Automatic dialing systems are used by call centers to speed up their work, by making it easier to ring up each number in a long list of contact details. The difference between a predictive dialing system and the more old-fashioned automatic dialers is that a predictive dialer can monitor what happens at the other end of a call as well as actually dialing the number automatically. This means that it can judge whether or not a call should be passed on to a member of the call center staff, or whether there was no answer and the number should be called again at another time.
An automatic dialer made it easier for call center workers to make large numbers of phone calls, and to avoid making calls to the wrong number, because it automatically placed the call, without requiring the phone number to be manually entered into the phone. However, automatic dialers could not do any more than this. They just made the work easier for employees of the call center.
Predictive dialing systems can do a lot more than this. In addition to automatically dialing the phone numbers, they actually relieve the call center staff of a large and time-consuming part of the work. The predictive dialer removes the need for an actual person to sit and listen to the calls as they are made, because the software can perform the function that employees once had to do. It can recognize a busy tone, a missed call and an answer machine, and it can remove the need for an employee to be involved in any call that results in one of these. This means that no one is wasting their time on phone calls that cannot possible lead to any sales or other interaction with customers. Call center employees will only be connected to a call when there is a customer on the other end of the line.
The advantages of using such a system are increased efficiency and productivity. Since they are no longer required to make unanswered calls as well as talk to the customers who actually answer, call center staff are making much better use of their time. They are being paid only for the really important work of the call center, and therefore their employer’s money is being much better spent.
The downside to using predictive dialer systems is that when a customer answers the phone, they are initially picking up the phone to speak to a piece of software and not a human being. Predictive dialers hand answered calls over to call center employees as quickly as they can, and they time their calls in order to ensure that a member of staff will be ready to take the call if it is answered, but there will always be some small delay. Many customers are now aware of this, and can find it very annoying. People prefer to speak to other people over the phone, and they can feel that their needs are not being prioritized if they know they are being called automatically. Some people even use the slight pause to put the phone down, recognizing that it is likely to be an unsolicited sales call. This means that important calls may be better placed manually by a member of the call center staff than left to a predictive dialer system.
Time to increase your productivity by using a predictive dialer for your call center?