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Summary:
- Measure the call connection and audio quality of your calls by looking at factors like live answer rates and average call times, then choose dialing software with features that can increase these metrics.
- Identify how well your reps are adhering to your scripts and protocols by monitoring their calls and using a simple five-point scale to assess their performance.
- Use the same approach to gauge the professionalism of your reps when resolving objection responses or dealing with angry prospects.
- Track efficiency and time management by looking at how many dial sessions and calls your reps are placing. PhoneBurner’s reporting features can do this automatically.
- Assess your call center’s compliance with relevant laws and regulations by tracking Do Not Call requests and dropped calls (for applicable dialers).
Find Out How Efficient Your Outbound Calling Really Is
Quality conversations make or break your call center, but how do you measure and optimize for that? It’s about more than simply the cadence of your sales calls or the clarity of your connections, although those are certainly important. In fact, successful call centers are the result of many different factors, each of which impacts your ability to have quality conversations with prospects that drive results.
We’re here to help you with a list of metrics and considerations that are critical to call center quality. Use this scorecard to shine a light on the efficiency of your team, the quantity and quality of conversations, the clarity of your calls, adherence to industry regulations, and more.
Call Connection & Duration
Technical metrics aren’t the only important ones for gauging quality in your call center—but they definitely can’t be overlooked. The strength of your connection rates and duration of these conversations has a direct impact on how effectively you reach prospects on outbound calls.
What to Measure
- Live Answer Rates: How many prospects are actually picking up the phone to talk to your reps?
- Average Call Time: Short duration calls can increase risk of spam flags. Lower call times can be the result of audio quality issues, or dialer issues that cause prospects to hang up—like the delay or beep that’s common at the start of calls initiated with an auto dialer.
- Spam/Scam Likely Flags: If your calls are being labeled as spam or potential scam calls, your prospects won’t pick up. Your dialing software should help you monitor, remediate false flags with the carriers, and provide you with ways to reduce the risk.
PhoneBurner’s reporting and analytics features can help you track these metrics and many more so that you can use it to inform your approach.
Tips for Improvement
The dialing software you use has a serious impact on your call deliverability. PhoneBurner is designed with features that help make your calls more likely to connect, including:
- A Tier 1 Carrier to reduce spam risk, and improve call quality and reliability
- Number Registration and Spam Monitoring to help safeguard your numbers and remediate in situations when false flags arise.
- Proactive Flag Remediation to safeguard your numbers and avoid the hamster wheel of recycling numbers
Explore our call deliverability features here.
Audio Quality
Your call center should also be able to place calls that deliver consistently excellent audio quality. This prevents calls from being disrupted or abandoned because prospects are annoyed or unable to hear your reps.
What to Measure
- Connection Strength: When using cloud/VOIP based tools, internet connection is a major contributor to call quality. PhoneBurner has a connection quality indicator built-in (see image above) to help you gauge your quality and ability to conduct clear uninterrupted calls.
- Originating Carrier: Does your call center software leverage a Tier 1 carrier to place your calls, or rely on an Interconnect carrier that doesn’t deliver the same quality and reliability?
Learn More: What is a Tier 1 Carrier (& Why Does it Matter for Sales Calls)
Tips for Improvement
- Use PhoneBurner’s built-in connection strength indicator, which gives you a score out of 5 to help assess how stable and audible your calls are.
- Purchase high-quality headsets to reduce background noise on calls, or take advantage of PhoneBurner’s Krisp AI noise cancellation, which is built into our softphone.
- Ask your software provider if they use a Tier 1 network.
Adherence to Scripts & Protocols
The degree to which your sales reps follow your scripts and protocols directly influences the consistency and professionalism of your call center operations. When your reps follow established guidelines, your interactions with prospects are more predictable and consistent with your branding.
This builds trust and reliability with prospects, since they receive the same high level of service regardless of whom they speak to. It also ensures that your reps cover all necessary information on each call, which reduces the risk of missing key points that could help close a sale or provide valuable support.
