How Do Inbound and Outbound Call Center Services Differ?

Inbound and outbound calls are both integral aspects of business management and customer acquisition. Third-party services exist for both, and more companies are taking advantages of these outsource centers for maximum consumer retention. Learn about the ins and outs of inbound and outbound calls and how they differ.

What Are Inbound Calls?

Inbound calls are those made to your company from an existing customer or prospect customer. These tend to be more service-based and often include enquiries. For existing customers, these may be calls about billing, technical support, subscription renewal/cancellation, or membership upgrade. Prospective customers may be calling to ask about a particular product or service.

Inbound calls may also include complaints, which the customer service representative is trained to resolve in a calm, polite and effective manner.

What Are Outbound Calls?

With outbound calls, the company is the party that initiates the call to the customer. This can be done for a number of reasons. The primary goal usually has to do with customer retention and outreach to prospective customers. As opposed to the more customer service-based inbound calls, outbound calls are more sales oriented.

With the help of big data, metrics, and other key performance indicators, companies can actively reach out to prospective customers to take them further down the sales funnel. For existing clients, initiating the outreach helps foster positive company-to-client relations.

Examples of outbound calls include:

• Sending current customers a courtesy reminder that their subscription requires renewal
• Contacting customers with exclusive limited-time offers
• Sending further information to potential customers who have made an enquiry
• Sending offers or deals to potential customers after the end of a free trial they signed up for
• Sending surveys (very important for data analytics)

Contrary to popular belief, most outbound calls include warm rather than cold calls. The former means the call is only initiated after the prospect customer has expressed some form of interest, such as joining the company’s social media page.

How Are Inbound and Outbound Call Centers Different?

While there is certainly some overlap, the aims of the two are different. Inbound call staff is trained to quickly resolve customer issues and complaints in a professional manner. Outbound call staff, on the other hand, are trained from a more sales-oriented approach. The goal is to convert new customers or get existing customers to upgrade their membership or try new products. Both are trained to be courteous and always act professionally.

With this in mind, it’s important to know which services a third-party calling center specializes in when outsourcing calling duties. Depending on the size of company and customer base, businesses may outsource one or the other or both.

Outsource Both Inbound and Outbound Calls to Executive Boutique

Executive Boutique’s call center has departments that handle both inbound and outbound calls in various industries. Our call center is based in the Philippines and handles incoming and outgoing calls for countless companies based in the U.S., UK, Canada, and other Western countries. Outbound and inbound calls ensure customer retention, recruitment, and satisfaction.

Are you looking for a reliable BPO company that offers outsourced outbound call center services? Then please reach out and see how Executive Boutique Call Center can help you.

Resources

• Chron, What Is Inbound and Outbound Customer Service, https://smallbusiness.chron.com/inbound-outbound-customer-service-51918.html
• All Business, Inbound Vs Outbound Call Centers, https://www.allbusiness.com/inbound-vs-outbound-call-centers-7396089-1.html