The primary goal of an outbound campaign is to reach prospects and turn them into actual customers, fulfilling business objectives such as buying a product or service, conducting surveys, establishing appointments, brand promotion, debt collection, etc.
In 2022, contact center agents are using precise information and technologies for each prospect to make interactions more fruitful and meaningful. Many elements influence the success or failure of an outbound call, beginning with proper planning and preparation. As a result, conducting a prospecting campaign requires a strong outbound strategy.
So the question is: How to build great outbound campaigns for your contact center?
In this article, we will discuss 5 easy ways to create a successful outbound strategy and approach for your business.
Create an efficient outbound plan for your contact center
What is the best method to build an outbound calling strategy? is one of the most often asked questions at our contact center?
Depending on your sales strategy and business objectives, there may be several ways to answer this question. Most of the time, everything is determined by the aims and goals you wish to attain.
Your outbound campaign needs to be thoroughly planned. It will undoubtedly be re-evaluated and updated throughout time, but it is critical to start by assessing and preparing your goals, agents, and technologies.
1. Start by establishing your call center goals and outbound key performance indicators (KPIs)
To draft the first strategy, you must first define the end goal of your phone outbound campaign.
- What is the purpose of your campaign?
- Do you want to sell a product/service?
- Are your clients and target defined?
These important questions can assist you in shaping your outbound key performance indicators
Why are contact center KPIs so important?
These metrics will be used to assess the performance of your outbound strategy. But as you know, not all KPIs are the same, and they’re not all apply to outbound contact centers. On the bright side, you don’t need to measure every single KPS, nor must they be tracked all of the time: doing so would be a massive waste of time and resources, resulting in an opaque and unmanageable quantity of data.
So here is a small list of KPIs that you might find helpful in 2022:
In the past, organizations didn’t have a good track record of being open and honest with their customers about their activities and lead generating efforts. In addition, new issues such as spam, phishing, and call filtering emerged. It is possible, though, if you use the proper best practices and the right software. Michael Ferree, CEO & Founder of Lead Generation World & CEO of contact.io, has more to say on how to get people to answer your calls.
Average Handling time
The Average Handling Time for Contact Centers is the amount of time an agent spends on calls, including any time spent on hold or transferring calls. A long average call time may suggest a lack of closing skills or a lack of product awareness.
Average Handling Time = (call duration / total number of calls)
Conversion rate
The conversion rate assesses an agent’s ability to attract clients and close a sale or secure a yes from the client.
Conversation rate = (number of sales/total number of phone calls)
Contact Rate
The Contact rate is perhaps one of the most essential indicators for outbound experts. It is defined as the proportion of calls that lead to a meaningful conversation with a potential customer.
The contact rate is calculated using the following formula:
(Quantity of Sales or Promises / Number of Useful Contacts) x 100 = Contact Rate Percentage
You may use this rate to assess the efficacy of your telemarketing campaign. And you will be able to modify your plan based on the outcomes.
Retention Rate
This rate refers to your contact center’s capacity to keep clients over a certain time. It’s important to remember that obtaining new clients is significantly more expensive than retaining existing ones.
This rate can be determined yearly, monthly, or weekly, using the formula:
Customer retention rate = ((CE – CN) x 100)
CE = Customer Enquiry at the end of the period
CN = The number of new customers gained throughout the term
CS = The number of customers at the start of the term
Getting a better grasp of these KPIs will:
- Make it easy to create a strategic outbound strategy for the future
- Help you better understand your client base
- Increase the satisfaction of both your clients and your agents.
If you’re looking for more infos on the best KPIs for your outbound contact center. Get actionable bite-size information about of what KPIs to track for better overall performance from our Top 5 outbound Contact Center KPIs Guide!
2. Outbound call scripts are important but are they vital?
Scripts can assist outbound agents in better remembering information, avoiding mistakes, and being consistent. It is one of the central pieces of how to get to get better at sales calls.
If you decide to build scripts for your outbound approach, the key is to think of them as a tool for agents rather than a requirement. Think of scripts as a guide instead of a map. A good script will give your teams a crutch to depend on if they get into problems without making their voice sound artificial or fake.
What does that entail?
Your supervisors must allow agents to speak out, have their voices heard, and express their concerns while creating this type of script. Set up A/B testing to fine-tune the raw material and discover the most efficient language for persuading and engaging clients over the phone. To avoid objections and typical queries, plan ahead of time. And, if you make the creation process collaborative and flexible, the generated scenarios will become part of the agent training material and be well-received by clients.
3. Personalize your phone calls
A call from a concealed or unknown number, in general, induces hesitation in the person receiving it. Furthermore, there is a reasonable probability that the prospect will be skeptical of someone he does not know over a phone call he has not sought. How to get around this problem?
Local Caller ID Technologies
Local Caller ID is a technology that allows call centers that make outbound calls to control the caller ID (CLI) that is presented to the receiver. This enables your calls to display local numbers on the receiver’s device.
