Outbound Call Center Solutions

  • Streamline outbound call workflows
  • Empower sales and support teams
  • Drive results with customizable solutions
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Call centers create valuable connections between customers (existing and prospective) and businesses. Even with today’s array of communication channels—from email and SMS to live chat and social media—the telephone is still a cornerstone of customer experience and business communication.
Outbound call center solutions help companies like yours to make the most of that crucial communications channel. The right ones can help you streamline call workflows, empower your sales team to close more deals, and generally take your outbound calling strategy to the next level.

What is an outbound call center?

An outbound call center is one where agents make outbound calls to customers and prospects.
Outbound calls are simply calls someone makes to reach another person or group of people on the company’s behalf. Typically, these are sales calls focused on building relationships, generating leads, and closing deals.
Chances are your team already places outgoing calls. They can be:
  • Sales calls
  • Collections calls
  • Follow ups on leads
  • Calls to promote new offers
  • Calls to perform market research
  • Fundraising calls
In the past, an outbound setup included a room full of agents equipped with hardware and devices like phones, computers, headsets, and desks. 
Today, many companies have gone virtual, employing third-party outbound call center solutions like RingCentral’s RingCX that allow them to make calls from anywhere on any device.
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A contact center manager looking at customer sentiment and agent numbers

Who uses outbound call center software?

You don’t have to be a global enterprise or handle large volumes of calls daily to benefit from outbound solutions.
Outbound calling is at the core of many companies’ operations. It’s a way for staying connected and doing business. Sectors that commonly use outbound call center software include healthcare, retail, government, education, high tech, financial services, real estate, and construction.

Examples of outbound call center services

An outbound call center solution streamlines the way you handle outgoing calls, which can serve multiple purposes, including:
Business-to-business or B2B appointment setting gives prospects a first glimpse at your goods or services. The goal is to get them interested in speaking with an outbound sales agent and eventually make a purchase. Securing qualified appointments is generally thought of as one of the most difficult areas of business development.
The way you entice potential customers and get them to give you their contact information is via B2B lead generation. You can think of it as the methods that make people interested in your brand and make them want to learn more about your products or services, and outbound calls play a significant role.
Outbound sales isn’t only about targeting new customers. Efforts spent on keeping existing customers happy are just as valuable. Your strategy might focus on maintaining customer relationships by regularly conducting personalized calls to see if they need anything. Or you may target customers most at risk of churning.
Market research is the process of gathering and analyzing information about your target market, competitors, and the industry in general. The data you gather may comprise the missing piece to your strategic sales efforts.
Commonly used market research techniques include:
  • Surveys
  • Interviews
  • Focus groups
  • Observation
This is a type of direct marketing or outbound marketing wherein an agent solicits prospects to purchase their company’s products or services. You can do this over a phone call or through a subsequent face-to-face interaction. This is the most common use of outbound calling.
A sale isn’t complete until full payment is received. The last thing you want is to put any kind of pressure on customers. You can nudge them about their financial obligations over the phone, though, or through their preferred channel.
Post-purchase feedback is invaluable. Outbound calling allows you to survey customers over the phone. This could be immediately after a purchase or when they’ve had time to use your product or service. This will give you unparalleled insights into areas for improvement, whether that’s around marketing messaging, customer support, or the quality of the product itself.
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Benefits of outbound call center solutions