What to Measure
For each rep, rate how often they perform the following tasks: (never, rarely, sometimes, often, or always):
Tips for Improvement
The more oversight you have when your reps are making calls, the more information you can gain about how to support and improve their performance. PhoneBurner provides live call monitoring and coaching that lets you hear the conversations reps are having with prospects and intervene if necessary to help drive favorable outcomes.
Learn More: Call Coaching and Monitoring: How to Improve Agent Performance with Listen-in, Whisper, and Barge
Communication Skills & Professionalism
The way your reps engage with customers determines how many deals you’ll close and how strong those relationships will be going forward. Strong communication leads to better brand image, more customer satisfaction, and more deals closed.
Effective communication involves not just clear and concise speech but also active listening, empathy, and the ability to handle objections smoothly. Professionalism ensures that every interaction is respectful, courteous, and aligned with your company's image.
What to Measure
For each rep, rate how often they perform the following tasks: (never, rarely, sometimes, often, or always):
Tips for Improvement
The key here is to have clear policies in place that guide what your reps do in different situations—and tools that help them take the correct actions.
PhoneBurner’s CRM features and integrations let you track customer information—including the outcome of each call—so that you and your reps can refer back to this data and assess the success of their calls.
Explore our built-in CRM features here.
See PhoneBurner’s 200+ CRM and software integrations.
Efficiency & Time Management
Efficiency and time management are vital for maximizing productivity in a call center. Your representatives need to manage their time effectively to handle as many calls as possible without compromising quality.
This involves quickly navigating through calls, resolving issues promptly, and moving on to the next prospect efficiently. Good time management ensures that resources are used optimally, reducing idle time and increasing the number of productive interactions.
What to Measure
Measuring efficiency is easy with PhoneBurner. Our reporting and analytics tools automatically track and record multiple metrics that can give you a window into how your reps spend their time at work, including:
- The number of dial sessions your reps are starting
- The number of calls placed by each rep
- Number of conversations started (talks)
- Total talk time
Tips for Success
The more specific your data is, the more specific your strategic decisions can be. You can customize what metrics PhoneBurner is tracking to focus on the information most valuable to your call center.
For example, you could filter results to focus on a specific rep during a 30-day period, then compare it to the previous month to find out if their calling practices are becoming more or less efficient.
Learn how to create a custom report with PhoneBurner.
Compliance with Legal & Ethical Standards
The other sections on this list are beneficial for your call center, but compliance is non-negotiable. Following the laws and regulations about data protection and privacy keeps your reputation strong and prevents you from facing penalties.
Having strong ethical standards keeps your practices fair and transparent, which builds trust and credibility with your prospects. Regularly monitoring and enforcing compliance helps mitigate risks, safeguards customer information, and upholds the integrity of your operations.
What to Measure
Legislation regulating call center practices is complex and subject to change, so it’s best to review with your attorney and update your policies frequently. But some metrics you should be sure to stay on top of for compliance are:
- Number of Dropped Calls: PhoneBurner doesn’t drop calls—but if you’re using a predictive dialer, it’s vital to stay on top of this so you don’t face the penalties for exceeding a 3% drop rate.
- “Do Not Call” Requests: Track every prospect who requests that you stop contacting them, as violating this request can put you in breach of DNC compliance.
- Calling Hours: To comply with federal telemarketing rules, be sure not to call residential numbers outside the hours of 8am-9pm (additional local, holiday, emergency, and other rules apply).
Tips for Success
Remaining compliant is easier when your dialing software is built with trust and safety in mind. PhoneBurner’s Responsible Communications™ Initiative guides our platform and helps make it easier for our partners to remain on the right side of these regulations.
Learn more about Responsible Communications™ here.
Improve Your Call Center Performance by Tracking the Right Data
By focusing on the categories above and tracking the metrics provided for each one, you can gain a much clearer and more comprehensive picture of what’s happening in your call center and how it’s contributing to your success with prospects.
Take advantage of PhoneBurner’s live recording and reporting tools to gather the data you need, then use the tables and scales we’ve provided above to help evaluate the performance of your reps and the effectiveness of your policies.
Not a PhoneBurner user yet? Start a free trial here.
