Call centres have different processes but one thing in common is the large number of calls they deal with on a daily basis. Every call centre has their own dedicated projects which decides the types of call they deal with. But if we want to divide them into categories, majorly we can put them under two categories: Inbound and Outbound.
Let’s check out what both mean and how they are different from each other.
What is an Inbound Call Centre?
As the name explains itself, this type of call centres majorly deals with Inbound phone calls that are majorly from the customers or future prospects for the purpose of either customer service or inquiries or calls transferred by Outbound call centres to Closers for better closing of leads with specialist Sales dialers.
These types of call centres run customer service campaigns for different brand locations anywhere in the world. Such customer service campaigns are outsourced by local or foreign companies aiming to have better customer service by professionally trained staff, for 24x7 customer service, well equipped call centres with larger capacity of executives.
What is an Outbound Call Centre?
On the contrary to inbound call centres, Outbound call centres deal with the process where outbound calls are being made on large lists of numbers uploaded in the dialer system. Here, the projects are aimed to achieve Sales Target through Cold or Warm Calling or nowadays we can say Opt-in calling.
Opt-in calling is something where companies run marketing or advertising campaigns where they mention their call back or Toll Free numbers on which interested people can call back and know more about the offer. These Opt-in calls are very much in trend nowadays as the laws are getting tightened by the day.
Inbound v/s Outbound Marketing through Call Centres- Comparison
Major difference between Inbound and Outbound Call centres lies within their objectives. Outbound call centres are aimed at making a good number of calls everyday to talk to prospective or unknown customers to build interest in the product or service they are offering and make more sales. Whereas Inbound call centres majorly focus on solving the complaints or product/service related inquiries.
Essential Features of Inbound and Outbound Call Centre
Inbound Call centre software:
Inbound call centres normally deal with a large number of calls from existing or potential customers to solve their doubts or issues they are facing while using or trying to use the product/service. To fulfil this activity some basic features of an Auto Dialer that helps are as follows.
- IVR: With Interactive Voice Response call centres can solve the basic issues with options given in IVR and filter out only those calls which actually need human interaction to discuss and solve the issue.
- Integration: When the call comes in from an existing customer, so much information is needed by the person who handles the call, to know basic details about the customer which can be easily brought if the dialer can integrate with CRM companies used to keep their data.
- Automatic Call Distribution: Calls should be distributed equally and automatically to remove over burden on any one person and to remove manual distribution error and biases.
- Call to Email: After the call is attended, sometimes executives need to update the clients about issues or solutions or ticket number or feedback where they can send the email immediately after the call is done. In such cases, the Call to Email feature will be an added advantage of a dialer.
- Call Recording: Recording of incoming calls are very important for the purpose of training as well as the proof of communication with the customer for future purposes.
- 3-way Call Transfer: Sometimes if agents are unable to solve the issues, they need to transfer the call to their superior or to some other relevant department. In such cases 3-way call transfer can be a faster and easier way out.
Outbound Call centre software:
If you think Cold calling is dead then you are wrong. Outbound call centres deal with a heavy flow of Cold as well as Warm outbound calls which requires so many features. Some of most important are as below:
- Predictive Dialing: A dialer should have a predictive dialing feature to avoid lending machine calls on agents and lend only human calls for better productivity.
- Automated Voicemail Leaving on Answering Machine: If calls are not answered, the receiver should be having a message to get an idea who called him and why, to keep the receivers updated. you can also leave voicemails on sales calls by using leadsrain dialer.
- Hijack and Whisper calls: Managers need to Hijack or Whisper the calls of their teams for training or problem solving purposes. This feature is a must if a call centre is opting for an Outbound process.
- Scripts: Dialers should get a well crafted Telecalling script while they connect on call so they can’t go away from the flow and stay aligned with the purpose of the call.
- Disposition management: Each call that has been made needs to be disposed of with accurate disposition, based on which team can take further action on such leads.
- Campaign and List management: Managing Campaign and List is the heart of any outbound campaign. It should be very easy in the calling software to keep the process faster and simpler.
Can a single call centre software handle both inbound and outbound processes?
Definitely it is possible. Cloud based Predictive Dialer like LeadsRain offers a blended campaign feature where using LeadsRain’s predictive dialer, a call centre can manage both inbound and outbound campaigns for different or the same client with the same platform. To know more how LeadsRain can handle a blended campaign, as well as Inbound and outbound campaigns separately, connect with our team of experts now and get started today.
