Which Type Of Call Center Dialer is Perfect For Your Business

Call center dialer is a technology discovered to facilitate telesales in the best possible way. That’s the most general definition of this tool.

One thing is certain. Thanks to the call center dialer, we can hear a loud sigh of relief. Agents don’t need to manage calls to customers manually. Therefore, the chances of making a mistake are reduced to zero.

Let’s go back in time to realize the importance of this solution. Just recall the regular business hours with huge numbers of outbound calls. It was the agent’s task to type the phone number, start a call, and wait for the customer to answer the phone. If he didn’t, the process went on once again. To sum it up – a time-consuming and repetitive work.

It’s easy to guess that it influenced the productivity of the team. Unsurprisingly it appeared to be beyond human capability to work like a machine. The pressure to discover some kind of facilitation was constantly arising. The automatic call center dialer turned out to be a recipe for success.

In this article, you’ll get to know more about them, their 3 main types, and the main pros and cons of each of them. Here we go!

Table of contents:

1. What is a call center dialer
2. Types of call center dialers
3. Power call center dialer
4. Predictive call center dialer
5. Preview call center dialer
6. Choose the call center dialer that fits your needs

What is a call center dialer

A call center dialer is created for outbound call centers – it’s the automated solution for the outcoming calls.

Typing phone numbers on your own is rather a repetitive and tedious activity. As a result, the chances of making a mistake are growing.

Another disadvantage is that it takes some time, therefore the worker isn’t able to serve a satisfying number of customers during his workday. As I said, the need of finding some alternative way to cover the issue was undeniable.

This is when a call center dialer came into action. As in many areas of our life, we decided to put our trust in technology.

At first, it took some place in call center offices as it was hardware that was plugged into the computers. Another thing was that the list of contact numbers was limited.

Modern call center dialers are software that can be installed with no additional equipment, wires, etc. They also constantly dial phone numbers from the uploaded list of potential customers. It can only facilitate the employer’s task.

Phone number is just a start. The agent also receives an interactive call script, so he knows how to conduct the conversation efficiently. He usually gets the set of questions that he should ask, so he doesn’t need to learn everything by heart. What is more, the system gives him further questions depending on the customer’s answer. So, the agent is like a voice-over – all he needs to do is to read the given script. That’s the way to have efficient training all the time.

Another possibility given by call center dialers is the ability to classify the effects of a conversation –  whether the reaction was positive or negative. If a customer doesn’t accept an offer or even doesn’t want to speak, an agent can indicate the reasons for that decision. This is a valuable addition to the statistics.

Thanks to that, the company can have a complete view of customer satisfaction level. It’s not only the balance between positive and negative answers but also the space to improve the statistics. You clearly get the most frequent reasons why a customer wasn’t interested in speaking to you. Then, you know what to avoid in the future. Simple as that.

As soon as the call is done, the system gives another number. It’s like a never-ending cycle.

Types of call center dialers

Introducing call center dialers was a necessary revolution in telesales. But, it was just a first step. The idea was bound to develop.

Today, we can distinguish three main types of call center dialers. These are three Ps:

• power call center dialer
• predictive call center dialer
• preview call center dialer

I’m about to characterize these three types. Let’s go through them one by one, focusing on their most distinctive pros and cons.

Power call center dialer

That’s the most reliable type of dialer. We already know the initial part of it – the call is started and distributed automatically. After that, the advantages come into action.

The power dialer functions like a clockwork machine because the customers who answer the phone are served perfectly one after another. They are linked with an available agent straight after accepting the incoming call. And it goes like a cycle – as soon as everything is done, the next number is dialed.

But what happens when the phone isn’t answered? The agent waits for a few seconds, but the system is likely to consider it a missed call. It’s good to know that the power dialer is adapted to random circumstances. There can be no signal, a number can be busy, a person can decline a call, or we can hear a voicemail. If any of these happens, a call isn’t left undefined or needlessly redirected to any agent. It’s finished automatically not to waste any time.

