Today, many businesses use telephones to contact existing and potential customers for various reasons for introducing new products, promoting products, announcing deals, and conducting market research surveys. Providing outbound call agents with sophisticated automated dialers or auto dialer software, enterprises can run campaigns of diverse kinds and scales.
An auto dialer software accesses a database or directory list of telephone numbers by dialing them automatically and consecutively. This then switches to only connecting calls to help agents recognize busy tones, voicemails, responding machines, isolated phone numbers, and unproductive numbers.
By choosing from progressive dialers, preview dialers, and predictive dialers, businesses will further enhance agent efficiency and drive more outbound call campaigns. It’s even possible to use new outbound tools for multiple campaigns using auto-dialers as the outbound tools. Many campaigns in outbound call centers focus on producing new leads, following up and nurturing existing leads, performing market research and surveys, and other activities that can adversely affect the campaign’s results if manual dialing is used.
Agents employing manual dialing typically have 15-20 minutes of talk time per hour since they waste most of their time punching in numbers, terminating calls, and dealing with busy tones. It’s operationally viable for a call center to install an autodialer offered by third-party companies, like Call Cowboy, since it doubles agents’ productivity by increasing the talk time per hour, which is more than double its prior performance, reducing idle time.
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How do Auto Dialer Software works?
Setting up an automated dialing system is easy. There are typically no other requirements than dialer software, a computer, a voice modem, and a telephone line. One of the reasons why using VoIP is more convenient is that the modem can be discarded. The software used to handle auto-dialing first tells the computer what numbers to auto-dial and what to do when it receives an unwanted phone call (such as a busy signal or an auto voicemail).
Moreover, the software determines what number to call and how long to talk before the phone system connects. Phones are answered generally in 25 seconds, which is the same duration as it takes for a four-ringed phone to ring four times. Calls that go unanswered are forwarded to voicemail. Busy signals are dismissed as well.
A dialing system uses the following key technologies:
1. Voice broadcast
This system is used primarily for marketing and sales calls, which work by auto-dialing with a prerecorded voice message. Marketing companies can save money by using prerecorded messages instead of live operators when making their sales pitches.
A marketing firm can offer a pressing key option for a live representative using interactive voice response (IVR). An easy way to use voice broadcasts is for notifications and reminders. Text-to-speech technology can provide automated notifications and customized reminders.
2. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Incoming callers can access information from prerecorded messages with interactive voice response (IVR) without speaking to an agent or pulling up a menu. Your clients can communicate with specific departments and specialists via the touch-tone keypad or 0. An effective IVR system can help improve customer satisfaction and credibility of the customer service department. KPIs will be achieved with the support of this system.
When there’s a long queue of callers, an effective IVR system can provide customers with answers to perform simple tasks on their own, without holding them on the line. IVR technology can help route calls to the best call center agent to handle a customer’s inquiry in cases where they need or request to speak to someone. This results in happier customers.
3. Answering machine detection
This setting determines whether a machine answers the call or if it’s answered by a person. Users can pick what action to take when the machine answers their call. To accomplish that, a detection time of a minimum of five seconds must be attained. You can choose whether to mute the call or continue to play your message to your end users’ mailboxes if a machine is detected.
The detection mechanism interprets an utter lack of noise after the call is answered as an object. On the other hand, any noise detected after the call has been answered will be interpreted as human (considering that most noise scenarios are natural persons).
4. Call routing
The software responds accordingly once it recognizes an answering machine or a person. With it, calls are queued up and distributed among teams of agents. Contact centers use call routing to manage high volumes of incoming calls, unlike call forwarding. Your business phone system or call center can benefit a great deal from call routing. Faster help desks ensure quicker resolutions to customer problems, resulting in a positive customer experience. Additionally, it can improve agent productivity by improving workflow operations.
Below are the pros and cons of auto dialer software for call center and related companies:
Pros:
1. Reduces idle time
In both progressive dialers and preview dialers, outbound calls can be conducted directly with the agent. However, with predictive dialers, agents can manage more outbound calls in an expedited time. Predictive algorithms will be implemented for the auto-dialer system to determine the appropriate time for the call to be placed. This way, the auto-dialer will still answer the next call even before an agent is available.
Some call centers nowadays use predictive dialers so that their agents talk for as long as possible without anyone waiting. Auto dialers also enable agents to be more productive because they can only handle linked calls.
2. Available in different types
Businesses have many options for utilizing auto dialer software, depending on their needs. Each of these auto dialers picks up each phone number automatically at a pre-determined number and forwards all calls to actual agents. The critical difference between these types is their dialing modes.
Progressive dialers use predictive algorithms to increase the number of calls connected, while preview dialers help agents dial outbound calls before launching a new ad campaign. The requirements and goals of each marketing campaign make it easier for companies to pick the right auto dialer software.
3. Speeds up outbound calls
It takes extra time and energy for agents to manually dial telephone numbers. Also, they have trouble distinguishing between active and unproductive phone numbers. By dialing telephone numbers automatically, the auto dialer software helps call centers boost operation efficiency.
