Many businesses reach out to current and potential customers to introduce new products or services; announce upcoming events or discounts; and conduct market research. These tasks are nearly impossible to accomplish at scale without using auto dialer software.
Understanding the pros and cons of this technology can help you make better decisions about how your business communicates with customers. Here’s a look at auto dialer systems, how they work, and what power, preview, and predictive dialers entail.
What is an Auto Dialer?
An auto dialer is a device or software that automatically calls numbers, determines whether or not a live person picked up the call, and if so, plays a pre-recorded message or directs the call to an available representative. Because the system has to decide whether the call was picked up, the consumer often hears “dead air” after saying “hello” and before a live representative greets them. Simply put, it’s a faster way to dial but is an apparent sales call technique, which is why they often have negative results.
Types of Auto Dialers
There are three types of auto dialers.
Preview Dialers
Preview dialers help your representatives to either place an outgoing call or skip specific telephone numbers. A preview dialer allows your representatives to preview different customer data before placing the outbound call to them. Having live access to customer information can help your team plan outbound calling techniques and personalize current or prospective customer interactions.
However, if you are most interested in allowing your agents to contact many customers in a short period of time, preview dialers are not the best choice. Instead, preview dialers are used to operate outbound marketing campaigns on a smaller scale to yield more results from the process. Preview dialers make it easier for agents to handle more complex customer inquiries. This type of dialer works best when you have a predetermined list of leads who have already been guided down your business’s sales funnel.
Power and Progressive Dialers
A power dialer, also sometimes called a progressive dialer, calls one phone number after another to save agent time. There is no mathematical sequence for the numbers chosen. A power dialer is more productive than a preview dialer because it allows agents to maximize the number of connections made with customers. Power dialers minimize the number of silent or abandoned calls.
This dialer type works best when your contact list is large enough to need auto dialing, but you still want the customers to have an individualized customer care experience. Your team will be able to contact prospective customers quickly without dropping calls.
Predictive Dialers
A predictive dialer dials phone numbers from a database based on a mathematical formula of agent availability. Due to this calculation, predictive dialers are the most effective out of these types of auto dialer software mentioned here, as they can enhance the connections between customers and representatives.
If a company chooses to utilize predictive dialers, there must be enough available agents to minimize the number of silent or abandoned calls. Most cloud-hosted predictive dialer software comes with bonus features to help businesses dial the customer contact number at the best time. They can also help managers limit abandoned calls and control both the dialing rate and speed.
This type of call is most commonly used in telemarketing, market research, debt collection, and customer service follow-up. Also, some lead-qualification representatives use predictive dialers to enhance time spent on the phone with leads during outbound sales calls.
Pros of an Auto Dialer
Now that you know what an autodialer is, it’s time to learn more about the positive benefits of incorporating one into your business strategies.
#1. Faster Outbound Calls
Without an auto dialer, your agents would need to dial each customer number manually. This wastes lots of time and can often be challenging to decide which numbers are best to call . Auto dialing software can boost your business’s efficiency and productivity and improve agent morale since they do not spend time doing mundane dialing.
Auto dialers can also direct calls to live representatives when a prospective customer picks up the call. This makes it much easier for your agents to personalize the customer experience and boost customer engagement and satisfaction. Some autodialers can maximize agent productivity, as well as improve their call connection ratio.
#2. Boost Sales
Preview dialers allow agents to have access to the most up-to-date customer information before interacting with them. This information helps the call agent best decide how to personalize the conversation and best guide the call. These personalized interactions between representatives and customers make it much easier to keep the customer engaged and possibly sell them on the product at hand. Many companies utilize preview dialers to increase sales and convert leads to valued customers.
#3. Limit Agent Wait Time
Preview and power dialers are a type of auto-dialing software that makes outbound calls using a one-to-one ratio. Predictive dialers are designed to allow agents to handle a maximum amount of calls in a short period of time. Most auto dialers use mathematical sequences to decide when the best time to initiate a call would be.
Because of this, auto dialers will dial the number before an agent becomes available; when the agent is completed with the previous call, the next call is queued up. Many companies are utilizing auto dialers to increase the time agents interact with new and existing customers. Using this software limits agent idle or wait time. Thus, agent productivity and efficiency are boosted, and agents feel better equipped to handle connected calls.
Cons of an Auto Dialer
While auto dialers are incredibly useful, there are some drawbacks that you should consider.
#1. Inaccurate Caller Detection
Many think that auto dialers can detect answering machines, voicemails, and inactive numbers by using voice recognition technologies. The system uses the technology to only route connected calls to live agents. However, most auto-dialer software uses simple voice recognition technology. This technology sometimes does not differentiate between human voices and electronic voicemail. So on occasion, the software will route voicemails s to live agents.
#2. Employee Requirements
Some auto dialers call customers mathematically, and direct answer calls to the next available representative. However, since most organizations rely on predictive dialers and their sequences to decide when to begin the next call, an organization needs to have an adequate number of representatives available to handle the power of predictive dialers to its greatest capacity. Auto-dialer software cannot run outgoing voice campaigns efficiently with just limited agents available.
#3. Predictive Sequences Need Tweaking over Time
Most predictive dialers use mathematical sequences to determine when a representative will handle the next outgoing call. Only then can auto dialer software help guarantee that the representative is handling the maximum number of calls.
However, sometimes, the sequences often make the auto dialer make new calls without actually checking live agent availability. This creates customer frustration and increases the chance that the customer will disconnect the call; thus, losing a potential customer or sale.
Regardless of which system you choose, auto dialing is easy to implement. The right VoIP provider can help you set up an auto dialing system that meets your business needs and supports an excellent experience for your customers.
Thanks to integrations with business applications like Microsoft Teams and SalesForce, your agents will have immediate access to the information they need to seamlessly interact with each customer, maximizing sales and productivity.
