10 Effective Tips to Improve Your Outbound Call Answer Rate

Do you want to boost your outbound call rates and excel in business growth?🤔 If yes, then this blog is for you.

In today’s business world, engaging with customers is very important. Phone calls serve as a vital means for businesses to connect with potential prospects. However, the challenge lies in the fact that not all customers answer when we call them back. They might be ignoring the call on purpose, or they could be busy with something else.

While we can’t always pinpoint the reason, there are various strategies we can employ to improve the outbound call answer rate.

In this blog post, we will delve into 10 proven and effective tips that can be employed to improve your outbound call answer rate. These strategies have been tested and are ready to be implemented in your business.

What is the Outbound Call Answer Rate?

The outbound call answer rate is the percentage of outbound calls that were responded to by recipients. Call centers and other businesses make outbound calls for various purposes, including cold calling, telemarketing, customer queries, marketing, follow-ups, and fundraising. 

Hence, tracking outbound call answers helps measure the effectiveness of outbound calling efforts. This indicates how successful businesses or call centers are in reaching and engaging with their target audience through phone calls. 

To calculate the outbound call answer rate, divide the total number of answered calls by the total outbound calls and multiply it by 100. 

Outbound call answer rate = Total number of answered calls / Total outbound calls * 100

Importance of Improving Outbound Call Answer Rate 

Improving outbound call answer rates is vital for businesses to get stable lead conversion rates and many more. Some of the importance of improving outbound call answer rate are listed below:

• Increase lead conversion rate: The more outbound calls are answered, the higher the conversing rate is likely because it opens up the possibilities for new contacts. Businesses can not promote their services without getting customer responses to calls. But if the answer rate improves, it automatically opens up the opportunities for lead conversion. 

• Enhance customer service: Improvements in outbound call answer rates can enhance customer service. By improving outbound calls, you can reach out to customers with high-quality service, which helps customers engage positively. 

• Improve agent efficiency: If the customers answered the outbound calls more often, agents could use their time for more productive work instead of following up on unanswered calls. The more few unanswered calls, the more productive agents can be.

• Reduce Costs: Improving outbound call answer rates can help businesses reduce costs by increasing the range of customers, which increases the company’s revenue. Also, with more answered calls, agents can avoid repeated calls, which saves money on charges and agent time. 

• Boost brand reputation: Improved outbound call answered rates uplift brand reputation. Whenever the number of calls received increases, the company or brand can promote and offer services to multiple customers, which can lead to positive responses.

👍 Also Read: Outbound Call Center: A Comprehensive Guide 

10 Effective Tips to Improve Your Outbound Call Answer Rate

Now that you have understood the importance of improving outbound call answer rates, you may wonder how to improve your overall answered call rate. 

Here are the 10 effective tips you can consider  to improve your outbound call answer rate:

1. Focus on New Contacts 

Focusing your outbound calling on new contacts can rapidly improve the answered rates. New customers often need the most guidance when making their first payment for a product or service. 

Attention is reciprocal; when you show interest in new customers by reaching out and addressing their needs, they’re more likely to reciprocate with attention. This increases the chance of getting a response and increases the sales and answered rate.

2. Balance Inbound and Outbound Calls

While focusing on new contacts, it is equally important not to overlook incoming calls from existing customers. It is vital to be available and responsive to existing customers whenever they call your business about issues.  If a customer bothers to call your business, have agents ready to pick up and help them out.

Being more focused on new customers can reduce existing customer retention. That’s why balancing inbound and outbound calls is vital for executing a successful outbound calling strategy. 

💡 You May Also Like: Inbound vs Outbound Calls: Definition & Key Differences

3. Incorporate Local Presence Dialing

Incorporating local presence dialing is an effective way to reach customers. People are more likely to pick up calls from local numbers because they feel trusted, and local numbers have area codes, which give customers a sense of being associated with the area. 

This lowers the chances of calls being seen as spam or telemarketing, resulting in more answered calls and better communication with customers. By using this approach, businesses can make more sales and create better relationships with their customers.

