A Complete Guide to Call Center Dialer

An omnichannel contact center solution is a radical business tool for call centers. It often comes with modern and advanced features to empower inbound, outbound, and blended calling campaigns. The call center dialer is one of the major features available in this software to support outbound campaigns in general. It can improve the value of inbound and blended campaigns, too. It means it is a general purpose and widespread system benefiting call centers to improve performance metrics.

In this blog post, we will explore details about the call center dialers with some really interesting insight.

In this blog, we have covered:

1. What is a dialer in a call center?
2. How many types of dialers are available in the call center software?
3. What are the major types of auto dialers?
4. Which is the best call center dialer for a call center?
5. Why is it important to have a dialer in a call center?
6. How to choose the right dialer for your call center?
7. Conclusion

Let’s delve deeper into this interesting and insightful subject matter.

1. What is a dialer in a call center?

In general, a dialer is an automated system integrated into a call center solution to automate the process of making outbound calls. The automated process is often considered a boon because it eliminates the need to manually retrieve phone numbers from the database or list and make calls. In fact, some call center dialer systems are extremely intelligent such as predictive dialing and use different algorithms to automatically dial and connect the call to customers which leads to improved values of various KPIs.

This process can also be manual, which lets agents make calls manually using a dial pad. As this system is so much popular along with having as one of the features in on-premise or cloud call center software, it is also available as an independent dialing software solution.

The major goal converted by the call center dialers is to improve the efficiency of an important process of connecting agents with the customers or leads in call centers. This helps in improving various KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for a business. This is the reason the adoption rate of this software is quite high.

This feature is also referred to as sales dialer solution, phone dialer, call center dialer software, and several other names. But ultimately, each name signifies the same software.

2. How many types of dialers are available in the call center software?

In general, a call center dialer can be of two types:

A.       Automated and

B.       Manual

Due to the massive popularity of automated dialers, when people refer to call center dialer software, they refer to the automated system. There are multiple types of automated dialers in the contact center. Depending on the provider of the software, one can have a different number of dialing options in their software.

3. What are the major types of auto dialers?

As mentioned, the number of dialers may vary depending on the provider and the dialing software you use. However, there are 4 major types of call center dialers that you must consider if you are wondering whether to upgrade your existing system or want to get the new call center dialer software.

A. Auto dialer

It is one of the most basic types of automated dialers available in the software. As the name suggests, it automatically dials the numbers in a sequence one by one. It waits for an agent to finish his or her ongoing call. Once the agent gives the signal, this dialer for call centers retrieves the number from the list and dials it automatically. The agent will listen to the dialing tone, ringing phone, etc., and wait until the customer attends the call. In case the customer cannot be reached, the whole process will be repeated for the next number.

Benefits and drawbacks of auto dialer:

Benefits

·         It saves time for agents from manual dialing.

·         It eliminates man made errors of dialing phones automatically.

Drawbacks

·         Even if it is an automated dialing system, it is quite slow compared to other types of dialers.

B. Predictive dialer

It is also referred to as a rapid dialer because it rapidly dials numbers. It is the most advanced form of call center dialer. Unlike other dialer types, this is the most intelligent phone dialer. The reason is it can generate a prediction ratio that identifies the average dialing time and pick up time of the customer. It also predicts the average talk time of agents. Depending on that it creates a predictive dialing ratio and dials multiple numbers. It is the only dialer for call centers that dials multiple numbers in one go to connect with the client. Moreover, it is the only automated dialing system that dials the phone number even before the availability of agents. As soon as an agent is available for the next call, this dialer will have the next call ready for that agent.

It means there are some amazing functionalities associated with this dialing system and it is not available with any other dialer in a call center system. It can also detect answering machines, busy tones, unreachable numbers, etc., and based on that dials the next slot of phone numbers to be available with a call connected to a human.

Benefits and drawbacks of predictive dialer:

Benefits

·         It can accelerate the productivity of agents to another level.

