What is the difference between inbound and outbound call centres?
Answers
Inbound : As the name suggests, these centers handle Inbound inquiries and concerns of existing or potential customers. For example, your Health insurance/Car insurance is about to expire and you contact the Toll Free number of your insurance provider. This is handled by an Inbound Call center.
Hence, these could mostly be both Customer Service centers or Inbound Sales centers. Inbound sales, wherein a potential customer sees an Ad and dials a number to talk to the agent at the call center to know more details and possibly buy the product, say Car or health insurance, real estate etc.
Outbound : As the name suggests, involves making Outbound calls to potential customers and sell a particular product/service. You might be receiving calls daily from tele-callers asking whether you are interested in Trading Shares, Insurance Services, Travel Packages, Personal/Home loans etc. These are made from so called Outbound Call centers.
Leads are generated from various marketing activities and/or databases with phone numbers are purchased from relevant companies to target potential buyers and convert/sell certain number of products and services in a month.
Hope this answers your question!