Outbound Call Centers : Choose Your Weapons

There are two sides to the call center business model: inbound and outbound. Most of us have had exposure to outbound call centers, usually in the early evening when we are either sitting down to dinner or getting ready to go out.

As the name implies, outbound call centers are focused on contacting people whose names and contact details appear on a hit list associated with a marketing campaign or debt recovery program. On the other hand inbound call centers typically have a customer service role associated with fielding questions and complaints from consumers.

There are also differences in the technology required to support these two different modes of operation. Modern outbound call centers are typically equipped with business phone tools that usually include:

VoIP PBX

Predictive Dialer or auto dialer

Phone recording software

In combination these tools have made the outbound call center a potent and cost effective marketing tool. VoIP PBX technology has had a major impact on reducing the cost of telephone services and as a consequence eliminated geography as a constraint. In fact the major considerations in locating an operation are the availability of a low cost educated work force and the ability to speak English. These are the most important considerations. Time zones and distance from target markets are now amongst the least important considerations.

Predictive dialers are immensely powerful productivity tools. They are capable of increasing the volume of outbound calls that an agent can complete in a shift by between 150% and 400%. When used in combination with a VoIP PBX, they can be used to drive outbound marketing calls to target markets anywhere in the world. The cost of doing this is typically less than 1% of the cost of having a salesman or temp make cold calls from an office in the US using a standard business phone system.

Phone recording software is another essential weapon in the outbound call center armory. With few exceptions all call center recording is now done using VoIP call recording technology. It's unobtrusive and far more cost effective than the old circuit based technology. It's capable of recording phone conversations whether agents are seated in a central facility or work from home. No special equipment is required beyond access to a broadband connection.

The common factor that all three technologies share is "software." They are all software applications that can be installed on standard commodity servers and readily integrated using open interfaces and APIs. They are also very comfortable in the world of packet based IP communication protocols. Going back just a few years PBXs, dialers and phone recording systems were all hardware devices with inflexible performance characteristics, high capital costs and high operating costs. These dinosaurs from era of the first generation outbound call center are now almost extinct.

Outbound Call Centers - Choose Your Weapons
By Chris H Green