In the ever-evolving world of customer service, the significance of digital channels like live chat, SMS, and social media is undeniable.
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Even so, over 60% of customers still prefer to speak to a human over the phone when seeking assistance. This underscores just how important it is that businesses don’t overlook the significance of a well-crafted inbound and outbound calling strategy.
To understand this significance, you first need to understand the distinction between inbound and outbound calls. To discover more than what’s covered in this article, download our newest whitepaper on the voice renaissance in the contact center, Hearing the Voice of Reason: The Voice Renaissance in the Omni-Channel Contact Center.
What Are Inbound Calls?
Inbound calls are voice communications initiated either by existing or potential customers, via the phone. Typically routed through an inbound contact center, these calls are answered by skilled customer advisors to ensure a speedy resolution.
There are two main types of inbound calls:
Customer service inbound calls
Refers to calls normally made by existing customers, often aimed at addressing concerns, lodging complaints, or seeking information about the product/service they’ve purchased. The primary goal for your agents should be the efficient resolution of customer issues, to maintain customer satisfaction and avoid a hit to your reputation.
Sales inbound calls
These are calls instigated by prospective customers seeking information about an organization’s products/services. In this scenario, the agent’s role is to advise the customer on any inquiries they may have and council them on making a purchase.
What Are Outbound Calls?
What differentiates outbound calls from inbound calls is who instigates the call. While inbound calls are initiated by customers, outbound calls are initiated by an organization. These typically go through an outbound contact center where organizations will either proactively reach out to potential customers, through methods like cold calling to promote their products, or to conduct customer surveys and gather valuable industry data.
Like inbound calls, outbound calls can also be divided into customer service and sales calls:
Customer service outbound calls
Relates to calls aimed at collecting market data that could enhance the overall customer experience. For example, agents may reach out to existing customers to inquire about their experiences and identify opportunities for improvement.
Sales outbound calls
Often referred to as ‘cold calls,’ these are usually initiated by an organization’s sales team to promote its products/services. These can be an effective way to capture leads, identify sales opportunities, and spread brand awareness.
What is an Inbound and Outbound Call Center Strategy?
Put simply, an inbound and outbound call center strategy refers to the approaches that organizations take to handle incoming and outgoing calls. The choice of approaches is usually shaped by what the organization aims to achieve through its customer interactions; whether that be the promotion of its products/services, or the maintenance of customer relationships.
Technologies that can benefit your inbound and outbound calling strategy include:
Customer Data Platform (CDP)
The Customer Data Platform is more than just a database, it’s a data aggregation layer. This means that it brings together multiple systems of record, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, customer journey mapping, and knowledge management into a single standardized format.
Intelligent Routing Solution
An automated call routing solution that allows callers to be directed to the best available outcome, whether that be a human agent or automated resource, through Natural Language Processing and voice recognition. This streamlines customer contacts, facilitates self-service options, and ultimately improves customer satisfaction.
NLP (Natural Language Processing)
Natural Language Processing automatically draws crucial information from unstructured text or speech. This can provide insights into customer sentiment, identify areas for improvement during interactions or common issues faced by customers, and aid in quality assurance.
Reporting Tools
These track and present KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to managers on the operations of a call center and individual agents' performance. Supervisors use this data to make informed decisions about where improvements could be made and enhance the contact center’s overall efficiency.
Call Recording and Analytics
This allows organizations to record and review customer interactions, while analytics tools work to analyze call data. This data can then be used for quality assurance purposes, to facilitate agent training, and to meet regulatory obligations.
Inbound and Outbound calling with storm®
The time to integrate these technologies into your inbound and outbound call center is now. Through the cloud-native storm® solution, you can make a flexible Inbound and Outbound calling strategy your competitive advantage.
To discover more, download our newest whitepaper on the voice renaissance in the contact center, Hearing the Voice of Reason: The Voice Renaissance in the Omni-Channel Contact Center.
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