into metrics like average conversation duration, missed and denied calls, transfer rate, call abandonment rate, and average speed of response, among others.

Power Dailing

The time wasted on dialing is all too apparent to anybody who has worked as or with an outbound calling representative. In addition to the time wasted from having to manually enter numbers, you may find that you waste time while calling numbers that are either no longer in service or are unanswered. Power dialers remove this inefficiency by automatically calling a list of phone numbers and transferring the call to a live agent if and when a potential customer answers. This is a must-have for enterprise-level businesses but is lacking in certain outbound contact center platforms.

Important Benefits of Outbound Call Center Software

Enhanced Reliability of Service Channels

Your business is probably like others in that it oversees more than one service channel. However, as the number of available service channels grows, it becomes increasingly challenging to provide a consistent experience across all of them. The capacity of your business to provide a consistent service experience to your clientele will be boosted by high-quality outbound contact center software.

To that end, it’s crucial to choose contact center software that plays well with your other programs. If your company’s internal procedures and resources are consistent, your customers will have a similar experience.

Reduced Waiting Time and Increased Productivity of Outgoing Calls

With the help of an outbound call center, your outgoing calls will be both more efficient and more productive. Automatic dialing and CRM interfaces save up agents’ time to really have conversations with customers, rather than just making calls. Managerial efficiency is boosted by outbound call centers thanks to features like availability-based call routing optimization.

Analytics and Reports make it Easier to Study

A minimum level of reporting and analytics is often included with most high-quality contact center software packages. Smart contact center managers and staff may use this to establish objectives, monitor progress, and assess results. Everything adds up to learning that is both more effective and more expedient, as well as increased productivity. You may track metrics like these in regards to customer service with the help of contact center software:

The quickness of the Initial Reaction
Predicting Future Call Volume Trends
Time Spent on Hold
Immediate Problem Solving After the Initial Phone Call (FCR)
Standards of Recent Help
Length of Time on Average to Be Seen

Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Calls

Inbound and outbound call centers are distinguished by their respective purposes. Calls may be routed to either an inbound or outbound center. One such kind is the hybrid contact center, which functions both as a call center and a call hub.

Some examples of how incoming and outbound call centers are put to use are provided below.

Applications of Outbound Call Centers

Prospecting in an unwarm environment may be used to generate and validate leads.
Find out what your customers want and how the competition stacks up by doing market research.
Give your customers the option of calling in for some proactive service.

Applications of Inbound Call Centers

To take inbound calls from current customers and provide appropriate responses.
Take care of the order and payment processing and any billing difficulties that may arise.
Identify potential upsells and renewals by contacting your clientele.

Best Inbound Call Center Software Across the World

Office24by7

Office24by7’s contact center software is an all-in-one voice solution that helps businesses provide cutting-edge service to their customers. Office24by7’s adaptability means it can be used by a broad range of companies, and its power means it can improve the efficiency of even the most complex sales and support operations.

Instantaneous phone contact

Add a call button to your website or mobile app that links directly to Office24by7, and your customers will have an easier time getting in touch with you and obtaining the phone help they need. Simplify things for your staff by allowing them to have one dialogue across phone calls, voicemails, text messages, emails, chats, and social media platforms.

Low-priced and easy to deploy

If you use one of Office24by7’s ninety or more supported telephony providers, you may connect your own custom outbound contact center solutions. If for some reason, one of our suppliers doesn’t function, you may always create your own integration. Moreover, Office24by7’s robust extensibility allows you to enhance your voice capabilities by integrating with other services and technologies.

Reaching Out at the Right Moment

The correct consumer is sent to the right agent at the right time with helpful tools like group routing, overflow, after-hours routing, and interactive voice response (IVR). You are in charge of every aspect of the call center’s operations. Set parameters such as the maximum number of customers in a queue, the number of times customers must wait before being called back, and more using Office24by7.

Features of Office24by7

IVR
Routing calls in groups, during peak times, and after hours.
Integrating all channels at once
Software Development Kits, WebHooks, and APIs
Recreating a call recording
Control panels and data analysis
Predictive dialing and call blocking for outgoing calls
Messages may be sent by voicemail or SMS.
Numbers to call first
Click-to-call
A Web Widget has been Called.
Controls for muted listening and call redirection

Avaya

While Avaya has several options, the Voice package includes the call center software needed to handle outgoing calls. There’s also an “All Media” plan that’s a little more than the “Voice” plan, or you can make your own. Regardless of the plan you choose, Avaya has several useful capabilities.

