When it comes to outbound dialing, everyone wants the same thing--to achieve the highest connection rates possible, resulting in the maximum amount of closed sales, collections, or donations. Dialing technology has come a long way from the days of manual dials from endless lists. Predictive dialers facilitate continuous connections, keep agents busy on the phone and boost your outbound KPIs. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your predictive dialer and the best results from your outbound campaigns.
1) Start with the Right List
While today’s outbound technology can solve a multitude of problems, it can’t help you overcome a bad list. Your list is the foundation of your entire outbound campaign. The first step is to understand your target audience. Quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to outbound lists. Make sure your CRM and your contact center platform are talking to each other, and you’re pulling the right lists for the right campaigns and making each connection count.
2) Invest in Automation
According to Dimension Data, “predictive dialing is an essential tool in environments such as sales and collections.” An automated, predictive dialer looks ahead to the next call to ensure that as soon as an agent disconnects from their current call, they are immediately connected to the next name on the list. This minimizes downtime, eliminates manual list dialing errors and ultimately results in higher conversion rates and improved KPIs. The best dialing platforms extend beyond predictions and into agent proficiencies, “what-if” scenarios and pre-determined metrics you set at the beginning of a campaign.
3) Play by the Rules
Failing to comply with government rules and regulations with outbound calls can lead to hefty fines and even litigation. Make sure you have the right tools in place to ensure your platform is constantly monitoring lists and campaigns for potential Do Not Call (DNC) numbers, specific regional parameters, and TCPA compliance. For example, Intelligent Call Suppression reviews the next number in the dialing queue to see if it is located in the suppression database. If the record is found, the call is dispositioned as “suppressed” and the dialer moves on to the next record, ensuring you don’t violate compliance rules by dialing that record.
4) Keep Callers Connected
Research has shown that a sales or collection call is much more likely to be picked up when the caller ID shows a local number. For other campaigns, a phone number from a particular geographic area may seem more credible to callers. Use an outbound dialing solution that gives you a menu of telephone numbers to choose from, including local, out-of-state and toll-free numbers so that you can match the right number format to your campaign. Likewise, when you do make a connection, make sure there is no awkward pause between the time the caller answers and when your agent is connected. A seamless, natural connection is imperative to keep the caller on the line and the conversation going.
5) Put Inbound to Work for Outbound
One of the most overlooked strategies for outbound teams is the ability to incorporate inbound data into outbound campaign planning. All components of your contact center platform must be working in harmony to track inbound metrics that have an impact on your calling lists, retry attempts and conversion rates. For example, a customer who places a callback to an inbound agent is more likely to buy or to pay on a debt than the contact you’ve attempted to reach five times this week without success. Make sure your teams are talking to each other and have a process in place to connect the dots between inbound and outbound overlap.
The right outbound dialing solution makes all the difference when it comes to quality connections, maximizing agent performance, improving customer satisfaction metrics and boosting KPIs. As outbound dialing regulations become more complex, and the expectations for contact centers to prove themselves as revenue centers instead of cost centers increases, a solid outbound strategy has never been more important. If you’d like to learn how NICE CXone customers have created their own bulletproof outbound strategies, visit our resources page.
