Your contact rate is not what your report says

August 28, 20264 min read

A CRM can report 90% contact rate while the phone system says 3.4%. That is not a rounding error: they are two different things counted under the same name.

Two numbers with the same name

When someone says "contact rate", they can mean very different things:

The first case is what inflates reports. If the agent dispositions the call as "no answer", the record counts as handled, and a system that counts handled records instead of conversations reports that almost the entire list was contacted.

In an operation we audited, the dashboard showed 90% contact rate over a list of 22,919 records. Against the phone system CDR, real conversations came to 3.4% over 1,190 usable numbers.

Why it matters so much

Contact rate decides money: which data provider to keep, which list to buy, how many agents to hire. An inflated number leads to buying more of the same believing it works.

How to get the real number

From your phone system CDR, not from the CRM report:

The 25-second threshold is a practical approximation: below that you usually have a voicemail or someone who hung up immediately. Adjust it against your own recordings.

Three traps when measuring

Counting the number, not the customer

If a customer has four phone numbers and answered on one, that is one contact, not four failed attempts and one good. Measuring per number punishes lists with good data.

Using duration instead of billsec

duration includes ring time. A call that rang for 30 seconds with no answer shows a duration, and if your filter uses that field, it counts as a contact.

Mixing collections and sales campaigns

They are lists with naturally different contact rates. Averaging them gives a number that describes neither.

What to do with the result

• If your real contact rate is under 10%, the problem is data quality, not the dialer.
• Between 10% and 25%, there is room to improve with list prioritization and better dialing hours.
• Over 25%, the focus shifts to conversion: you are already talking to people.

And before blaming the list, check how many of your answered calls were voicemails: that time counts as contact and it is not.

Frequently asked questions

How is real contact rate calculated?

Against the phone system call records (CDR): effective conversations divided by unique numbers dialed. Not against dispositioned records in the CRM, which include failed attempts.

Why does my CRM report a higher contact rate?

Because it usually counts as a contact any record that received a disposition, including calls nobody answered. That is a workload metric, not a contact metric.

What contact rate is normal in collections?

It depends heavily on how old the data is. Under 10% usually points to a list quality problem rather than a dialer problem.