·         It can save a lot of time for agents.

·         It speeds up the dialing process and increases the reach rate.

·         It can increase major KPIs like the number of calls per agent, average talk time, average connection rate, etc. It also reduces the average idle time for agents to add up to the dialing rate.

·         It helps in boosting the overall performance of all agents along with individual agents.

·         It can increase the performance of a campaign and call center.

·         It increases goal conversion like leads, sales, collection, and more.

Drawbacks

·         It may increase the call abandoned rate if the agent does not connect to the call immediately after a customer is connected.

·         It can contribute to the negative brand image if not used correctly.

·         It may increase the pressure and stress on agents, which may lead to reduced morale and motivation.

·         In some countries, the use of predictive dialing is abided by legislation and may lead to some legal consequences.

C. Preview dialer

As the name suggests, this call center dialer shows the preview of the lead to be contacted. This makes it unique in its type and beneficial in some specific types of outbound campaigns. It is not a 100% automatic dialer because it has an added step to be taken by an agent to make an automatic call. Once the agent shows the availability to take the next call, this automatic dialer will retrieve one number from the contact list. Moreover, it will fetch the basic or vital details about that lead from the dialer in call centers or if the system is integrated with a CRM system, it will fetch details from the CRM system. These details of the lead will be shown to an agent to study the lead to be contacted and prepare himself or herself for that call. The agent also has an option to “Accept” or “Skip” the call. On clicking the “Accept” option, this dialing system will automatically dial the call and once the human is connected, it will assign it to the agent. In case, if an agent clicks on the “Skip” button, then the system will skip that lead for that agent and may assign it to another agent. For this agent, it will repeat the process of retrieving the next number and its information to show in a preview window.

The advanced preview dialer will have 2 added options called dialing time for the agent as briefed below:

·         Timeout dialing. It means for a specific time period the preview of the lead will be displayed to the agent. Once the timeout happens, the number will be automatically dialed by the system. In this case, an agent may or may not have the skip option.

·         Selection based dialing. It is a common preview dialing mode in which the agent is not abided by the time limit. Depending on his or her own pace, one can choose to dial the number or skip it. It means the agent can read the preview for an unlimited time period.

Benefits and drawbacks of preview dialer:

Benefits

·         Reviewing previews for customers can help in gaining insight into the lead with whom the agent will have a discussion. This can give the required morale boost and knowledge to convert more leads into sales.

·         It can make more goal conversions.

·         It boosts the morale of agents.

Drawbacks

·         It can reduce the dialing pace compared to other auto dialing options.

·         It may reduce agent productivity.

·         It may be a waste of time.

·         It may result in the wrong usage of resources by agents.

D. Progressive dialer

It is another fundamental automated dialer available in the auto dialing software or solutions for call centers. It also waits for agents to show availability to take the next call and once agents show the green signal, it retrieves the phone number in a progressive manner and dials the next number. The advanced progressive dialer can identify an interactive voice response system, answering machine, etc.

Benefits and drawbacks of progressive dialer:

Benefits

·         It reduces the number of dropped calls.

·         It improves customer experience.

·         It boosts the morale of agents.

·         It increases productivity moderately.

Drawbacks

·         It can waste some resources as the process is slow.

·         It may connect to the customer when they are not ready to have a conversation.

·         It may increase the callback request ratio.

E. Power dialer

It is a basic auto dialer, but with an advanced algorithm. Instead of waiting for an agent to show availability, this system will dial the next number as soon as the agent hangs up an ongoing call. It means the agent might still be doing the disposition or admin job after completing the call, but meanwhile, this dialer in call centers will automatically dial the next number. As soon as an agent is available, a power dialer will also be available with the next call already connected to a human. This dialing system can also detect answering machines, voicemails, etc., and bypass those calls.

Benefits and drawbacks of power dialer:

Benefits

·         It increases the number of calls per hour.

·         It increases agent to customer dialing ratio.