Local Caller ID directly boosts your contact rates, the number of outbound calls answered by clients, and, by extension the conversion rate.
The goal of LocalTouch®, the Nobelbiz local Caller ID management system, is to connect contact center agents with customers.
When fewer tries are required to initiate voice connections, the consumer experience improves, agent productivity rises, as well as your KPIs.
LocalTouch also comes with:
- Simplified campaign management
- Fully TCPA compliant
- Dedicated numbers and buckets
- Automatic geo-number assignment
- Local number routing
- Auto-bucket rotation
The Omnichannel contact center approach
Your teams can devise a method to better accustom the prospects with the idea of accepting a cold call. This can be completed using omnichannel technologies.
Your agents can, for example, send customized emails, SMS, or WhatsApp messages to build the first impression, demonstrating a personalized interest in their activities.
This initial interaction will minimize the over-invasive and impersonal character that is sometimes associated with outbound calls. It also enables you to understand your clients. This information improves the precision and impact of the message given during the conversation.
Good preparation enables teams to approach your targets confidently, which is critical for convincing your prospects about the offer’s credibility and usefulness.
“An all-in-one solution that allows us to manage 300 agents with precise follow-up of the time, extreme care on the details of the minutes and volumes realized.” Younes Ahmamad – ND Consulting Morocco.
NobelBiz is used by many of the world’s leading contact centers. And the results speak for themselves! Younes Ahmamad is the operations and Information system manager at NDconsulting – Morocco. An Outbound Contact Center specialized in performing and consulting with major companies from the energy field and insurance in Europe. But also one of our many success stories.
4. Implement the best practices for your contact center agents
Unsurprisingly, the first phone call is the defining point for your outbound campaign. Even with a solid basis of a qualified prospect list and the best script, agent training is critical. Here are some tips for running a successful outbound campaign:
Pique your prospect’s interest
The opening few seconds of a phone call are critical. If an contact center agent does not pique the prospect’s interest immediately away, he will just hang up. Agents should use the prospect’s name, personalized infos and demonstrate that they are interested in them, their circumstance, and how they can help them.
Take note of the time
Time is a valuable commodity. Agents should demonstrate to the clients that they value their time. And they don’t have to be afraid first to ask how much time they have and be brief. This also enhances your Average Waiting Times metrics.
Outbound calls from contact centers are expected to connect, but not all carriers are capable or willing to deliver service that fulfills their business demands.
Check out our whitepaper answering the question “Why outbound calls don’t always connect?”, we’ll discuss the primary issues affecting the effectiveness of your outbound calls and the tools and techniques you may use to solve them.
Make no commitments you can’t keep
If your agent can pique the client’s interest, the initial call will succeed. If your teams commit to a potential client before knowing the ins and outs of their position (which is nearly impossible with a single conversation) and then fail to follow through, you will permanently lose the prospect’s confidence.
Make a follow-up appointment
That is why they are present. Once you have your prospect’s attention, make the next follow-up appointment. This way, you’ll be able to conclude on a positive note and adequately prepare for your follow-up contact. It will make you sound more professional and personalized, which will benefit your potential customer.
Cloud Contact Center Solutions such as NobelBiz Omni+ allow you to coach your agents in real-time with features such as double-listening or discreet intervention during a call. Call recordings can also be used as training material to highlight your best agents’ best practices for the benefit of your less experienced employees.
5. Cloud Contact Center telephony
Cloud telephony for contact centers is a vital asset in outbound campaigns. This technology assists businesses in establishing a solid information collecting and management system. At the same time, it enables the construction of a collaborative platform to orchestrate all the actions of all contact center agents while also efficiently monitoring their performance.
Every incoming phone call must be returned. If you’re looking for a contact center telecommunication service, NobelBiz’s voice carrier network is built on redundant infrastructure, ensuring that every call is delivered without interruption. You won’t have to worry about your outbound campaigns running out of short calls with our phone network services. Our technology handles all of these details and more automatically. Furthermore, secure web access enables you to manage all functions instantly, from anywhere, at any time.
Here’s how NobelBiz Voice Carrier can take your outbound campaigns to the next level:
- SMRT®: Calls are routed to PSTN or SIP destinations depending on rationing, scheduling, priority, or overflow.
- SMRT® Auto-Attendant IVR: To construct IVR functionality, use a simple drag-and-drop interface to generate customized scripts.
- SHIELD®: Filter by time zone, frequency, and other criteria. Set up compliance rules and call blocking at the operator level.
Continually adjust your strategy
Consider each exchange as a positive or negative experience, allowing for future improvement. The idea is to repeat what was successful and avoid what didn’t work. Re-evaluate your contact lists, rework the pitch or use coaching and training tools to improve your agents’ performances, results, and KPIs.
Abdelmounim Benharouga has always had a strong passion for writing and digital marketing. He started as a Digital Content Writer part of marketing department then moved to being Customer Success Manager for the African Region within the Nobelbiz team.