Avaya may be used to implement AI-powered self-service automation, intelligent routing, and individualized work processes, among other things. You may also add your own voice and/or chatbots to the mix for a more personalized and productive outbound calling experience. The cheapest monthly cost for an Avaya customer to make and receive phone calls is $71. If you want access to everything, including All Media, it will cost you an additional $11 per month per User.

Avaya Features

Two-way voice communication
Recording Phone Calls
Analytics and reports
The interface may be modified to fit individual needs.
Free and unlimited phone calls, in addition to email, online chat, and text messaging.
Two-way voice communication
Managing processes visually
Advanced transport planning
You’re welcome to bring your own chatbot or speech bot.

RingCentral

The outgoing call center software offered by RingCentral also supports incoming calls, making it a hybrid solution. RingCentral is a good fit for large teams since it can handle both incoming and outgoing calls. However, if your outbound contact center is just getting started, many of its functions may go underutilized.

Outbound calling requires RingCentral’s Ultimate Plan, which includes tools like predictive dialers, agent scripting, sophisticated interactive voice response (IVR), and omnichannel routing. You’ll need to get in touch with sales to find out how much the outbound calling software from RingCentral will cost.

Ring Central Features

A system that automatically records phone calls
Administration of many locations
Hot Desk
Professionally-tailored Canvas and Smarsh integrations
Group video chats with as many as 200 people
A platform for developers and bespoke integrations
Superior call management, including options like whispering and barging
Analysis in real-time

Aircall

The sales staff can be more productive with Aircall thanks to its seamless interaction with your current customer relationship management and support systems. The software’s built-in telephone connection allows connecting to your service desk or customer relationship management system as simple as pressing a button.

From the CRM or helpdesk, your outbound call center agents may initiate automation, keep tabs on call history, and more. Every one of Aircall’s plans features boundless incoming and outgoing calls to the US and Canada. A 7-day free trial is available, and their most inexpensive plan begins at $30 per user each month.

Aircall Features

Dial-In Number Analyses
Programmable Interfaces with Web-Based Notifications
Electronic voicemail
Post-call automation systems
Integrations between customer relationship management and support ticket systems
Dialing with Intelligence
Click-to-dial
Telephone call labeling
Monitoring and stifling phone call

HubSpot

While HubSpot is designed for a lot more than simply contact centers, it can be easily adapted to meet your requirements. HubSpot’s famous CRM, as well as its sales and marketing capabilities, may be used in tandem with your choice of contact center software, thanks to the platform’s ability to interact with a broad selection of call center technologies.

In addition to its extensive reporting capabilities, HubSpot also provides automation tools, shared email inboxes, self-service tools, and live chat. HubSpot’s Sales Hub plans are the entry point for getting the platform up and running. Prices start at $45 per month and go as high as $1,200 per month if you want to use HubSpot to manage your whole contact center.

Hubspot Features

Communicate in real-time
One-on-one video chat
Condition Updates Via Email
Discussion Pathfinding
Simple robotics
Shared Email Account
The reporting and monitoring of progress
App for HubSpot’s CRM

ZOHO DESK

In addition to its more well-known use as a help desk, Zoho Desk also has robust contact center functionality. If you’re already using Zoho Desk, integrating Zoho’s cloud-based telephony for customer care couldn’t be simpler.

Help desk and contact center software from Zoho work well together because of their seamless native integration. For instance, the Zoho Desk support center treats voicemails left by clients as new cases. Once an agent receives an inquiry, it’s a simple procedure to handle and reply to it. The Professional plan costs $35 per agent per month, while the Enterprise package costs $50 per agent per month, both of which are required to use Zoho Desk’s contact center capabilities.

Zoho Desk Features

The Dashboards and Reports for Calls
Records of telephone calls
Managing Call Queues
Support ticketing and customer relationship management with Zoho Desk
Call-into-ticket ratio
Checking the availability of agents
In addition to the standard functions, a call may be transferred, recorded, put on hold, or muted.

TalkDesk

Talkdesk is a cloud-based hybrid contact center system with the ability to manage both incoming and outbound calls. Talkdesk is a tool that helps supervisors and customer service reps coordinate and manage outbound phone calls. Additionally, sales representatives may take care of outbound calls regardless of their location, thanks to the user-friendly Talkdesk mobile app.

Additionally, Talkdesk’s adaptability is exceptional thanks to features like after-hours and/or part-time employment possibilities. Talkdesk’s four pricing tiers range from $75 per month per User to $125 per month per User. The least expensive plan that doesn’t skimp on calling features is the CS Cloud Elevate plan ($95 per user per month). However, you may request a demo on TalkDesk’s site in lieu of a free trial.

