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Summary:
- Call center forecasting helps predict answer rates and resource needs so that you can staff your call center and allocate resources efficiently.
- Key data points for effective forecasting include historical call volume, answer rates, agent productivity, and external factors like holidays or promotions.
- Tools like PhoneBurner offer real-time reporting and lead management, helping sales teams adjust forecasts on the fly and optimize resource usage.
- Best practices include using historical data wisely, choosing strategic calling times, and making real-time adjustments based on performance metrics.
- PhoneBurner’s reporting and lead management features support more accurate forecasting and improve overall sales team efficiency.
Call centers need to run efficiently. Closing is important, but It doesn’t matter how many sales your team makes if it costs more to run them than the revenue they generate.
That’s where call center forecasting comes into play. Forecasting helps predict future answer rates and resource needs, ensuring that your staffing levels and resource allocation align with projected sales.
Without accurate forecasting, it’s easy to overstaff your call center, which leads to unnecessary costs—or understaff it, which spreads your sales team too thin and negatively impacts conversations with prospects.
By taking a data-driven approach and using a few techniques to manage your team, your call center can meet your service goals, keep your prospects engaged, and have more successful phone conversations. Here’s how.
How PhoneBurner Supports Call Center Forecasting
PhoneBurner does more than just streamline the calling process—our dialing platform also helps you track and manage key forecasting metrics. Here’s how PhoneBurner can support your forecasting:
- Real-time reporting: Get current and accurate information on the number of calls your agents make, their answer rates, call outcomes, and more. This helps ensure your forecasting is always based on actual performance.
- Go beyond statistics with monitoring and coaching: PhoneBurner’s Listen In, Whisper, and Barge features let you hear agents placing calls in real time and provide feedback or step in if needed. This helps you put your metrics in context and make more informed forecasting decisions.
- Improve forecasts by planning your lead distribution: When you have a system in place to make sure leads are being handled properly, you’ll be able to plan for better outcomes. PhoneBurner’s LeadStream feature lets you set up custom rules that deliver leads to the sales reps best qualified to connect with them.
Not a PhoneBurner user yet? Start a free trial here and find out firsthand how our platform can improve your forecasting, or keep reading to learn more about the data you’ll need to collect and our recommended best practices.
Essential Data for Effective Forecasting
To forecast effectively in an outbound call center, it’s essential to collect and analyze key data points that will allow you to predict answer rates and resource needs. The most important metrics include:
- Historical Call Volume: Knowing how many outbound calls your team typically makes over different time periods (daily, weekly, or monthly) helps you identify patterns and seasonal trends.
- Answer Rates: Tracking the percentage of calls that are answered is crucial for outbound forecasting. Answer rates can fluctuate based on time of day, day of the week, and external factors, and knowing this data helps you plan your calling windows for optimal results. Learn more about why answer rates are important.
- Dialing Attempts per Connection: This metric shows how many calls your team needs to make to reach a given prospect. A higher number of attempts might indicate the need to adjust your dialing strategy.
- Agent Productivity: Understanding how many calls each agent can handle per hour, including call outcomes, gives you insight into their capacity and efficiency.
- Lead Quality and Conversion Rates: These data points help forecast how likely certain types of leads are to pick up, engage, and convert, impacting both forecasting and targeting strategies. Then you can use LeadStream to manage your sales leads and make sure the right leads go to the right agents.
- External Factors: Consider external influences like holidays, industry events, or promotional periods, which can affect answer rates and call success.
Tools & Software for Call Center Forecasting
Outbound call centers benefit from tools that streamline the forecasting process by automating data analysis, tracking, and scheduling. Here are some popular tools and technologies for outbound forecasting:
- Workforce Management (WFM) Software: Tools like NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud help forecast staffing needs based on historical call volume and projected demand. These systems allow you to plan and schedule agents effectively, ensuring that your team is right-sized for outbound calling shifts.
- Dialer Tools: Power dialers like PhoneBurner streamline dialing for outbound calls and provide real-time insights into key metrics like call volume and answer rates. This helps you assess agent productivity, making it easier to adjust your forecasting.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: Systems like Salesforce and HubSpot track key customer interactions and call outcomes, helping refine your forecasts and focus on the most promising leads. See how PhoneBurner integrates with these programs below:some text
Best Practices & Strategies for Accurate Forecasting
- Use Historical Data Wisely: Analyze past call volumes and answer rates across different time periods to identify trends. This helps fine-tune forecasts for the days and times when your prospects are most likely to answer.
- Optimize Calling Times: Analyze when prospects are most likely to answer calls based on time of day, day of the week, and regional considerations. Make sure your agents are actually calling during these hours before forecasting so that your data doesn’t get skewed.
- Account for Campaign-Specific Factors: For outbound sales, different campaigns or lead sources may have different conversion rates and answer rates. Measure data for individual campaigns separately so that you can always set realistic targets and expectations.
- Real-Time Adjustments: Use tools like PhoneBurner’s reporting features to monitor real-time performance and make immediate adjustments. If answer rates drop during certain times, you can shift resources or adjust the calling strategy on the spot.
Try PhoneBurner for Free
Forecasting is essential for keeping your outbound call center running efficiently. But it’s not always easy to know what data to look at or how to use it to guide decisions. By using tools developed specifically for call centers, you can monitor the metrics that matter and action them in just a few clicks—saving you time and supporting your agents.
By using tools like PhoneBurner to track key metrics and make real-time adjustments, you can optimize your resources and make sure that every call counts. Sign up for a free trial of PhoneBurner today and see how it can help improve your team’s performance and forecasting accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions about Call Center Forecasting
What method should I use to predict call volume for my sales team?
To predict call volume for your outbound sales team, one effective method is to calculate the year-over-year growth rate in call volume. Here's how you can do it:
- Analyze Historical Data: Look at your team’s call volume over multiple years. For example, if your team made 10,000 calls in year one, 15,000 in year two, and 20,000 in year three, the year-over-year growth is the difference between each year's total calls (in this case, an increase of 5,000 calls annually).
- Calculate Growth Rates: To calculate the growth rate, divide the yearly increase by the previous year’s total call volume. For example, from year one to year two, the growth rate is 50% (5,000 ÷ 10,000), and from year two to year three, the growth rate is 33.3% (5,000 ÷ 15,000).
- Average Growth Rate: Add the growth rates together and divide by the number of years to find the average growth rate. In this example, the average growth rate over two years is about 41.65%.
- Predict Future Volume: Multiply the current year's call volume by the growth rate to estimate next year's volume. For example, if your team made 20,000 calls this year, and your average growth rate is 41.65%, you can forecast approximately 28,330 calls for next year.
How often should I update my call center forecasting model?
It’s a good idea to update your call center forecasting model regularly, depending on the pace of your business and any external changes that may affect call volume. For most outbound call centers, monthly or quarterly updates are standard practice.
However, if you notice fluctuations in answer rates, agent productivity, or other key metrics, consider updating your forecast more frequently. Additionally, if you're running specific campaigns or promotions, adjust your forecasts to account for the temporary spikes or dips they might create.
