What Is an Outbound Call: Outbound Call Center Campaigns

What Is an Outbound Call: Table of Contents

1. 1. Outbound Calling Activities
   2. Outbound Calling & the FTC
   3. Complying With the Telemarketing Sales Rule
   4. Outbound Calling for Call Centers
   5. Types of Dialing
   6. Additional Dialing Terminology
   7. Sample Campaigns
   8. Conclusion

Outbound Calling Activities

With EVS7’s Cloud Call Center, you have several options on how to start up your outbound call center. However before you proceed, be aware of the laws associated with outbound calling.

Outbound Calling Regulations

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) covers outbound calls. There are multiple provisions within this law. A few key takeaways are:

The National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry

The DNC registry is a list of consumers who have requested they do not be contacted by telemarketers. Consumers can file a complaint with the FTC if called and you may be fined. There are also state-maintained DNC lists that may not be integrated with the federal list. To see more on the DNC Registry and to download your free DNC Scrubber, visit here: https://www.evs7.com/free-do-not-call-list-scrubber.

Restricted Calling Times

Without prior consent, you are not allowed to make calls outside of the hours of 8 am – 9 pm. There are also state-specific call times and holidays where telemarketing is prohibited. The timezone to which you are calling must be considered, too.

Call Abandonment

A call is considered “abandoned” if a customer answers a call and you do not respond within 2 seconds. Predictive dialers are usually the cause of abandoned calls.Using software that ensures a call abandonment rate of no more than 3% is one way to avoid enforcement action.

Voice Blasting

Voice blast messages are prohibited to consumers unless there is a written agreement with the customer except for a few exceptions. That’s right – you need their “John Hancock” before you can call them. A majority of call centers that get fined are doing voice blasting or press 1 campaigns illegally. The crucial takeaway is that if you’re going to be doing telemarketing calls to residential numbers, you better have an agent ready to speak to the customer live if they answer the call. Robodialing may be legal for B2B sales, political campaigns, and non-profits.

Caller-ID

While most call center software lets you input the caller ID you choose, legally you must transmit a number that you own. Unfortunately, 1-800-HOT-STUF is already taken. However, I’m sure you can come up with something more relevant and accurate (If you really are “hot stuff,” please accept my sincerest apologies).

Outbound Calling and the Telemarketing Sales Rule

The FTC provides a detailed guide to Complying with the TSR. It is highly recommended by EVS7 and the FTC that you read, review, and thoroughly understand the guide to ensure your call center’s actions are legal. Also check with your state or states to where you will be calling for any state-specific laws. Keep track of any news or amendments to the TSR as well (the last amendment was made in 2015 though there are many pending court cases that could bring additional changes).  If you’re still unsure, consult a lawyer.

Types of Outbound Calling

With EVS7’s Cloud Call Center, you have several different dialer options from which to choose. Manual Dialing, Power Dialing, and Predictive Dialing. Below we go into detail on the different settings with each dialer option you have available.

1. Manual/Preview Dialing

An agent will initiate the phone call manually by pressing the dial button or manually entering a number on a dial pad.  This can be done by the agent clicking “Get Next Lead.” They will be able to preview the lead fully and read notes before calling. An agent hears the phone ringing and the customer pick up the phone. This is not as fast as ratio or predictive dialing, but helps avoid dropped calls or delays.

Best Uses: Business to Business calling & Warm Leads

2. Ratio Dialing

With ratio, you can select how many lines will be dialed per each agent. In a 1:1 ratio, only one line will be called per each agent. In a 4:1 ratio, it dials four lines simultaneously to try to find a live person to connect with the agent. The agent will hear a beep in their ear when a customer is ready to be greeted. After the call is dispositioned, the dialer will continue dialing automatically.

Best Uses: Business to Business calling, Warm Leads, Cold Leads

3. Predictive Dialing

Similar to multi-line ratio dialing, with predictive dialing, several numbers are automatically dialed while the system attempts to connect an agent with a live person. The system adjusts or adapts the number of employed lines as it predicts when the next agent will be available. This is great for larger call centers.

Best Uses: Cold calling

Sample of Dialer Settings from Parrot Cloud Call Center Software

• • Manual – Locks the auto dial setting to 0 unless the Dial Method is changed
  • Ratio – The average number of calls ringing at one time per agent
  • Predictive/Adapt – Agent cannot change the Auto Dial Level in any of the ADAPT dial methods. Predictive dialing mode is the only place where the dial level can be changed.
    • Adapt_Hard_Limit – Only dials predictively until the dropped limit is reached, then stops aggressively dialing until the dropped percentage is lowered
    • Adapt_Tapered – Allows the agent to go over the dropped percentage for the first half of the shift (defined by call_time for the campaign) but gets stricter as the shift proceeds
    • Adapt_Average – Maintains an average dropped percentage without aggressively imposing hard limits
• Inbound_Man – Allows the agent to place manual calls from a campaign list and take inbound calls between the manual dialing