How Bark adds 800 hours of weekly calling capacity with telli’s AI agents

About

Bark is a global services marketplace used by more than 1.5 million professionals, facilitating over 15 million interactions. It connects users with local experts across hundreds of categories, and gives providers a reliable way to grow their businesses. Bark’s proprietary technology has earned the company a spot on The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and investment from EMK Capital.

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Challenge

Scaling Bark’s outreach without adding headcount

Bark operates on a simple model: customers share the services they need, and Bark matches them with local professionals. This helps customers quickly connect with qualified, interested professionals while giving providers access to more targeted, high-intent opportunities.

As the marketplace expanded globally, Executive General Manager John Oberlin-Harris saw a gap emerging: many professionals would sign up for the platform, but often paused before taking the next step of purchasing credits.

Bark enables providers to review every opportunity for free, requiring payment only for contact details if a lead appears worthwhile. However, even with this level of control, professionals understandably wanted to talk through the business case and what to expect before spending their own money.

John knew that the pay-per-lead model at the core of Bark only works if every request is detailed and fresh. But customer requests often came in missing key details, which made them less likely to be matched or attract bids.

John’s team would reach out to providers and customers to provide support and fill in the gaps. But expanding their efforts through manual outreach ultimately wasn’t going to be possible at a scale that made sense for the business.

That’s when John began exploring AI call automation options. “We tested a developer platform for Voice AI, but it was slower, and we weren’t benefiting from proven models or other customers’ learnings.” John realized he’d rather work with a hands-on partner who could help Bark move faster and scale.

After a connection shared that they were using telli agents for phone-based workflows, John took a closer look at the platform. It was clear that telli represented a practical way to expand early outreach without adding to his team’s workload.

“We knew there was more we could do to support both customers and professionals, but we couldn’t justify hiring an army of people to test those ideas. The unit economics and the operational overhead just weren’t there.”

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Solution

Building scalable workflows with AI-powered phone calls

The partnership began with internal testing. After telli was quickly integrated with Bark's backend through telli's native Zapier integration, John and his team placed test calls to themselves to hear how the agent sounded, how it handled questions, and whether the conversations felt natural.

Even in these early trials, the agent performed well with minimal prompting. John shares, “What surprised me most was how good the agent was on the first pass. I expected to have to do much more work to get things right, but it was already 80 percent of the way to what we needed.”

From there, Bark went on to launch agents for their two main user journeys:

• Provider activation and reactivation agent: Reaches out to new service providers to introduce the platform, answer common questions, collect key details, and schedule time with a sales rep if more help is needed, and to close the sale. With telli agents handling early outreach, reps concentrate on providers who are ready for meaningful conversations and closer to taking action.
• Job clarification agent: Contacts users to confirm ongoing interest and gather any missing details. The agent reissues the request with clearer context (helping professionals focus on active, well-qualified leads) or closes the request (keeping outdated jobs off the marketplace).

Depending on the audience, Bark employs tailored telli agent styles. Providers receive a more direct, business-focused tone, while customers hear a more helpful, guidance-oriented voice. To support global platforms like Bark, telli offers authentic voices with multiple accents and enables time zone management at the contact level, allowing Bark to reach prospects when they’re most likely to answer regardless of their location. This localization ensures each group is engaged in a way that matches their needs and expectations.

Bark is also exploring SMS integration with telli to create multi-channel workflows. For example, when prospects express interest during a call, the system can send follow-up SMS messages. This multi-channel approach, combining AI voice agents with text messaging, ensures prospects can engage in the way that works best for them, while keeping the entire journey automated and scalable.

Thanks to the telli team’s responsiveness, John and his team can test and refine workflow and prompt changes in days instead of weeks. Bark’s partnership with telli has created an ongoing source of improvements across the marketplace.

“telli agents let us shift the team’s time to the conversations that matter. We can scale the work without scaling our headcount.”

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Results

Bark cuts cost per contact by 70% with telli

With a more consistent, scalable way to handle early outreach, Bark keeps its workflow moving while still meeting rising demand. These improvements translate directly into measurable results:

• 800 hours of calling capacity added each week
• 25% increase in connection rate
• 70% reduction in cost per contact

Looking ahead, Bark expects to bring its telli-supported workflows into more regions, starting with provider onboarding and customer request refinement. John sees these expansions shaping how the next wave of customers and providers discover and grow with Bark.

“telli gives Bark a new lever for growth by making phone-based workflows scalable across markets without adding hundreds of people.”