TalkDesk Features

App for mobile phone chats
Capturing the Display
Website for facilitating individual service requests
Feedback
Robotic assistant
Web API Access
Market place for 80+ AppConnect
Monitoring data in real-time
Over sixty built-in connections

FreshDesk

Freshdesk Contact Center, formerly known as Freshcaller, is a reliable cloud-based alternative for running an outbound contact center. Freshdesk’s contact center software includes everything you need to launch a local or global call center, including the ability to buy a toll-free number, integrate your CRM, customize your call dashboard, and record conversations.

For customer service, Freshdesk has four different pricing tiers, from free to an Enterprise package that costs $79 per month per person. There is a usage-based premium included in all plans. The Pro package, which begins at $49 per agent per month plus use fees, is required for access to more sophisticated services, including automated call routing, a power dialer, and call monitoring. Test-drive any paid or free Freshdesk Contact Center plan now.

FreshDesk Features

Intelligent Call Metrics
Free up to 3000 monthly inbound minutes
Put on hold almost
The Supervision of Call Center Workers
Rapid-fire phone dialer
Systematized direction-finding automation
IVR
Telephone call labeling
Intelligent increases
Particularly Formatted Accounts
The Practice of Listening In on Phone Calls

Vonage

Vonage Contact Center is an outbound contact center software that can be tailored to your business’s needs, with plenty of built-in functionality and extensible with a variety of plugins. Among the many major CRMs and applications that Vonage interacts with, Salesforce has some of the tightest connectors.

As an example, if you’re not a Salesforce user, you won’t be able to make use of Vonage’s omnichannel assistance. Users of Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamic, and ServiceNow, on the other hand, may make use of Vonage Contact Center’s video and screen-sharing capabilities. There are four Vonage plans to choose from, and you can get an estimate by contacting the business via their website.

Vonage Features

Salesforce interaction
Automatic Call Distribution and Interactive Voice Response
Recordings of Phone Calls
Click-to-call
Banner ads
Routing calls based on expertise.
Manager Supervision
Online activity monitoring boards

CloudTalk

In 2020, CloudTalk’s cloud-based incoming and outbound contact center software received high marks as a top-notch option for small and medium-sized businesses. CloudTalk provides the option of buying a local phone number in any one of 140+ different countries for your contact center. As an added bonus, the system’s intuitive design makes it a good option for fledgling contact center operations staffed by a small team of dedicated individuals.

Smart dialing, call recording, two-way synchronization, and straightforward CRM and help desk interfaces are just a few of CloudTalk’s most sought-after features. CloudTalk’s three pre-made bundles range in price from $25 to $50 per user monthly. However, you’ll need to upgrade to CloudTalk’s premium plan if you want to make outgoing calls. You may make as many outgoing calls as you want every month for one low monthly fee with the tailor-made plan.

CloudTalk Features

Mobile app
Business hours
Rapid-fire phone dialer
Unlimited inbound and outbound calls
International numbers
Unlimited call queuing
Assist with SLAs
Call Supervision
Analytics with access to an infinite past

WebEx

Cisco’s Webex Contact Center is an excellent option for businesses in need of a reliable contact center solution. This cloud-based service, for one thing, can be set up quickly and cheaply. Webex’s entire set of features makes it a good fit for enterprises with up to a thousand remote or on-site agents working together. Webex, on the other hand, might be a good option for startups that want to put up a simple outbound contact center rapidly.

Webex’s Call Plan, which grants access to the platform’s contact center functionality, begins at $17 per user per month. Another option is the Meet + Call package, which provides both meeting and call center functionality. Another option is to collaborate with Webex to create a tailor-made package.

WebEx Features

Phone features include a queue, a transfer, and a forward
In-House Screen Sharing
To make local and domestic calls with no limits.
Telephone conferences
A Visual Voicemail System
Recreating a call recording
The Possibility of Unlimited Messages
Boards that allow for interaction

Dixa

Dixa’s straightforward interface makes working with the platform easy for administrators and agents alike. The program may be used directly in a web browser, and it provides extensive personalization settings. Managers may listen in on calls thanks to Diva’s advanced calling tools and provide help as needed. The program is functional for both receiving and making calls.

Depending on which of Dixa’s three pricing tiers you choose (Starter, Advanced, or Unlimited), you’ll have access to a distinct set of contact center tools. You may visit Dixa’s webpage to inquire about pricing for the various plans.

