Outbound Call
In Salesforce Service Cloud and CTI integrations, a phone call initiated by an agent to a customer, which can be placed via click-to-dial functionality from contact or case records within the Service Console.
Definition
In Salesforce Service Cloud and CTI integrations, a phone call initiated by an agent to a customer, which can be placed via click-to-dial functionality from contact or case records within the Service Console.
In plain English
“An Outbound Call in Service Cloud and CTI integrations is a phone call made by an agent to a customer. Agents typically initiate these calls through click-to-dial, where clicking a phone number on a contact or case record automatically places the call.”
Worked example
A sales rep at Driftwood Outfitters opens a Lead record and clicks the phone-number field; click-to-dial in the Service Cloud Voice softphone places an Outbound Call to the lead. The call routes through the company's CTI system, the call timer starts inside Salesforce, and any notes she types during the call automatically attach as an Activity on the Lead record. After hanging up, the platform records the call duration, recording (if enabled), and disposition. Outbound Calls in CTI integrate the same way Inbound Calls do - same softphone, same logging, same console - just initiated by the agent rather than the customer.
Why Outbound Call matters
In Salesforce Service Cloud and CTI integrations, an Outbound Call is a phone call initiated by an agent to a customer, which can be placed via click-to-dial functionality from contact or case records within the Service Console. The call is logged automatically with the agent's user, the customer record, and timing information. This is the opposite of Inbound Calls (which arrive from customers) and is common in proactive outreach scenarios like follow-ups, sales prospecting, and case resolution callbacks.
Outbound calling is part of any contact center operation that does proactive customer contact. Service Cloud Voice and Open CTI integrations both support outbound calling with click-to-dial, automatic logging, and call disposition tracking. Mature contact centers measure outbound call activity alongside inbound to get a complete view of agent productivity and customer interaction patterns. Combined with dialing modes (manual, preview, predictive), outbound calling can scale from individual reach-outs to high-volume telemarketing operations.
How organizations use Outbound Call
Uses click-to-dial for outbound case follow-ups, with calls automatically logged to the case record.
Combines outbound and inbound call metrics for a complete view of agent productivity.
Built outbound calling workflows for proactive customer health checks, with disposition tracking on each call.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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Q1. What is an Outbound Call?
Q2. How are outbound calls typically initiated?
Q3. What's logged on outbound calls?
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