What Does the Average Outbound Operation
Look Like in 2026?

It connects just under 7% of its dials. Across more than 35 million outbound dials from our US client operations over the last 90 days, the median contact centrecontact center connected just under 7% of dials, the top quartile cleared 9%, and the best floor in the portfolio ran above 20%. Here is the real, anonymised data.

Under 7%

Median connect rate

35M+

Outbound dials analysed

90

Days of data

5pm

Strongest connect hour

How these numbers were built

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Where the Portfolio Stands

90 days, a portfolio of US operations, more than 35 million dials. Rates are medians across operations, with the middle half of the portfolio shown as a band.

Under 7%
Median connect rate

Live connects as a share of all outbound dials, per operation: the median floor connects just under 7%. Half the portfolio sits above that line, half below.

3.5% to 9%+
The middle half

The 25th percentile of operations sits around 3.5% and the 75th just above 9%. The best floor in the portfolio connected above 20% of dials over the same window.

Around 2.5%
Median abandon rate

Abandons as a share of live answered calls, the way the regulators measure it, across the operations with full abandon capture. The median operation runs inside the 3% cap, and the best-run floors hold it near 1%.

5–6pm
Peak connect window

In the operation's local time. Late morning and late afternoon both out-perform, with the strongest window toward 5pm local. The first hour of the day is consistently the weakest.

Success-per-connect is intentionally not published: several floors define "success" differently (sale, appointment, transfer) and the definitions are not comparable across operations.

Connect Rate by Hour of Day

The classic question, answered with well over ten million dials: each operation's hourly connect rate, indexed to its own 90-day average (100 = average), then the median taken across operations. Hours are each operation's local time.

Median connect-rate index by local hour

100 = the operation's own average · operations with verified local-time mapping · 90-day window

Connect rate by hour of day, indexed to each operation's average Approximate index values by hour: 8am 82, 9am 86, 10am 96, 11am 104, 12pm 108, 1pm 109, 2pm 93, 3pm 100, 4pm 106, 5pm 114, 6pm 90, 7pm 80. 80 90 avg 100 110 120 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 82 109 peak 114 80

Two windows do the heavy lifting. Late morning through lunch runs comfortably above the operation's average, and late afternoon runs higher still, with the strongest window toward 5pm local. The first hour of the day is consistently the weakest, and there is a real post-lunch dip around 2pm. 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.

View the data
Local hourMedian connect-rate index (approx., 100 = avg)
8am82
9am86
10am96
11am104
12pm108
1pm109
2pm93
3pm100
4pm106
5pm114
6pm90
7pm80

Three Real Trajectories

Connect rates don't improve by accident. These are real weekly series from three operations in the portfolio, anonymised and rounded, showing what disciplined diallerdialer work does over a quarter.

US mortgage & lending dialling operation

Weekly connect rate, consecutive weeks · around a million dials a week

US mortgage & lending operation: weekly connect rate over twelve consecutive weeks Approximate weekly values climb from 9.7 percent in week one to around 19 percent by weeks eleven and twelve. 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20% Week 1 Week 4 Week 7 Week 10 Week 12 9.7% 19.3%

Whilst working with AL Performance, this very high-volume US mortgage and lending operation lifted its weekly connect rate from around 10% to peaks above 19%, at essentially unchanged dial volumes of around a million dials a week. The work behind the curve was a dial-strategy and number-hygiene overhaul. Connect rate roughly doubled inside three months.

View the data
WeekConnect rate (approx.)
Week 19.7%
Week 210.1%
Week 312.7%
Week 415.6%
Week 516.7%
Week 615.5%
Week 716.5%
Week 816.5%
Week 917.9%
Week 1016.3%
Week 1119.3%
Week 1219.1%

US health-insurance contact centrecontact center

Weekly connect rate, consecutive weeks · hundreds of thousands to over a million dials a week

US health-insurance operation: weekly connect rate over thirteen consecutive weeks Approximate weekly values hold near 4.4 to 5.4 percent for eight weeks, then rise to a peak of 8.8 percent, ending around 8.4 percent. 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% Week 1 Week 4 Week 7 Week 10 Week 13 4.4% 8.8%

Whilst working with AL Performance, this large US health-insurance operation doubled its weekly connect rate, from the mid-4s to peaks near 9%, following a list-strategy and pacing overhaul. Notably, the lift came whilst reducing weekly dial volume: fewer, better-targeted attempts out-connected the brute-force approach.

View the data
WeekConnect rate (approx.)
Week 14.4%
Week 24.5%
Week 34.4%
Week 45.0%
Week 55.3%
Week 65.2%
Week 74.7%
Week 85.4%
Week 97.5%
Week 108.3%
Week 118.8%
Week 127.9%
Week 138.4%

US home-improvement dialling operation

Weekly connect rate, consecutive weeks · tens of thousands of dials a week

US home-improvement operation: weekly connect rate over seven consecutive weeks Approximate weekly values climb from 16.3 percent in week one to 26.3 percent in week seven. 14% 17% 20% 23% 26% Week 1 Week 3 Week 5 Week 7 16.3% 26.3%

Whilst working with AL Performance, this US home-improvement operation was already connecting above the portfolio median and kept pushing. Following a dial-strategy and lead-prioritisation overhaul, its weekly connect rate climbed from around 16% to above 26% at its peak, the strongest connect rate in the portfolio.

View the data
WeekConnect rate (approx.)
Week 116.3%
Week 214.7%
Week 322.4%
Week 421.4%
Week 522.8%
Week 623.8%
Week 726.3%

Connecting Under 7% of Your Dials?

You are not stuck there. Every trajectory above started below or barely above its own benchmark. None of the fixes required new software. They required diallerdialer discipline.

Measure it honestly first

Connects ÷ all dials, by week, by campaign. Most floors that think they connect 10% are counting a flattering subset. The benchmark above is the honest version. Compare like for like.

Work the proven levers

Number hygiene and rotation, campaign waterfall structure, pacing, list segmentation and dialling-window discipline. Every improvement curve on this page came from that toolkit, not from dialling harder.

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.

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