Another thing is that it doesn’t exceed any limits. The number of started outbound calls is matched with the number of available agents. Thanks to that, you can avoid the situation in which a customer answers the phone, he’s willing to speak, but he only hears an echo.

As it’s mentioned in the introduction, an agent has a script with the template of a conversation, which works e.g. during the cold calls. But, everything can go one step further – there are data-driven platforms that display all necessary customer details, like personal data, the history of calls, etc.

This is the one and only disadvantage of the power call center dialer – agents might get bored from time to time. It works only with answered calls, so your agents might become idle in particular moments. It’s their task to stay focused because the call can come at any moment. On the other hand, sometimes the rest is needed to be productive. It may backfire surprisingly with a positive attitude and fresh look, which can result in the demanded end of the conversation.

Predictive call center dialer

A predictive call center dialer is a tool that works like a fortune-teller. It predicts the length of a conversation and the number of available agents to handle the task. According to Wikipedia, it’s based on CPA (Call Progress Analysis), the collection of intelligent algorithms.

This is the type of call center that takes advantage of a given call center statistics – if it gets an average length of a call, it “knows” where to dial another one. Let’s say, your call center usually talks to customers for 1 minute and 15 seconds. So, at 11:00:00 one number is dialed, and another comes automatically at 11:01:15.

Thanks to that, a predictive dialer is also like a machine gun – it fires a series of phone numbers regardless of how many agents are available. The reason for that practice is simple. The huge net is thrown into the sea with the hope that the highest possible number of fish (also known as customers) will take the bait.

The chances that an agent might get bored, as with a power call center dialer, are rather low. He needs to be on standby as the calls come one after another. So, dear call center agent, brace yourself. The probable exhaustion is one thing, but OK, we can’t take it for granted.

However, predictive call center dialers have one certain inadequacy. In many cases, a person might answer the phone with no agent on the other end of the line. The reason for it is obvious. Phone numbers are dialed randomly after the arranged time with no guarantee that the calls actually lasted for, for example as I said before, 1 minute and 15 seconds.

We aren’t robots, sometimes a customer hangs up earlier, sometimes the call extends to an unspecified length. Therefore, it can result in a mess – the call starts, the customer answers, but there is a blind chance that some agent will be ready to talk. This is how you can discourage many customers from your product or service. In other words, one of the most important parts of success, customer satisfaction, is highly probable to decrease.

So, judge it yourself – you can dial incomparably more people, but you’re risking a lot.

Preview call center dialer

This is a kind of dialer that takes much time in comparison to two others. It’s because it’s used when an agent needs some time to prepare for a conversation with a customer. So, this is the name origin – every call needs a preview.

For example, when an agent gets a task to call a customer and explain some problem with a transaction, he needs to find out the details. By that, I mean the product, the date, the way of payment, etc.

Preview call center dialer can be set – an agent determines how much time he needs to get ready and the phone number is dialed straight after that. Then, the conversation ends and the cycle goes again.

So, if you want to give a well-prepared, professional sales call, this dialer is for you. But remember, you can make it quicker – e.g. some dialers give customer details to an agent during the conversation, so the agent doesn’t need to waste any time before the call. He gets all customer information while speaking. So, everything goes smoothly. By the way, I kindly remind you that CrazyCall is one of these – you can name it both a power dialer and a preview dialer.

Choose the call center dialer that fits your needs

As you can see, the development of a call center dialer has grown to the point where you can customize it however you like.

Every type of call center dialer depends on your priorities. You got a detailed view of each of them, but we can sum it up with this part. Here we go:

• If you care about the quality of call center, a power call center dialer is for you.
• If you care about the quantity of your calls, a predictive call center dialer is for you.
• If you have much time for preparation, go for a preview call center dialer.

So, what’s your choice? Contact us and give us your thoughts!