5 Ways to Boost Your Outbound Contact Strategy

David Ford explains how you can improve agent productivity and drive up talk time in your outbound campaigns.

1. Maximise your connection rates

When you’re making calls, the likelihood of the recipient picking up is not entirely down to chance.

Using mobile number presentation, for instance, can drive your connection rates up by 40%, as customers are much more likely to pick up a call from a mobile.

Local number presentation can have a similar effect – and both can increase the number of callbacks you’re likely to receive.

2. Combine different channels and contact strategies

The ‘spray and pray’ approach to outbound dialling can be much improved upon by thinking about other contact strategies.

Make your strategy adaptable and incorporate other channels, such as email or SMS. An SMS ahead of an outbound call can ‘warm up’ a customer, making them more likely to pick up and more inclined to listen.

Offer a personalised approach by tweaking your strategy according to any prior contact with the customer.

3. Adhere to regulation and avoid silent calls

I’ve written before about the issue of silent calls and need for self-regulation. This can arise from the use of automated diallers and has to be avoided.

It’s easier than you might think to stay compliant and avoid these problems. The right technology solution will put you right when it comes to regulation and compliance.

4. Watch for the law of diminishing returns

Statistically, over 80% of your successful calls (e.g. those that result in a sale, appointment or whatever your agents are targeting) will occur in the first five contact attempts.

This means there is an inevitable law of diminishing returns on any contact list, no matter how good the data was to start with.

Keep a continuous track on connection rates to monitor this, and look at ways to refresh the campaign, like utilising the other channels we’ve mentioned here (email, SMS), automated dialling campaigns or moving on to new dial lists.

5. Don’t forget about inbound

It might seem a strange thing to point out in an article about outbound strategies, but forgetting about inbound is a common mistake.

You need to make the most of customers who may have missed a call from your contact centre and call back. We have found they are much more likely to have a successful call outcome.

For more information about improving your outbound campaigns, download this free White Paper.

With thanks to David Ford at Magnetic North