Putting Out the Welcome Mat for Outbound Calls

Recently a fellow VUI designer, Caroline Leathem, asked for volunteers to take a survey on outbound contact perception. You can take it here.

In particular, she wanted callers from outside the U.K. to express their opinion on how they preferred to be contacted in a variety of situations. The options were: Text Message, Email, Letter, Phone Call from an Automated Service, Phone Call from an Onshore Agent and Phone Call from an Offshore Agent. The order wasn’t fixed, which I found a bit odd, as it made me wonder whether it was accidental or intended to shift the bias somewhat.

But I did notice that my knee jerk reaction was to eschew the automated call more often than not, either by not choosing it at all, or by ranking it very low in my list of choices. This is downright peculiar, as we have written a number of applications that use Outbound calling to very good effect. And I genuinely do prefer the speed of dealing with an automated application when I am trying to get something done, without having to take the time for human interaction. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy a good conversation with a stranger, but not when I am task-focused. And perhaps, too, it is specific to the task. Arranging for a delivery or setting up an appointment, really is easier to do with a person. But soliciting or providing information is generally easier to do with a machine.

In the informal surveys we have performed for our customer base, the reaction to our automated outbound call has been positive—the call recipients received just enough information in a timely way to act upon. Or they were able to respond to and log their information as needed when they needed to. I suspect at least some of the difference is that they were expecting the call, so that it wasn’t an intrusion. And the consistency of the interaction was comfortable over time.

Outbound calling has been getting steadily increasing attention in the news. Datamonitor predicts the market for hosted Outbound IVR services in North America will more than double from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013. They attribute the rapid growth to the economy.

“Outbound IVR applications are simpler than inbound IVR applications, and require less intelligence to determine end-user goals. Over the next few years, vendors will integrate outbound IVR applications with backend business logic and by taking advantage of all major customer touchpoints, notably email and SMS.

The biggest factor that will influence the market for outbound IVR applications is the economy, due to which enterprises across all verticals have adapted “do more with less” mantra.” The Rise of Outbound Applications in an Economic Recession (Strategic Focus)

That being said, we need to prepare for more calls, both making and receiving them. It is important that we understand when and where outbound calls can fit into the ways we communicate, so that we don’t alienate the very people we want to reach out to and engage.  More on this topic soon.

2 Comments »

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1. Hi Laura,

   Thanks for taking part and promoting the survey. The ordering was intentionally done to, as you say, try to shift bias. The results are extremely interesting. If you are at SpeechTek let me know and I would love to talk about them in more detail. Unfortunately my speaking slot doesn’t give me enough time to talk through all the findings

   C

   Comment by Caroline Leathem — August 14, 2009

2. I believe that an outbound call is one initiated from a call center agent to a customer on behalf of the call center or a client so this is more important for a business.

   Comment by modify wordpress — March 26, 2010

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