4. Know Your Customer’s Preferred Contact Method

Businesses should no longer rely on one specific platform to reach out to potential customers. Customers have diverse preferences for communication, from traditional phone calls to emails, social media messages, and other platforms. Hence, understanding a customer’s preferred contact has become more important.

You should pay attention to and understand customer-preferred communication channels and engage with them through their preferred channels. This automatically increases your outbound call answer rate. Furthermore, it increases customer engagement and maintains positive interactions. 

5. Brand Your Calls

Customizing your call display with your business name, logos, and the services you offer is always a good idea. This gives the call a professional look, increases customer trust and recognition, and creates an identifiable experience for the person receiving the call. 

Plus, when people see a recognized business name, they’re more likely to answer the call. So, branding your calls can boost the number of answered calls you get.

6. Select Caller IDs That Mean Something to Your Customer

Imagine if a call receiver gets a call with a caller ID relatable to the customer; the chances of picking up that call automatically increase. You can use familiar names related to your business, like your business name and purpose for calling, which identifies your business to the receiver. 

Customers can freely rely on and respond positively to the calls whenever they see a name associated with a brand or business they know, which is why selecting a caller ID that means something to the customer is effective. 

7. Make Sure Your Campaign is Calling Valid Numbers

When an outbound call goes unanswered, it is possible that the customer has changed their contact number. So, having well-updated customer numbers data is essential to identifying whether the numbers are valid. 

Relying solely on outdated customer information can result in wasted opportunities and resources. So, it is essential to look up updates for customer contact information and determine whether the numbers are valid. 

8. Add Messaging to Your Outreach Strategy

Informing customers through SMS or any other platform before calling them can help introduce yourself and reschedule the call according to the receiver’s availability. 

We can repeat the same process if the calls go unanswered, which provides flexibility and a sense of importance to the customer. Also, adding interactive links or surveys in SMS can increase active engagement, which improves answered rates.

9. Validate Your Outbound Calling Strategy

Validating your outbound calling strategy is important because it adds value to the company by observing outbound calls’ tone, clarity, and customer experience.

Adding feedback mechanisms like surveys after calls or feedback forms can provide insights into the customer experience. Also, evaluating the call answer rates and conversion rates is helpful to find room for improvement and better results.

10. Make Outbound Calls at the Right Time

Knowing the best times to make your calls is another consideration for getting more answers. Even if you don’t have a lot of information about who you’re calling, this can really help.

A study from Salesmate CRM found that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings from 4 to 5 p.m. or mornings from 10 to 11 a.m. are good times to call. Likewise, calling between 2 and 3 p.m. or 5 to 6 p.m. on Fridays is bad. 

Aside from timing, you should also adjust how many calls you make based on the season. Think about when your customers are most likely to want your product or service. For example, if you’re selling something for summer, focus your calls around that time.

Considering these factors and putting them into your calling plan can really boost how many calls you get answered.

How KrispCall Helps You to Improve Your Outbound Call?

KrispCall is a modern phone system that offers advanced features, such as call transferring, local numbers, vanity numbers, and CRM integration, to boost your outbound call answer rates.

With KrispCall, you can get local numbers in over 100 countries, making it easy to have a local presence when making calls. You can also use vanity numbers to increase call volume and make your company name appear when calling.

The custom caller ID feature lets you display the same number for different departments, improving your chances of getting calls answered. Plus, integrating with a CRM tool allows for automatic reminders, helping you follow up with leads and avoid losing opportunities.

Conclusion

Every business is looking for the best outbound calling strategy today. Companies must have the highest lead conversion rates to compete in the market by creating more opportunities to advertise and promote their services.

Choosing KrispCall can be a wise step for improving your outbound call answer rate because it provides the latest features to brand your calls, incorporate local presence dialing, and select caller IDs appropriate for your businesses.

Applying these effective tips and choosing KrispCall can elevate outbound call answered rates and connect to a broad audience, eventually increasing your sales and achieving customer service success.