The outbound call center serves a specific purpose when managed effectively. Agents make calls to specific targets that hopefully turn into closed deals. One question call center leaders tend to ask is whether or not they should focus more attention on the calls going out or other channels customers use to make connections.

Fortunately, a recent My Customer blog post highlighted an infographic from Five9 (News - Alert) on the topic, providing insight into what customers want, what is trending now and how things could be tweaked a bit to produce the best outcomes.

One clear finding outlined is the reality that 92 percent of interactions are still taking place on the phone and 71 percent of customers prefer this method. Likewise, 81 percent of companies that are able to delivery excellent customer service are easily outperforming their competition. When poor customer service is in place, 68 percent of customers will quickly go to the competition.

Why does this matter? After all, you could simply up your outbound call center efforts to reach out to more customers and replace those who don’t like the way you do business. The problem with this approach is that it costs you seven times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an existing one.

When quality interactions are made a priority, companies see a 2 percent increase in retention and a 10 percent decrease in overall costs. This same 10 percent increase also equates to a 30 percent increase in company value. These are significant numbers that force any outbound call center manager to pay attention to the value of the customer experience and why it needs to be the priority.

Multiple channels also need to gain attention as 29 percent of consumers prefer the online interactions as opposed to the telephone. Another 62 percent of consumers already rely on social media for customer service, which means the outbound call center needs to be focused on those interactions to address issues quickly. After all, a failure to respond to social media messages can cause a $15 increase in the churn rate for existing customers.

Still, even with the growing focus on social media, a number of companies still ignore it. Of the top 50 brands in a 2011 A.T. Kearney Survey, 56 percent failed to respond to customers on their Facebook (News - Alert) page. Another 55 percent expect a response to online complaints the same day they are posted. 71 percent of consumer complaints were completely ignored on Twitter (News - Alert) and by 2020, more than 90 percent of companies plan to integrate social media into customer care.

Interestingly, customers are willing to pay for better care. Still, of the 45.4 billion calls handled through contact centers every year, 85 percent of consumers are dissatisfied with their phone experience. Sixty percent of consumers will pay for the better experience, and most will abandon the experience when they aren’t treated in the way they expect.

Overall, consumers want quality service, even from the outbound call center. They will take the calls and interact toward benefit, as long as the focus is on quality care.