Which outbound use cases work
Some prospects want the agent to make calls itself. Which cases fit well, which don't, what the customer needs for this and what an outbound call costs.
Some prospects don't just want the agent to answer calls, but to make calls itself: reminders, callbacks, confirmations, surveys. This works with campaigns for whole lists and with the Outbound API for individual calls from another system.
What works well
| Use case | Example | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment reminders | The practice sends a reminder the day before the appointment and takes cancellations | Campaign with the appointments as a CSV, or a workflow calls the API |
| Callbacks on enquiries | A form on the website immediately triggers a callback | Outbound API from n8n, Make or Zapier |
| Following up on quotes | The trades business follows up a week after the quote | Campaign |
| Surveys of existing customers | Satisfaction after a job, with captured answers | Campaign with variables in the Context Extractor |
| Confirmations | Delivery time, collection, maintenance appointment | Campaign or API |
What all these cases have in common: the person called knows the company, and the call has a reason they expect.
What doesn't fit
| Case | Why not |
|---|---|
| Cold calling consumers | Advertising calls to consumers require prior express consent (Section 7 UWG) |
| Bought lists without consent | In every campaign, the customer confirms that they may call the people on it. They can't do that with such lists |
| Calls that pretend to be a person | The templates contain the notice that an AI system is speaking. It remains in every agent |
| Long advisory conversations | The agent holds short conversations with a clear goal. For advice, it connects to a person in the Pro plan |
What the customer needs
| Requirement | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Pro or Individual plan | Campaigns and the Outbound API are part of these plans |
| A caller number | an imported number or a number connected via SIP. Purchased numbers only take incoming calls |
| An agent with a prompt for outbound conversations | The greeting and flow are different from incoming calls, see Outbound calls |
| A verified identity | once under Billing › Identity, with an ID document via Stripe, without a selfie |
What an outbound call costs
| Result | Billing |
|---|---|
| Nobody answers or the line is busy | 1 minute per attempt |
| Answered, including by a voicemail | every minute or part of a minute from the moment it's answered |
| With an imported number | plus the connection costs at the purchase price |
If the agent detects a voicemail or an announcement, it ends the call without leaving a message. Do a rough calculation with the customer beforehand: contacts times attempts times minutes. A campaign with many contacts not reached costs more minutes than the number of conversations suggests.
In the demonstration
- Ask about a list the customer already phones through by hand today, such as appointment reminders.
- Show the campaign view with calling hours, retries and results per contact.
- If you have connected your own number via SIP with Partner Plus, start a Start Test Call on the Outbound tab to your own mobile and hand it over. It runs over your own line. That way the prospect hears how a call from the agent feels, see Test context. In the free partner account, outbound calls are blocked, so there you demonstrate an inbound call.
- Clarify the caller number and identity check before you set a launch date.
Was this page helpful?