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Outbound Contact Centre Benchmarks (2026), AL Performance
alperformance.co.uk
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Inclusion threshold: operations with meaningful volume (more than 5,000 dials) and at least 30 active days in the window. Operations with incomplete coverage are excluded. “Connect rate = live connects ÷ all dials. Abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ live answered calls, matching how the regulators define it; it is reported across the subset of operations whose abandon feed is fully captured.” The hour-of-day curve uses the operations whose hour data we can verify in each operation's own local time (well over ten million dials), and only hours where multiple operations recorded 5,000+ dials.
Measure it honestly first “Connects ÷ all dials, by week, by campaign.” Work the proven levers
Connect rate = live connects ÷ all dials. Abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ live answered calls, matching how the regulators define it; it is reported across the subset of operations whose abandon feed is fully captured. “The hour-of-day curve uses the operations whose hour data we can verify in each operation's own local time (well over ten million dials), and only hours where multiple operations recorded 5,000+ dials.” Rounding: published figures are deliberately rounded, and improvement series are shown against a relative week axis, so that no individual client operation, exact volume or identity can be reverse-engineered. Every number is still computed from the raw data exactly as described.
Dial when people answer “Shift volume out of the 8am hour and the 2pm dip into late morning and the 4–6pm window. It is the cheapest connect-rate improvement available, same leads, same agents, better hours.” How do you compare to these numbers?
100 = the operation's own average · operations with verified local-time mapping · 90-day window “If your floor front-loads its freshest data into the 8am hour, you are spending your best leads on the day's worst answer rates.” Local hour Median connect-rate index (approx., 100 = avg) 8am 82 9am 86 10am 96 11am 104 12pm 108 1pm 109 2pm 93 3pm 100 4pm 106 5pm 114 6pm 90 7pm 80
Inclusion threshold: operations with meaningful volume (more than 5,000 dials) and at least 30 active days in the window. Operations with incomplete coverage are excluded. “Connect rate = live connects ÷ all dials. Abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ live answered calls, matching how the regulators define it; it is reported across the subset of operations whose abandon feed is fully captured.” The hour-of-day curve uses the operations whose hour data we can verify in each operation's own local time (well over ten million dials), and only hours where multiple operations recorded 5,000+ dials.
The dataset: more than 35 million outbound-led dials and over 3 million live connects, logged on the Five9 platform between 2 May and 30 July 2026 (90 days) across a portfolio of AL Performance client operations, predominantly US consumer-dialling floors in mortgage & lending, home improvement and health insurance. All figures are anonymised aggregates; no client is named or identifiable. “Median of clients, not of calls. Every rate is computed per operation first, then we take the median (and 25th/75th percentiles) across operations, so a single very-high-volume floor can't drag the benchmark toward itself.” Inclusion threshold: operations with meaningful volume (more than 5,000 dials) and at least 30 active days in the window. Operations with incomplete coverage are excluded.
Median of clients, not of calls. Every rate is computed per operation first, then we take the median (and 25th/75th percentiles) across operations, so a single very-high-volume floor can't drag the benchmark toward itself. “Inclusion threshold: operations with meaningful volume (more than 5,000 dials) and at least 30 active days in the window. Operations with incomplete coverage are excluded.” Connect rate = live connects ÷ all dials. Abandon rate = abandoned calls ÷ live answered calls, matching how the regulators define it; it is reported across the subset of operations whose abandon feed is fully captured.
Rounding: published figures are deliberately rounded, and improvement series are shown against a relative week axis, so that no individual client operation, exact volume or identity can be reverse-engineered. Every number is still computed from the raw data exactly as described. “Excluded: the current partial day, incomplete import weeks and sparse-coverage operations.” Under 7%
The hour-of-day curve uses the operations whose hour data we can verify in each operation's own local time (well over ten million dials), and only hours where multiple operations recorded 5,000+ dials. “Rounding: published figures are deliberately rounded, and improvement series are shown against a relative week axis, so that no individual client operation, exact volume or identity can be reverse-engineered. Every number is still computed from the raw data exactly as described.” Excluded: the current partial day, incomplete import weeks and sparse-coverage operations. We deliberately publish no "success rate" benchmark: success is defined differently on every floor (sales, appointments, transfers), so a portfolio median would be meaningless.
Rounding: published figures are deliberately rounded, and improvement series are shown against a relative week axis, so that no individual client operation, exact volume or identity can be reverse-engineered. Every number is still computed from the raw data exactly as described. “We deliberately publish no "success rate" benchmark: success is defined differently on every floor (sales, appointments, transfers), so a portfolio median would be meaningless.” Under 7%