Furthermore, agents can only be assigned with answered calls. Thus, they can better improve customer engagement by just focusing on personalized customer experiences. These predictive dialers also improve agent productivity by maximizing call connection probabilities.
4. Runs multiple campaigns at the same time
The new generation of auto dialers is designed to have multiple functions. The features make it possible for businesses to run and manage various campaigns in organized and productive ways. Marketing campaigns can be tracked in real-time, allowing managers to generate reports on their performance.
In addition to boosting marketing campaigns, the auto dialer software automatically adjusts time zones for each campaign, transfers calls to various devices, manages contact lists, and supports CRM connectivity.
5. Makes customer database more organized
Using precise application programming interfaces (APIs), a company could make their auto dialer system work smoothly with their existing CRM system. Businesses can update customer details automatically as a result of the integration.
Software that manages leads and contacts enable marketers to work more effectively with clients and prospects. With these features, agents can restructure outbound calls according to previous call history. A sales agent can also use real-time data for preparing follow-up lists, as well as monitor and check leads.
6. Generates more leads
Businesses can obtain more leads using auto-dialers. Since less time is spent conversing with an agent, it’s easier for telemarketers to connect with more customers and prospects. Sophisticated dialers even provide a set of self-service options for efficiently collecting customer information.
Managing leads can be more straightforward with contact imports from different resources and databases. By increasing the number of phone connections, they can generate leads, with high chances of being converted into sales.
7. Converts more sales
Preview dialers allow agents to review and check additional information about a caller before interacting with them. Before handling outbound calls, the agent can use updated information to control the conversation in customized approaches. It’s easier for agents to engage customers through personalized interactions. Businesses that sell to other companies use preview dialers to help gather higher-value leads.
8. Makes reports efficiently
Businesses evaluate and assess the quality of outbound call center service using several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The company measures individual agents’ productivity based on the number of calls and the number of questions they answer.
Managers can produce sophisticated reports based on real-time information via a seamless interface using cloud-based auto dialer systems. The statements made by managers of agents could be used to assess their performance and effectiveness. This will make the tasks of managers more straightforward and more convenient, as well as help, motivate agents to work in their best efforts and conditions.
9. Effectively launches Press 1 Campaigns
Customers can gather product or service information from auto dialers without having to speak with live agents. Businesses can further enhance lead generation by providing customers the option to talk to an agent only after the audio is played and listened to.
The agents will communicate with the callers by following through the right button to be pressed. Press 1 campaigns can be launched by businesses to promote their products and services, gather crucial leads, and possibly convert them to sales.
10. Improves operational efficiency
With the implementation of the auto-dialing system, the need for manual dialing will cease. Several call constraints, such as misdialing, excessive wait times, call drops, and decreasing operational efficiency, are eliminated by automated dialer software systems. Auto dialers detect busy signals, voicemails, and non-serviceable numbers. They ensure connected calls are routed to the agents, thus increasing the call connections ratio. With more connected calls, agents work more efficiently; thus, they become more productive.
Cons:
1. Possibility of inaccurate detections of answering machines
Auto dialers could assess answering machines, identify voicemails, and check phone numbers using voice recognition technologies. Only connected calls are routed to live agents using voice recognition technology. But, many auto dialer programs use voice recognition software that can’t tell human beings from answering machines.
Despite calls going to the answering machine, these calls are often routed to live agents. However, the new and sophisticated voice recognition software used in the new generation of auto dialers finds answering machines and voicemails intelligently. This disadvantage can be eliminated through such innovations.
2. Probable problems with predictive algorithms
A predictive dialer works by determining when an agent can handle your outbound call using specialized algorithms. A business can connect with more customers with the auto-dialer software by using predictive algorithms.
Often, however, the dialer doesn’t verify agent availability before routing connected calls. Many callers disconnect their calls as they’re still queued. Today, more sophisticated auto dialer software uses an innovative algorithm to determine when to reach a customer. Thus, this downside can be avoided.
3. May require more manpower
A customer’s auto dialer calls a sequential number, and the next agent available answers the call. A predictive dialer uses algorithms to decide on when to call next. An organization that utilizes predictive dialers must deploy additional agents. Outbound voice campaigns can’t be conducted efficiently with a relatively small number of call agents.
Nowadays, fortunately, outbound calls are initiated intelligently by auto-dialers using advanced predictive algorithms. These tools allow businesses to have multiple marketing campaigns in a flexible and customized fashion.
Conclusion
Auto dialers have their pros and cons, like any other outbound call center tool. Businesses can choose the right kind of autodialer to use when running marketing campaigns. The company can also leverage cloud-hosted auto dialer software to run different marketing campaigns at the same time while reducing upfront and ongoing infrastructure costs. Auto dialers in the cloud come with sophisticated features to go way beyond the limitations of auto-dialers and serve as a universal outbound tool. Utilize these types of systems and take advantage of all the benefits mentioned above.