The right outbound call center solution can make a real difference to your business in a wide range of ways. Here are just a few of the areas where you might see noticeable improvement:
Advanced outbound calling features enable you to learn more about customer needs through market research and surveys. They also put data in front of agents, improving personalization efforts that empower customer satisfaction.
The best outbound call center companies will offer these features and services as part of a wider unified communications platform. You can combine all inbound and outbound channels in one location and integrate your call center software with other tools.
Centralizing your communications in this way ensures a consistent customer experience across channels.
There was a time when physical telephones could only make calls or place customers on hold. But virtual call centers come with built-in features like predictive dialing and CRM integrations that make outbound calling faster and ultimately more effective.
Agents are no longer distracted by flashing lights from waiting customers, thinking about who they’re calling next, or digging out information on each customer before placing a call.
Instead, all of the information is at their fingertips . They can streamline workflows by routing calls as needed, use features like automatic dialing to save time, and gain access to customer insights that give context to every call.
Call center software takes the guesswork out of outbound calling. The best solutions give you access to reporting and analytical capabilities. For example, RingCentral’s platform gives you real-time access to performance data like call volumes, AI-powered customer sentiment, and powerful .
Tracking key call metrics like conversion rates and customer satisfaction give you direct answers to how your team is performing and how effective your strategy is.
Now, agents can be more proactive and effective when making calls. What’s more, managers can monitor agent performance and campaign effectiveness to make future improvements.
Virtual call centers are hosted in the cloud, so there’s nothing stopping you from scaling up.
As your business grows, you can immediately adjust resources without significant investment. That means minimal physical infrastructure, minimal overheads, and minimal maintenance costs.
Expanding internationally? You can do that, too. Outbound call center solutions give you the freedom to support calls across different regions and time zones so you can expand your market reach as and when needed.

Essential tools and features of outbound calling services

Outbound call centers should equip your teams with the tools they need to be more productive and effective.
Here are some common features that will empower them to succeed:
  • Outbound dialers: Depending on your outbound calling campaign, you can use preview, progressive, or predictive dialers (more on each below).
  • Agent scripting: Agents get prompts and screen pops so they can deliver more personalized customer experiences.
  • Call blending: Manage outbound (and inbound) calls more efficiently, so agents are never idle.
  • Real-time and historical insights: Get historical data and analytics tools, with reporting capability on different metrics.
  • Integrations: Your chosen solution should feature an integration ecosystem of popular CRMs like Salesforce or Zendesk. This makes calls more relevant and effective, enabling agents to create campaigns on the fly and prioritize hot leads.
  • Privacy and risk mitigation: Ensure your chosen platform prioritizes security. For example, RingCentral offers a full-featured manual dialing system with built-in tools to mitigate risks. If you want to call people who haven’t opted into your campaign, manual calls are the way to go.

Types of outbound dialers

Preview dialer

As soon as an agent becomes available for a call, they receive detailed prospect or customer information to review before the software dials a number.
With access to such data, they can better engage and build a personal connection with who they’re going to speak to. Preview dialers are best for high-value interactions like debt collection.
A female contact center agent being coached by supervisor
An ongoing outbound call made by a contact center agent

Progressive dialer

A progressive dialer is similar to a preview dialer, in that it dials contacts consecutively, but agents don’t get to preview them before they’re connected.

The dialer runs through the company’s contact list calling each potential customer who’s available to talk. It disregards numbers that are busy, disconnected, or connected to an answering machine.

With a progressive dialer, you get optimized agent talk time, making it ideal for sales campaigns, particularly with upselling and renewals.

Predictive dialer

Unlike a progressive dialer, which dials a number the moment an agent becomes available, a predictive dialer dials a number before an agent becomes available. It connects calls as soon as the previous interaction is over.
The result? You’re able to place calls at high rates, making predictive dialing the method of choice for straightforward sales and telemarketing campaigns as well as fundraising and public awareness efforts.
RingCentral also offers manual dialing to mitigate TCPA risks. Keep in mind that customers are protected by the TCPA, or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which protects consumers from unsolicited calls, particularly on cell phones.
A female contact center agent explaining to a customer with inlay of predictive dialer feature

Best practices for handling outbound calls

Outbound calling requires careful planning. You want to make sure your agents are fully prepared to execute your strategy.
Follow these best practices and you’ll be on your way to winning over prospective customers and keeping those you’ve already got:
Be sure your agents are fully aware of your campaign goals. Are you out to introduce a new product? Gathering contact information? Surveying the market? Who’s your market to begin with? You need to answer these questions when defining your outbound calling campaign.
It’s crucial that you pique the interest of a potential customer from the get-go. Otherwise, they’d hang up before you even mention anything about your product or service. Think about it: If they hang up, they really have nothing to lose.

