5 Phone Dialers and Automatic Call Dialer Technology for Contact Centers

Did you know that only 9% of all outbound calls result in conversions, while only 23% of conversions result in appointments? On the other hand, did you also know that local presence call center dialers can boost call connection rates by almost 400%? And if you have the right phone dialing technology, your agents can contact, on an average, 48% more prospects daily, which would lead to at least 15% more sales conversions a day. This is what a recent study by the Bridge Group revealed.

The importance of phone dialing technology can further be established by the fact that the US federal government also uses autodialer calls to reach delinquent debtors on their mobile phones.  Even the Fiscal Budget for 2016 comprises a line item to allow the federal government to use auto dialer calls. This step is expected to reduce federal deficit by $120 million over 10 years!
Here is a list of phone dialing technology that can help contact centers make the most of technology to boost performance.
Click-to-Call (Me) and Click-to-Dial: Often, these terms are used interchangeably. The feature allows customers to request a callback or opens a chat window when a user visits the website. Click-to-Dial is an outbound call that is activated by a click on the mouse on a phone number field in a system. It is usually enabled in CRM and email systems, and helps users call without dialing the number.
Preview, Power and Progressive Dialer: A preview dialer allows sequential dialing from a particular contact list. The contact center agent here can “preview” the contact record prior to the call, based on which s/he can decide to continue or switch to the next contact. A power dialer works on a similar principle, but is most commonly used in B2B environments. A progressive dialer too has a similar feature; however, the agent can access the call information, the moment call is placed. He can view the information but cannot control or stop the call process. So, the calls follow a fixed sequence.
Predictive Dialer: This is a telephone control system where a list of contact numbers is dialed sequentially by dropping out all the calls that have no answer, give busy signals, are routed to answering machines or are disconnected numbers. Call Center Predictive dialer also predicts the time when the agent can handle the next call. It keeps connecting the active calls to the available agents.
Auto-Dialer: This facilitates auto dialing to a list of phone numbers and is used in B2C applications. It identifies the correct tone and then plays a pre-recorded message to the voicemail system. However, it cannot navigate via Dial-By-Name directories or gatekeepers.
Call Routing or Automated Call Distribution (ACD): ACD is a standard feature of PBX systems, which works either through the use of line-hunting, Caller-ID routing or burst-calling all the agents’ call lines simultaneously.  It is used to offer prompt response to any inbound calls. Some systems have a feature where they use Caller-ID for the inbound call to route the call to the agent that has been assigned to that specific number. However, if it is new caller, a separate record is created in the CRM system and the call is transferred to the agent based on the area code or on some similar rules.
Explore: How to set up call center from scratch.