Dixa Features

Transferring, recording, and keeping tabs on incoming calls
IVR
Customized hold music
Voicemail
Call waiting for status updates

DialPad

Dialpad is a versatile platform for both incoming and outbound contact centers, with capabilities including real-time transcription and sentiment analysis. Dialpad’s built-in AI also presents call scripts for challenging queries, allowing agents to maximize their productivity. It also has a mobile app so you can keep in touch regardless of where you are or what device you’re using.

The Dialpad hybrid contact center software is available in two variants: Pro and Enterprise. You need to buy at least three licenses for Pro and 100 for Enterprise. The Enterprise Plan includes all the benefits of the Pro tier, plus a hundred percent uptime service level agreement (SLA), round-the-clock phone support, and customized metrics and dashboards. You may acquire quotes for both services by filling out a form on Dialpad’s website.

DialPad Features

Callback while in the queue
Analyzing public opinion
Warnings for supervisors
Instantaneous transcription
Unlimited free-of-charge-phone-calls enabled
Reporting and data analysis
IQ phone dialer
Tracking past phone calls

Live Agent

LiveAgent is cloud-based contact center software that can handle almost any kind of telephonic communication your organization may want. The ability to make and receive calls locally and internally, as well as make and receive calls to other locations, is supported. LiveAgent is intended to aid in proactive customer care, product or service renewals, and upsells or cross-sells.

LiveAgent is a full-featured support desk, much like Zoho Desk, Zendesk, and a few more below. The call-center software is just a piece of the puzzle. But to have access to contact center assistance, you’ll need LiveAgent’s All-inclusive subscription, which begins at $39 per agent each month. You may join up for a free 14-day trial of LiveAgent’s contact center help if you’re interested.

Features of Live Agent

Modernized Recordings
Managing Calls: Forwarding and Redirecting
Evaluations of Online Conversations
IVR
Infinite Agent Hardware
Ample opportunity to record calls
Communicate in real-time
Integrations and API
Conversations through a video call

Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex is a bit different from the other contact center software on our list, but it still has everything your outbound calling team needs to succeed. Twilio Flex is a completely programmable call center platform as opposed to a single solution. To create an outgoing call center that is unique to your company, you may utilize Twilio Flex if you have the means to do so.

Construct a virtual phone system, create web-based calling applications, transcribe calls, manage call queues, and more with the help of Twilio’s Voice SDK. Basically, Twilio gives you the power to perform anything that would normally need an expensive and complex outbound contact center solution. The base monthly cost of Twilio Flex is $150 per User, or you may pay $1 per active user hour. Costs for using Twilio’s Voice SDK are metered and calculated on a per-minute basis.

Features of Twilio Flex

IVR
Call monitoring
International meetings
In-App Conferencing
The Transcription of Phone Calls
Call Masking

Which Outbound Call Center Program is Best and Why?

It might be really daunting to choose appropriate outbound contact center software. It will be simpler if you evaluate software candidates according to these three criteria.

The degree to which the current and future software team and personnel are a good match

The strongest programs don’t have the most bells and whistles. It’s the program that can help your team succeed. You should check that any prospective program has the essential functionality you need, but beyond that, it’s all about compatibility with your staff. Use free trials if you can to get your hands on the program and provide it to your managers and agents. In practice, even what seems like intuitive software at first glance might end up being cumbersome.

Think about where you want to go in the future while assessing the level of fit with your present demands. Perhaps you want to allow more sophisticated monitoring options in the future, or you anticipate a rise in call volume. Choose software that can adapt to your business as its demands evolve.

Duration till the value is realized

Getting buy-in from your team and management is critical to the success of any software implementation. Therefore, it’s important to select outbound call center software with a quick time-to-value (TTV).

If you want to win over salespeople, service people, managers, and executives who are skeptical of the value of your new software, you need to demonstrate that value as quickly as possible. When your ideas can provide demonstrable benefit to your stakeholders, you’ll have far less trouble winning their support.

Service Cost vs. Time Expectation

Outbound contact center software is like any other service in that you get what you pay for. However, not every outbound contacting group can make the most of the innovative tools provided by modern contact center software.

As a result, you should weigh the service’s value against your budget. In most cases, you can start out with a cheaper version of the contact center software and then upgrade to a more expensive one as your needs change.

Wrapping It Up

All in all, if you are someone who is looking for outbound contact center that is reliable, efficient and makes call center management easy, then our Office24by7 should be your go to option. Our myriad of features will help your organization a lot. Want to know more details about our product, just drop us an email on sales@office24by7.com.