Gone are the days of having to type in number after number at call centers and waiting for potential customers to pick up.
Thanks to predictive dialer software, the jobs of customer service representatives have become that much easier and efficient, which in turn leads to an increase in production and a company getting the most bang for its buck.
That raises the question… What is a predictive dialer?
In its most basic form, a predictive dialer is a software that dials a list of phone numbers and then connects the answered calls to agents.
With a predictive dialer, agents don’t have to make phone calls and therefore look up numbers and manually dial them. That process is done by the software automatically.
That means human error is eliminated when it comes to an agent dialing a wrong number by mistake and therefore possibly burning a good lead. In the old system, an agent can only work as fast as he or she can dial numbers, which can, of course, lead to burnout from doing the same monotonous job over and over. With predictive dialer software, an agent can stick to what he or she specializes in, which is talking to real people and making sales.
A predictive dialer only connects an agent when a live person answers, which means agents are directly linked to a potential customer and no longer hit answering machines. This type of software can also dial more than one number at once, speeding up production.
Predictive dialers predict when agents will be free to take a call and dial a number on the agent’s behalf. Through algorithms, the dialer can predict when an agent is finishing a call so he or she can be connected with a new customer. Through this system, downtime is decreased, making agents more efficient and also accelerating sales. That’s because agents, in theory, will spend more time talking to customers as opposed to looking up and dialing numbers.
In fact, customer service representatives are said to be 200 to 300 percent more productive with dialers.
Predictive dialer software saves a company money because fewer outbound calls are needed and also fewer agents because agents are more productive and making more calls. On top of that, these dialers can help companies stay in compliance because it makes calls within the correct time window and time zone and supports per-US-state mandatory calling hours requirements. In a normal setting, an agent might not realize he or she is calling a customer when he or she shouldn’t be because of time zone differences and also because he or she is juggling many callers who might be in different states and time zones.
There are, unfortunately, some drawbacks of predictive dialers:
- The software might not prioritize leads and therefore not target the customers with the most potential or interest first.
- Dialers aren’t 100 percent accurate, so agents can still be connected to answering machines and disconnected numbers.
- Customers might be left on hold longer than anticipated because all agents are busy.
- Depending on how big or small your business is, the cost of this software might not outweigh the benefits.
For many companies, predictive dialer software is changing the way they do business and is making operations run smoother and more efficiently.
Plus, it’s cutting costs and making the jobs of customer service representatives more fulfilling because they’re talking on the phone more and no longer having to look up, dial numbers, and possibly reach voicemails or numbers that are no longer active.
Given all the advantages of predictive dialers, it’s hard to imagine a call center world in which companies don’t have this software.
