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Understanding Inbound and Outbound Call Center: Strategies to Make Them Perform Better
BY QDegreesPUBLISHED
Jan. 23, 2025
Jan. 23, 2025
To handle your customers’ queries and even reach them for sales, you need a set-up called a call center, right? But most call center activities are subject to factors like agents' performance, the tools you use, etc.
So, improving these factors ultimately elevates your call center's performance. In this blog, we will be discussing three key strategies to improve your call center performance. But did you know there are two types of call centers? So let's have a look at these two types of call centers as our strategies apply to both of these call centers.
Understanding the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Call Center
Understanding the main difference between inbound and outbound call centers isn't very hard as the names tell what they are. Inbound call centers are where customer support agents handle incoming calls from customers who may have a query to ask or a problem to get resolution for.
On the other hand, outbound call centers are all about outgoing calls made by customer reps. In outbound call centers, agents contact leads to convert them into sales. But that's the basic difference between these two. To understand both of these better and create effective strategies for both, let's look at how they work.
On the other hand, outbound call centers are all about outgoing calls made by customer reps. In outbound call centers, agents contact leads to convert them into sales. But that's the basic difference between these two. To understand both of these better and create effective strategies for both, let's look at how they work.
The Working of Inbound Call Centers
Inbound call centers have customer representatives who are agents working to resolve the queries of existing or potential customers. The qualities important for a customer rep in the inbound call center are helpfulness, patience, active listening, and problem-solving skills. They are trained on the company’s processes and rules so that they can further assist the caller.
In an inbound call center, technologies are utilised, including Call Center monitoring software, call center management tools for transferring and distributing calls, and an IVR menu to redirect the caller to the right department. With these tools, the call center operation can be simplified, and personalised responses with accurate information can be provided.
The Working of Outbound Call Centers
Now let's look at how outbound call centers work. Firstly, the agents instead of receiving the calls, make the calls to the existing and potential customers. These calls can be cold calls where the customer is reached out based on their interest in the product or service that the company has but the customer didn't directly engage with the company. Or these can be hot calls where the customer has already contacted the company through calls and other mediums like filling out forms on the company’s website.
The technology used in outbound call centers comprises elements like customer relationship management systems (CRM), automatic dialers, predictive dialers, etc. These tools help automate the processes and fetch information easily for the agent. The skills that an outbound agent should have are selling, persuasiveness, and objection handling.
Strategies to Improve Inbound and Outbound Call Center
As you now know what inbound and outbound call centers are, here are the strategies to make both these operations work better:
Customer Centricity
To succeed at customer service through inbound calling, its base must be built on customer centricity. Customer-centric means following a framework where every element is about your customers. Be it the training of the employees, the resolution you provide, and how you provide it.
By being customer-centric, you ensure comfort for your customers, which leads to customer satisfaction and a positive customer experience.
Stand With Your Agents
Your agents are the most crucial part of your call centers, so you must care for them. Caring for your agents boosts their satisfaction, and they feel valued at where they work.
And supporting your agents isn't a task at all. You just need a supervisor who can manage your agents properly ensuring no excess load on their shoulders. Moreover, adding tools like call center management software, and call center monitoring software, eases agents' workflow too.
Keep Track of the Metrics
Other than these two things, the decisions for your call center must be data-backed. With metrics like average handling time, call abandonment rate, and NPS, you can look at the efficiency of your inbound call center. The same applies to the outbound call center, along with a few different metrics, such as answer success rate and occupancy rate.
Final Words
For a company, the call center plays an important role, be it inbound or outbound. With these strategies, you can ensure your call center's success. However, one more thing that matters to your CC’s performance is the call center audit. And for that, QAViews is the only call Center Quality audit solution you need.
