How Many Calls Should an Outbound Agent Make

Every outbound contact centre faces the same challenge: how do you set realistic call targets for your agents without sacrificing quality?

There are mixed views about the level of productivity a call centre manager expects from their outbound agents and how many calls an outbound agent can really make.

Push too hard on volume and you risk rushed conversations that miss the mark; aim too low and you could be leaving opportunities on the table.

So, how many calls should an outbound agent really make in a day?

In this article, we’ll break down the numbers, the influencing factors, and the balance between quantity and quality, so you can set targets that actually work in your contact centre.

How Many Calls Can an Outbound Agent Make?

In our experience, there seems to be a general rule of thumb that is consistent across many different outbound operations and types of outbound campaigns:

This means that the remaining time will be spent either waiting for the next call which the dialler will try to deliver (the better/more optimised the dialler, the quicker this will arrive), or they are in a state of wrap or unavailable.

As a simple calculation, you can divide this talk time by the average talk-time of an individual call to work out the number of calls that an agent can make.

There are, however, a number of factors that will affect this number of calls and remember, quantity is no substitute for quality.

Factors That Influence Outbound Agent Call Volume

Call volume is never set in stone, and we have put together several factors that will influence your agents’ call volume, so understanding these is key to setting fair, effective targets:

1. Quality and Quantity of The Data List

If the quality of your outbound calling list is poor, then you will probably hit higher volumes of calls, however, these will be shorter as you will find that many calls will result in no decision-maker contacts – i.e. wrong number.

2. Average Talk Time

You need to understand and then monitor what the optimum talk time is; you need to understand the talk time for non-decision maker contacts and for decision-maker contacts.

This will enable you to apply a ratio i.e. 5 calls to 1 DMC and then apply the talk time on this ratio rather than attempting to work solely with averages. You also need to adjust the talk time for the type of calls you are making – service, survey, sales contact, etc.

3. Speed of Dialler

The way you optimise your dialler will also change the amount of time that an agent is available and waiting for their next call. Dialler parameters such as lines per agent, abandon rate, ring time and no answer settings will all influence this.

4. Calling Environment

Like with an inbound contact centre, agents are influenced/affected by their environment. A noisy environment may increase call lengths as agents have to speak slower and louder.

A difficult environment dealing with stressful issues may result in agents taking longer to wrap up calls and catching their breath before returning to an available state.

5. Balancing Quantity With Quality

High call volumes don’t necessarily mean high success rates., and overemphasising quantity can reduce the quality of conversations, hurt customer experience, and damage results.

Your KPIs should align with campaign goals, whether that’s lead generation, sales conversions, or customer feedback collection.

6. Testing and Benchmarking to Determine KPIs

All of the above will play a role in determining benchmarks and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the outbound calling environment.

Once all the above have been identified, a test period of two weeks’ calling is needed to identify any trends, such as:

• Data quality,
• Data usage,
• Average talk time and
• Agent behaviour in terms of their logged-in hours, etc.

These identifiable results will give you the foundation for creating the right KPIs with your agents, management team and, if you are an outsourcer, your clients.

Contact Rates

In a September 2009 survey by the Professional Planning Forum the number of right party contacts per hour varied quite considerably by call type.

Idle time amounted to just over 20% with a planned target of 18%

The average number of contacts per hour was just under 18, against a plan of just under 20.

With thanks to Carl Adkins, Managing Director at Infinity CCS, for contributing to this article

If you are looking for more information on call volumes and staffing, read these articles next:

• Seasonal WFM – How to Prepare for Peaks and Troughs in Contact Volumes
• How to Calculate Staffing in a Contact Centre
• Call Volumes Up? Here’s What You Can Do About It

Reviewed by: Hannah Swankie