Somewhere in your business is a spreadsheet, a CRM, or a shoebox of job sheets holding the names and numbers of every customer you have ever served. Most NZ businesses treat that list like an archive. It is not an archive. It is the cheapest revenue you will ever generate, because the hard part, earning their trust, is already done.
The reason it sits untouched is simple: ringing 180 people is a full day of someone's time, and nobody on your team wants the job. That excuse just expired. Talkify's outbound calling agent rings your list in a natural Kiwi voice, has a real conversation with everyone who picks up, and hands you back the results sorted by who said yes.
What a campaign actually looks like
You upload a CSV of names and numbers. You type a goal in plain English: "check how customers from last winter are getting on and book anyone due a service". You set a calling window, say weekdays 10am to 6pm, a daily cap and a retry limit. Then you press launch and go back to work.
The agent dials. People who answer get a warm, unhurried conversation, not a robocall recording. People who do not answer get a voicemail you wrote, with their own name in it, and a retry inside the window. Someone says "ring me Tuesday"? The retry lands Tuesday. Someone says "take me off the list"? They go on your do-not-call list from inside the call.
After every conversation the AI reads the transcript against your goal and files the person: hot lead, warm, not interested, callback requested, with sentiment, a two-line summary and a recommended next step. You watch the dashboard fill in real time, then export the lot.
Five lists worth ringing this month
- Last winter's heat pump customers. Ring them in May about a pre-winter service. The agent books them straight into your calendar. Your June is now scheduled in an afternoon.
- Lapsed clients. Anyone who has not been back in a year gets a friendly "we've missed you, here's what's new". A consistent slice of every lapsed list comes straight back when prompted; the rest tell you exactly why they left, which is market research you would have paid for.
- Finished jobs. A satisfaction call 48 hours after every job. Unhappy customers vent to the agent instead of to Google, and you get the heads-up the same hour. Happy ones get a text link to leave a review while the glow is fresh.
- Quotes that went quiet. Every tradie has a folder of sent-and-silent quotes. One polite follow-up call resurrects a startling share of them, and the agent flags exactly which ones are still in play.
- Your whole database, when something changes. New premises, new service, price change, AGM. One afternoon of calls replaces an email nobody opens.
The maths
| Staff member | Telemarketing room | Talkify outbound | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 calls, ~2 min each | A full day of wages, if it ever happens | Hourly rates per agent, minimum campaign sizes | ~$50 in call charges at the 25c/min volume rate |
| Voicemails and retries | Inconsistent | Extra | Automatic, personalised, scheduled |
| What you get back | Scribbled notes | A tick-box spreadsheet, later | Transcripts, sentiment, classifications, hot-leads list, CSV |
| Who it interrupts | Your best people | Nobody, but neither does it sound like you | Nobody, and it runs your script in your tone |
Outgoing calls need at least one business plan agent on your account (from $129/month at the founding rate), and the per-minute rate is the entire usage bill: 25c a minute once you reach 200 minutes, or 50c a minute for smaller runs. No per-contact fees, no per-response fees, no campaign minimums.
The same agent answers your inbound calls too. That matters more than it sounds: when your campaign triggers callbacks, they land on a phone that is answered 24/7 by an agent that already knows the campaign context. The loop closes itself.
Done politely, or not at all
Outbound only works if your customers do not mind receiving it. That is why the guardrails are built in: do-not-call lists honoured automatically, calls only inside your set window and timezone, daily caps, retry limits, and a tool designed for ringing your own customers rather than scraped strangers. The conversations land warmly because the people already know you.
Start with one list
Pick the easiest win: last year's customers who are due back. Build the campaign in an afternoon on the survey engine, or read the full outbound calls rundown. Want to hear the voice first? Have it call you, then check pricing and set up your agent.
Stop reading. Talk to it.
Call our Talkify Airline demo line or get a free demo agent on your own NZ number. No card needed.