·         It increases agent productivity.

·         It increases performance and resource utilization in a call center.

Drawbacks

·         Agents may have some wait time for the next call, which would affect overall productivity.

·         It may increase the call drop ratio.

4. Which is the best call center dialer for a call center?

In general, predictive dialing is considered to be the best dialer for call centers as it can increase multiple KPIs. Even if there is a risk of increased abandoned and drop call rate, there is always an option to automatically or manually control the predictive dialing pace to reduce the negative impact of predictive dialing. However, this might not be true in all cases. Each dialer has its own pros and cons, as well as applications in a call center. Thus, depending on the business needs, goals to be targeted, and nature of the campaign, a dialer can be the best call center dialer. You can read the top guides about selecting the right dialer for your business or you can choose to experiment with different dialers for campaigns to review, which one works the best for you and your campaigns.

5. Why is it important to have a dialer in a call center?

Due to multiple reasons, it is necessary to have a dialer in the call center. The basic need for implementing a dialing system in the call center is to increase the overall performance of the business, agents, and campaigns.

Let’s understand the real importance of the dialer based on the example backed by the statistics. As per the statistical result shared by Hubspot, on average a sales agent makes 8 cold calls to reach a real prospect. The same statistical result also mentions that on average, 15% of the time the agents get spent leaving voicemail messages. This signifies that each month, a call center wastes around 36 hours every month. This is a huge loss for a call center as this is a complete waste of time and resources.

Different call center dialers can boost not only the calling rate, but it can also identify voicemails and answering machines and bypass them for agents. That means a majority of the time agents get connected with a human. In the case of using a predictive dialer, it removes all calls that are not connected to the agents and only connects human attended calls to the agents to make agents more productive and resourceful. Depending on the target audience type and type of dialer used, the system can reap benefits for call centers. This makes it necessary to use them in any call center.

6. How to choose the right dialer for your call center?

A manual dialer is chosen based on various factors such as:

• When an agent receives a lead during a live call and wants to dial it immediately.
• When an agent does not have the right to add a number to the lead list.
• When an agent is instructed to do so.

The selection of the right automated dialer is not as straightforward as it is for a manual dialer. There are some really vital driving factors that one needs to keep in mind to choose the right dialer for a call center. The following are the top factors to keep in mind to select the best auto dialer to maximize returns:

• Campaign objective: collection, cold calling, sales, customer care, survey, lead generation, etc.
• Total manpower: Available agents, active agents, active supervisors, etc.
• Customer Avatar: Existing clients, prospects, reference leads, cold leads, defaulters, etc.
• Type of lead source: Website, old database, reference, existing customer base, etc.

All these factors need to be compared together for the selection of the best dialer. For example, you have more than 100 active agents and a sales database collected from a third party website for cold calling. Your customers are strangers. In this case, using a predictive dialer can be the most beneficial option.

You can refer to the online articles that give detailed information about each dialer and the best use cases of that dialer along with considering tips shared in this article. You can also run an experimental auto dialing campaign with two campaigns and the same segment of leads to monitor which gives you the best results.

7. Conclusion

The dialing system is amazing in its all forms and it actually benefits call centers. This is the reason it has become necessary to use them in all outbound campaigns. They can also be used in some selective inbound and blended campaigns depending on the nature of the business and campaign. Even a manual dialer has a vital role to play in the call center.

The function of retrieving numbers and making calls is just one part performed by this system. There can be multiple other jobs that this dialing system can do in association with other features available in the software such as showing a call script to agents, recording calls, using CTI features during a live call, using soundboard Avatars, and more.

Elision Technologies have the best call center dialers integrated into its topmost contact center solution, which is popularly known as DialShree. DialShree has amazing and advanced dialers that have already backed different call centers to improve major KPIs and overall performance and revenue. You can experience how they make a real difference in the lives of their users in a live demo and live Q&A session with our business development team. So what are you waiting for? Book a Free Demo Now!