An outbound call center solution with CRM integration should give your agents a wealth of information about prospects before they even make the welcome call. With some intel, they’ll be able to say the right words and make customers feel valued.
If you think time is valuable, then you can bet your customers and prospects feel the same way. You want to talk to new leads and not waste outgoing calls on anything that won’t help you increase sales.
It’s polite to ask your prospect how much time they have before launching into your sales and marketing pitch. And when you do, be straightforward.
Train and coach your outbound call center agents well so they’re able to speak clearly and naturally. When they’re nervous, potential customers will notice and be put off.
The ability to speak with confidence comes with practice and sufficient knowledge of your consumer products or services. Even if your agents have a script, knowledge and confidence will make them sound more human and less of a tool.

Be particularly clear when discussing topics like pricing, which may become a source of confusion. Keep in mind that when people are presented with technical terms or multiple options, they can get overwhelmed and may struggle to make a choice.

In that case, your agents should be able to simplify things so customers can digest them more easily.
Trashing your competitors is downright unprofessional. You don’t want to lose potential customers’ trust by promoting your business at the expense of another.

One more thing: Ever heard of spontaneous trait transference? It’s a psychological phenomenon in which people see in you the very traits you say of others. So, instead of talking about how bad another firm’s services are, focus on what makes your services great.
A successful outbound call center uses the right technology. Yes, it all starts with having an efficient team of agents. But equipping them with advanced features that come with the right outbound call center service will take your outreach efforts to the next level.

What’s the best outbound call center software for my business?

The best outbound call center solutions will fit your needs without going over your budget. It’s the solution that has all the bells and whistles (outbound dialers included) to help your business achieve its specific goals, be it customer acquisition, customer retention, lead generation, or market research.
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Outbound call center solutions FAQs

Call center software is a set of tools that streamline the flow of a company’s customer calls. Needless to say, the company with the right call center software is best placed for inbound and outbound calling success. They’re most likely to improve customer satisfaction and secure more sales.
Depending on your business and the type of calls you handle, you may need an inbound or outbound call center. You could be handling both inbound and outbound calls, in which case, you can opt for a blended call center.
  • Inbound call centers receive customer calls. They tend to be more customer support-based, hence they’re what we often think of when we hear the term “call center”.
  • Outbound call centers initiate customer calls. They typically revolve around sales or collections.
Ultimately, you’ll save more when you get high-quality cloud-based call center software, especially an option that best fits your needs. You don’t pay upfront for licensing fees, nor do you have to shell out anything for deployment, maintenance, and upgrades. All these will be shouldered by your service provider.
Feel free to ask our sales team for more information on why having your own call center is more cost-effective than outsourcing contact centers.
The short answer is, yes. Outsourced call centers typically come in the form of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. Some are offshore call centers providing outbound and inbound call services. 
You can outsource tasks and services, such as:
  • Appointment setting
  • Lead generation and lead qualification
  • Telesales
  • Direct response marketing
  • Staffing
  • Patient outreach and other healthcare-related tasks
Call center costs may or may not increase when you hire call center service providers. It’s worth seeking guidance from a call center consultant to determine if it’s right for your business.
Ultimately, though, outsourcing outbound call center services isn’t for everyone. Even if you’re a startup digital marketing agency, emerging business consultancy firm, or one of the world’s top retail management companies, you may be better off taking full control over your own contact center.
It depends. Make sure you choose a trusted, top-rated outbound call center solution like RingCX. This way, you have the backing of an experienced company with top-tier infrastructure to keep your business’ and customers’ information safe and secure.

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