Table of Contents
- What Is An Outbound Call Center Company?
- What Do Outbound Call Centers Do?
- What Is The Difference Between Inbound And Outbound Call Centers?
- Why Should You Opt For Outbound Call Center Services?
- How Much Do Outbound Call Center Companies Charge For Their Services?
- How To Choose The Best Outbound Call Center Service Provider?
- 10 Questions To Ask Outbound Call Center Companies Before You Hire One
What Is An Outbound Call Center Company?
Outbound call center companies operate as customer communication hubs for their respective businesses clients.
The Telemarketing & Call Centers industry's market size is expected to increase 2% in 2022. Why?
As the name suggests, these companies make outbound calls to customers, prospects or other businesses on behalf of client organizations. These calls can be of telemarketing, sales, fund-raising or any other type to reach and attract the clients’ prospective customers.
Companies may also use their services to conduct market research and various surveys. Having in mind that a whopping 54% of consumers feel that companies need to develop more innovative ideas for customer engagement, these specialized companies may provide an ideal solution.
Outbound call centers can help organizations that are looking to scale and expand their business by getting in touch with their clients while keeping the costs in check.
Their main purpose is to cater to the client's customers and their needs - however, before hiring one, organizations need to understand their long-term and short-term goals, as well as their customers’ habits and needs.
Businesses use these specialized services to make their prospective and existing customers aware of their products and services. Every successful sale achieved via these services is referred to as an outbound sale.
What Do Outbound Call Centers Do?
Unlike conventional answering services, outbound call center companies function as business operators that employ customer support agents and sales representatives that make outgoing calls to third parties.
The purpose of making outbound calls can be:
- Increasing sales
- Sending follow-up mailings
- Testing unknown markets with cold calling
- Developing good customer relationships
As their name states, these agencies make outbound calls; however, some companies combine outbound and inbound calling.
Depending on the nature, type and the industry of client business, companies use these services for the purposes of:
- Customer service calls
- Customer notification
- Updating customer/client contact list
- Marketing Research
- Surveys outreach
- Telemarketing sales/cold calls
- Warm calling existing customers
- Nonprofit fundraising
- Post-sale follow-ups
- And more
By using major KPI metrics to measure an outbound call center's performance, client organizations can improve the overall customer experience, to positively impact their retention rates and reputation.
What Is The Difference Between Inbound And Outbound Call Centers?
As their denomination might already suggest, the main difference between these specialized companies is their purpose and direction of calls.
While inbound call centers accept calls coming to the business, outbound call center companies, on the other hand, reach out to prospects for lead qualifications and sales effort.
Both services focus on delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction but inbound centers support teams manage customers and tend to any inquiries and potential issues they may report.
Outbound agents call customers that match their target audience to learn more about their needs and interests and meet them successfully.
Why Should You Opt For Outbound Call Center Services?
Outbound calling has proven to be one of the key sales channels for businesses in various industries - and there are numerous reasons to utilize it.
These types of call center companies provide professional support and resources that guarantee the success of your outbound sales efforts. Adding the latest trends to the mix can elevate your business further.
The main advantages of opting for this kind of services include:
1. Improved Customer Loyalty
Although their primary purpose is selling, outbound calls are not exclusively sales-related. They also keep clients engaged with a business, informed on their latest offers and make them feel valued with a personalized, direct approach. They drive prospects and existing customers down the conversion funnel and towards a potential purchase, and eventually towards brand advocacy and loyalty.
2. Improved Turnover Rate
Outbound calls can be extremely demanding and in-house teams often cannot respond to the challenges of large volumes of calls or daily deadlines. It’s an unwritten rule about the industry that call centers in general have a high turnover rate.
By contracting an outbound call center company, you avoid dedicating a large number of resources, hiring and training employees and getting a team of competent, well-trained professionals that make calls on your behalf.
This leads us to our next point...
3. Reduced Operating Costs
An outsourced 24/7 call center saves you both time and money. Instead of establishing your own outbound calling service, you can outsource it at a fraction of the cost that requires hiring, training, finding a physical location, equipment, setting up, maintenance, etc.
4. Improved Productivity
Outsourcing your outbound call efforts to respected specialized companies ensures your clients are in good hands. It also leaves your in-house employees with more time to focus on their other, primary duties.
Your internal business productivity increases simultaneously with customer satisfaction and ultimately, lead generation.
5. Better Lead Generation
Employing these services can take a lot of weight off your marketing team’s shoulders as outbound calls can acquire relevant, high-quality leads. With the right outreach campaigns, they’re able to secure them at a much higher rate than almost any single marketing strategy.
How Much Do Outbound Call Center Companies Charge For Their Services?
These companies typically offer three distinct pricing models:
- Hourly rates
- Pay for performance
- Combined pricing
Most companies charge between $25 to $49 per hour, depending on factors like:
- Program size
- Program difficulty
- Contract length
Most of them will not consider, or won’t be able to work on pay to performance basis unless the client company provides detailed information about the calling program’s:
- Script and call guide
- Reports
- Training material
- Recorded call samples
How To Choose The Best Outbound Call Center Service Provider?
How do you select the best outbound company for your business? Follow these steps when choosing your future partner:
1. Understand What Outbound Services They Offer
Do they only offer outbound call services or do they combine them with different services like direct mail, mail blasts, telemarketing, media advertising, etc.
2. Choose Between Dedicated Or Shared Agents
The best outbound call centers in the USA offer both dedicated and shared agents/reps. Dedicated agents are assigned only to your account or project, giving your company their full time and attention, while shared ones work for several clients simultaneously.
3. Location
Outsourcing your call efforts comes with different location options that bring cost-effectiveness and resource efficiency in their own way and measure:
- Internal (within your premises)
- External (hosted by these companies themselves)
- Virtual (Cloud-based, using remote agents)
Decide on which functions of managing call center are most important, whether you want and/or need to be more involved, etc.
4. Security Measures
Security is one of the major factors to take into consideration when choosing an outbound partner. Whether on-premise or cloud-based, be sure to investigate their preventive measures around disaster recovery and redundancy.
5. Reputation
A proven track record is the key when you employ these specialized services, especially if you’re a player in the industry that’s reliant on outbound sales.
Try to find as much as you can about your prospective agency’s past experiences to swiftly weed out the unwanted options.
6. Regular Reports
One of the key reasons why companies opt for outsourcing, in general, is that the hired companies help them keep track of various activities and measure their performance.
In the sea of different outbound call center companies in the United States, always look for one that uses a reporting system that details campaign performance, so you can make timely and necessary adjustments effortlessly.
10 Questions To Ask Outbound Call Center Companies Before You Hire One
Before selecting an ideal outbound call center in the US, make sure to gather as much information as you can about their company culture, approach to tasks and quality of work.
Ask them the following questions:
- What is your availability?
- What level of reporting can we expect?
- What call volume can you handle daily?
- What outbound services do you offer?
- Do you have relevant experience with my industry?
- What is your area of specialization?
- How long have you been in the business?
- How do you prove the quality of your services?
- How safe is my data and can you prove it?
- What are your working hours and how much do you charge?
