Contact Rate Call Center Definition

What is a contact rate within a call center?

A contact rate is an outbound call center metric. You take the total number of calls that an agent makes – let’s assume 100 for an easy example. Then you divide that by the number of actual conversations that the agent has. Let’s assume 25. 25/100 would be a 25% contact rate, which is slightly below average for most outbound call centers, in actuality.

The contact rate is important because it speaks to the quality of the outbound lead list. If you’re constantly calling and not getting any conversations, it’s not a very targeted or effective lead list. If you continue to see lower contact rate numbers, it’s best to scrub your outbound list and restart the process to see better metrics there.

How does one improve a contact rate, generally?

It’s a mix of humanity and technology. Technology-wise, you want to make sure you have tools such as a dialing system, voicemail, and local caller ID. But humanity-wise, you need to train up agents on how to frame the conversation, and also train up agents on respecting the timetable of the leads. No one wants to be harassed by agents, no one wants to enter into what could be perceived as a worthless conversation, and no one wants their time wasted. If you use a solid tech stack + train your agents to frame the conversation as valuable and respect the time of the leads, the contact rate will naturally improve over time.