OUTBOUND
5. STAY COMPLIANT
Key points to follow compliance rules:
Compliance is key to building trust: it’ s not just a legal box to check. Sales teams must follow regulations for cold calling, emailing, and texting, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act( TCPA) and data privacy and storage laws.
The increasing use of call-blocking technology by carriers adds another layer of difficulty. Calls from unknown numbers are more likely to be flagged as spam, further reducing the likelihood of making a successful connection.
Breaking the rules can lead to hefty fines. The Federal Trade Commission’ s Telemarketing Sales Rule and other federal and state regulations apply.
... OUTBOUND TEAMS CAN CONTINUE TO DRIVE MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS AND BUSINESS GROWTH...
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BOT-TO-BOT SUPPORT COULD HELP ALLEVIATE PROBLEMS WITH CAPACITY AND QUALITY-AT-SCALE. HOWEVER, BUSINESSES ARE BEHIND IF THIS ISN’ T ALREADY IN MOTION.
• Avoid Do Not Call Registry numbers.
• Call only within legal hours( usually 8 a. m. to 9 p. m. on weekdays, with different rules for weekends and holidays).
• Identify yourself clearly on Caller ID.
• Honor opt-out requests immediately.
THE FUTURE OF OUTBOUND CALLING
Despite the growing challenges, outbound calling remains a valuable tool for customer engagement. However, success now requires a more thoughtful and strategic approach.
Call centers that integrate personalization, multi-channel outreach, caller ID reputation, predictive dialing, and compliance-driven best practices will have the best chance of maintaining strong connection rates. By adapting to changing technologies and consumer preferences, outbound teams can continue to drive meaningful conversations and business growth in an increasingly digital world.
As Chief Revenue Officer of Readymode, Rob Auld focuses on transforming the customer journey and achieving sustainable growth through strategic vision and operational excellence. ValueSelling Associate and Visualize Vice President David Byck enables teams to become effective, efficient, and relevant while building exceptional customer experiences.
BOTS
Consumers can adopt bots with agency technology with one mouse-click of Apple Pay. But organizations must complete extensive, selective adoption, get through pilot phases without getting stuck in“ AI purgatory,” and ensure risk aversion because of the serious potential for brand damage.
The companies that win in a bot empowered world will be the ones that train their teams to collaborate with machines. This is especially true for customer service teams, who will need to operate in environments where AI agents play dual roles as internal assistants that help them resolve issues faster and as customer side agents that act autonomously on behalf of the customer.
Employees must know how to prompt, guide, and oversee these systems, validate their outputs, and step in when something goes wrong. This means developing new skills in data interpretation, decision oversight, and human AI collaboration.
24 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
AI fluency isn’ t just digital literacy; it’ s a mindset shift that prepares teams to work alongside intelligent systems as true partners in service delivery.
YOU CAN BE LEFT BEHIND
Consumer adoption always far outpaces corporate readiness. While consumers are ready for bots with agency, the business world isn’ t. The resultant delta in demand versus availability is likely to cause serious service delivery issues for many organizations over the coming years. Bot-to-bot support could help alleviate problems with capacity and quality-at-scale. However, businesses are behind if this isn’ t already in motion.
In short, it’ s going to take time to be ready. Now’ s the time to get ahead, and stay ahead, of your competitors and be there for your customers.
Jim Davies is a seasoned customer and employee experience leader, corporate and board advisor, and co-founder of Actionary, a leading research and advisory company, leveraging his expertise from two decades of experience at Gartner and subsequent tenure in a C-suite role.