Most dialers produce more numbers than anyone has time to read. The trick is not to track everything, but to track the handful of metrics that explain why a campaign is working or not. These eight cover the whole journey — from the moment a number is dialed to the moment a deal is done.
1. Contact rate
What it is: live conversations with a real person ÷ total dials.
This is the first number to check when results drop. A falling contact rate usually points to list quality, calling times or caller ID reputation rather than agent performance. Track it per campaign and per outbound number — a sudden drop on one number often means it has picked up a spam label.
2. Right-party contact rate
What it is: conversations with the person you actually wanted ÷ total live conversations.
Reaching a receptionist or a family member is not the same as reaching the decision maker. If this number is low, the problem is usually the data: wrong contact names, old numbers or numbers shared by a whole office.
3. Conversion rate
What it is: successful outcomes (sale, appointment, payment, qualified lead) ÷ right-party contacts.
Measure it against right-party contacts, not total dials, so a bad list does not make good agents look weak. Compare agents on the same campaign and the same list to find coaching opportunities — and great calls to share with the team.
4. Contacts per agent hour
What it is: live conversations ÷ logged-in agent hours.
This is the clearest measure of how well your dialing setup uses agent time. Preview dialing on a cold list keeps it low; a well-tuned predictive campaign raises it sharply. If it drops while contact rate stays steady, look at pacing, wrap-up times and breaks.
5. Average handle time (AHT)
What it is: talk time + hold time + after-call work, averaged per call.
AHT is useful, but do not push it down blindly. Very short calls can mean agents rushing past objections or ending calls early. Watch AHT together with conversion rate: the best calls are often not the shortest ones.
6. Abandon rate
What it is: calls answered by a person but not connected to an agent in time ÷ calls answered by a person.
This matters most for predictive campaigns. Many markets set a legal limit for telemarketing — in the US, for example, 3% of answered calls per campaign over 30 days — and silent calls are a fast route to spam reports. Check it daily and keep your dialer's target comfortably below any limit that applies.
7. Agent occupancy
What it is: time agents spend talking or in after-call work ÷ total logged-in time.
Low occupancy means agents wait too long between calls — the dialer could pace faster or the list is too thin. Very high occupancy for long stretches (well above 90%) leads to tired agents and mistakes. Most teams aim for a steady, sustainable middle.
8. Cost per outcome
What it is: total campaign cost (agent hours, call minutes, numbers, data) ÷ successful outcomes.
This ties everything together. A campaign with a lower conversion rate can still be the better one if it costs far less per result. Calculate it per campaign at least monthly, and use it to decide where to spend next month's budget.
Put them on one page
| Question | Look at |
|---|---|
| Are we reaching people? | Contact rate, right-party contact rate |
| Are agents using their time well? | Contacts per agent hour, occupancy, AHT |
| Are conversations turning into results? | Conversion rate |
| Are we staying safe and compliant? | Abandon rate |
| Is it worth the money? | Cost per outcome |
On ReachMeLine you can download your call logs as CSV or Excel at any time, which makes it easy to calculate contact rate, talk time and cost per call in a simple spreadsheet — or feed them into the reporting tool you already use.
