Outbound calling is an important aspect of customer service delivery for many businesses with fully capable call centers. And for businesses to stay competitive in their dialing campaigns, they need to utilize efficient predictive dialer software with advanced algorithms to increase the number of calls they’re making while still delivering a personalized, seamless customer experience. This means finding the right predictive dialer software that also has the most dialing modes to help fit into outbound use cases.
A predictive dialer is a kind of auto dialer that utilizes special algorithms to dial phone numbers on a contact list before the agent becomes available. This means that while the agent is busy in an after-interaction state or busy handling another call, the system can call ahead of the agent and ensure that the agent has live calls ready after they are done with their current customer interaction. Furthermore, a predictive dialer skips over unanswered calls, busy signals, or disconnected numbers to increase the number of connected calls an agent takes. Predictive dialers skip over unsuccessful calls and perform the next call on a list of numbers, meaning that an interaction will be ready for the agent to take once they are done with their current interaction. Depending on the platform, agents can leave voicemail or recorded messages on the customers answering machine with the option for the customer to call back when they are available. Adding the automation that predictive dialers provide to your outbound phone calls is critical to saving agents time and improving the efficiency of the CX your business delivers.
Predictive dialers are one type of dialer among many different dialing systems. There are many different types of dialer modes, and the best one to use for your business depends on use cases and workflow, and what your business is looking for during outbound interactions. Here are the popular types of dialer systems and what they are built for.
Dialer Type | Description | When to Use This Dialer |
Predictive Dialers | Designed for dialing numbers quickly, skipping over disconnected numbers or unanswered calls. Enables dialing multiple numbers at once to find an interaction that is ready to be taken once there is an agent available. Connects available agents to the next call in the queue when the agent finishes the current call. | Great for businesses that want to improve sales team contact rates and efficiency, and improve the chances of connecting with leads. Great for telemarketing as well. |
Preview Dialers | Agents are able to see the next call on the list and are able to see information depending on how comprehensive the CRM integration is. | Preview dialing is great for contact centers that need to perform high-value, extremely personalized interactions. It is for CX operations where agents need to thoroughly research the customer and tailor the experience specifically for them. |
Progressive Dialers | Automatically places another call once the first call is over. When an agent finishes an interaction, a progressive dialer dials the next number on the list. | Progressive dialing is best for businesses that are focused on obtaining quality leads rather than maximizing call volume. Focused on connecting customers to live agents that are able to have in-depth conversations about certain products or services. |
As seen in the table and the differences between the different ways to perform auto dialing, there are multiple dialing modes and choosing the right one is crucial to maximize efficiency in your call center solution.
A predictive dialer provides many benefits to the businesses that need to do outbound calling. Using a predictive dialer system improves agent productivity, decreases downtime, and improves various call metrics. Some of the benefits of utilizing predictive dialer include:
Predictive dialers, as well as other forms of dialer software, is a necessity in the contact center solutions you consider if you are looking to perform outbound sales and expand your business’s outreach while lowering negative metrics like abandon rate and idle time. Utilize these dialers to increase connection rates with customers, increase the number of calls answered, and streamline the sales process.
Integrating a customer record management system in your CX operations improves the functionality of your power dialer and opens up many more possibilities on how to deliver outbound customer service. Utilize popped up information based on caller ID in real-time to give your agents context before they begin their interaction with the customer. Your call center agents can utilize customer information that is integrated into the contact center software to personalize the interaction.
With the power of an integrated CRM software into your cloud contact center, sales reps and agents can personalize the CX that they deliver and make the customer experience more seamless. By popping up customer information at the agents fingertips, call center managers can maximize efficiency and improve upon the customer journey. This can be utilized for both outbound sales as well as inbound calls. For an inbound call center setting, a customer relationship management integration can vastly improve the efficiency of CX operations by integrating customer information through many of the inbound tasks that need to be perform. For example, customer information can be utilized for an interactive voice response, or IVR, menu or for automatic call distribution to prioritize leads depending on the status of the customer. Customer information can also be utilized for agents to learn about the customers issues before they are connected to the customer through the use of activity history, call recordings, and other caller information.
TCPA stands for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Passed in 1991 due to the rise in unregulated telemarketing solicitation and the use of automated dialers, it is meant to protect clients and prospective customers from repetitive, irrelevant, or excessive calling practices. This act dictates many guidelines that businesses need to follow when they are utilizing auto dialing and dialer solutions. Some guidelines that are dictated by TCPA include:
Following these regulations as well as others that may pertain to your use case, including PCI compliance, SOC 2 compliance, HIPAA compliance, and GDPR compliance, are necessary to ensure that your CX operations are secure, effective, and in-line with government regulations.
While utilizing predictive dialers, there are some ways to implement them to get the most out of using dialer software. Here are some best practices for your outbound campaign dialing.
A high-quality call list and up-to-date call registry is critical for successful outbound campaigns. Call lists that are too insignificant, too crowded with unqualified leads, and too crowded with old phone numbers can waste valuable time. Even with the best dialer software, connecting to the same unqualified lead and performing the conversation can be a time sink for agents. Ensure this doesn’t happen by regularly cleaning the database for the most effective possible outbound campaigns.
To ensure the best success in connection rates on a call list, you should ensure that the campaign is running during the best possible hours and with the most effective parameters. Some examples of this include:
Whether it’s predictive dialing, power dialing, or preview dialing, choosing the right dialer for your use case is absolutely critical to getting the most out of your outbound campaign. Intelligent outbound dialing is great for any CX operation that involves outbound interactions, but choosing the specific one to match your use case can help maximize the effectiveness of your outbound interactions and the efficiency of your agents.
Bright Pattern’s cloud-based omnichannel call center software is one of the most advanced, yet simplest platforms on the market for your CX operations. Fully-based on the cloud means Bright Pattern allows your business to run a fully cloud contact center, which gives you access to powerful technology without the trouble that having an on-premise solution brings, like maintenance costs and staffing professional IT teams to manage the system. Being based on the cloud fully means that your CX operations are very flexible and can be sized up and down depending on your needs and use cases. It also means new features can be added to your CX operations at any time, increasing flexibility and scalability in your business. It also means agents can be hired from anywhere, and operating a remote workforce is easy and just as effective as a normal on-premise team. Having a fully cloud platform can drastically reduce costs for your business while still delivering high quality customer interactions on all channels.
Bright Pattern’s platform utilizes advanced features and seamless integrations to deliver interactions that ensure high customer satisfaction. Bright Pattern’s predictive dialing software is one of the most advanced, with powerful pacing algorithms and integrations with call registry lists. The powerful predictive dialer will be automatically dialing, foregoing the need for agents to be manually dialing and increasing the number of answered calls that agents can take. This, in turn, leaves the agent to focus solely on the customer experience.
Finally, Bright Pattern’s platform is fully omnichannel. This means that customers can connect with your business on channels like voice, email, SMS, web chat, video chat, messenger apps, mobile apps, and more. And conversations that start on one channel can be switched to any channel seamlessly while the agent maintains the context of the conversation. This means that customers and agents can route interactions between any digital channel while keeping the conversation seamless and on-topic. As a result, the customer is experiencing a seamless journey from beginning to end with no points of friction or interruption. All of these features for a reasonable, pay-per-use pricing.
