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Calculating cost per call to evaluate outsourcers for outbound calls

Lori Bocklund EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Lori Bocklund

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QUESTION POSED ON: 16 January 2007
Is there an industry average for cost per outbound call? I am considering employing agents in India to call my customers in the U.S.. Inbound call costs would be on an hourly basis, but what about outbound calls? How should those costs be calculated?

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EXPERT RESPONSE
There are no industry averages for call center metrics, much to many people's dismay! Cost per call is a function of many things – wage rates and call handling times being the most important, but also considering overhead costs, technology, telecom/network costs, and more. If you're looking at outsourcing, there are a number of ways to calculate and pay for resources – hourly for "owned" full-time employees (FTEs) dedicated to your calling needs, by call, and by minute are some of the models we've seen. Depending on the nature of the calls, you may also pay on performance – percent of collections or sales, for example.


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RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS
Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary
abandoned call  (SearchCRM.com)
call center agent  (SearchCRM.com)
cross-media queuing  (SearchCRM.com)
Erlang B  (SearchCRM.com)
Erlang C  (SearchCRM.com)
inbound call  (SearchCRM.com)
off-peak  (SearchCRM.com)
outbound call  (SearchCRM.com)
screen pop  (WhatIs.com)
skill-based routing  (SearchCRM.com)

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