Major Differences Between A Predictive Dialer And An Auto Dialer System
In any call centre, one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) is the amount of time it takes an agent to answer a telephone call. It is a measure of the efficiency of the organisation rather than the performance of the agent. In all cases, this is expressed in terms of seconds. Furthermore, if your people must wait an excessive amount of time before picking up a call, you must focus on optimising your system.
In the olden days, call centres relied on manual dialers to carry out these functions. An agent would manually enter the recipient’s phone number and then wait for the transaction to be completed. This meant that a significant portion of the working day was devoted to attempting to contact the consumer in some manner. Later, auto-dialers were used to aid maximise the amount of time that agents could spend conversing with customers. The development of new dialers with more sophisticated capabilities is becoming increasingly common as technology advances. Call Cowboy, for example, provides you with the option of using either or both auto and predictive dialers, as well as the ability to combine the two.
Many people are still unaware of the differences between the two calling platforms, although they operate in very different ways. This essay seeks to clarify these distinctions and assist you in selecting the most appropriate one for your company.
What Is the Function of an Auto Dialer?
An auto dialer is a piece of automated software or hardware that automatically calls phone numbers from a list of contacts that has been pre-programmed. Depending on who receives the call, it either connects the caller to a real person or plays a prerecorded message to them. Because of the advantages, it has over the manual dialling technique, several contact centres have adopted this as their default call system. As previously said, it was implemented to ensure that the number of time agents spends talking to customers was greatly increased. Furthermore, this technology made it possible to make more calls per day because it freed up more space. Typically, one would subscribe to this service on a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription basis.
What Is a Predictive Dialer and How Does It Work?
A predictive dialer operates like that of automatic dialling systems. It selects a phone number from a contact list and dials it, after which it transfers the call to a live agent after it has established a connection. Instead of using a predetermined dialling pattern, this is aimed to forecast if the recipient is available, busy, or whether the call has been sent to voicemail. All of these features were implemented to save time and ensure that a greater number of clients are handled in a given amount of time. So, what distinguishes this technology from other automatic dialers?
The Most Significant Dissimilarities Between These Dialers
1) Convenience in terms of setup
According to their definitions, a predictive dialer is essentially a more sophisticated version of an autodialer. It includes more advanced capabilities, which means you’ll need to have sufficient technical knowledge to be able to properly set up your system. The number of agents in the call centre, the call pacing, and the call drop ratios are all important characteristics to configure in the call centre. Auto dialers, on the other hand, are quite simple to configure. In reality, the vast majority of them are pre-configured to work with your present business model. However, this does not necessarily imply that they are a superior option to predictive dialers in every situation.
2) Call-Waiting Service
In the area of call waiting, there is yet another significant difference between these two systems. Automatic dialers are unable to route calls to the next available live agent since they are not clever enough. As a result, the caller will have to wait until the locked agent has finished their current call before continuing. This is a disadvantage since consumers will be forced to wait in line even if there is an available free teller.
With a predictive dialer, on the other hand, you will not have to deal with this problem. In this case, the system can forecast which agent will be available to take the next call and at what time it will happen. As a result, consumers will not have to wait in line for as long, allowing for more people to be serviced per day. Maintain the mentality that even the addition of a single new client to your company is a great plus, and that this should always be your top objective as a business.
3) Data Mining (also known as data mining
To put it another way, data mining is the process of converting raw data into meaningful information that can be used by a company to improve the efficiency of its operations. Businesses can use this strategy to learn more about their customers and to implement new policies that will boost their overall productivity. This is something that a predictive dialer is capable of. because it collects data such as client availability and the frequency with which calls have connected An autodialer, on the other hand, is not designed to save this information, therefore it cannot be utilised in data mining.
4) Agents’ Unproductive Time
This is defined as the amount of time that elapses between the time that an agent calls a number and the time that the call connects to the intended recipient. Consider the dialers that were in use in the past, where an employee was required to perform everything manually. Searching through a huge list of contacts, dialling them, and waiting for an answer would be the standard procedure. When the intended recipient is not there and the call is transferred to voicemail, valuable time is lost. If the number is no longer in service, it’s still another waste of time that should have been avoided, at the very least with today’s technological advancements.
With auto-dialers, you don’t have to worry about manually entering the phone number every time. The rest of the functions, on the other hand, are comparable to those found in manual dialers. Because they are not an intelligent system, an agent may be available for a considerable amount of time while waiting for the auto dialer to connect a connected call to be completed.
A predictive dialer differs from a traditional dialer in that it can determine whether a phone number is still in operation and whether the person answering the phone is a real person. It does this even before it begins to dial the phone number in question. As a result, you can rest assured that all of your agents will be busy most of the time because the dialer will connect them to a large number of calls in a short amount of time.
5) Productivity in the aggregate
Looking for a call system that will provide you with the greatest results? Are you on the lookout for one? In any call centre, predictive dialers outperform auto-dialers in terms of productivity. In the first place, because there is no call waiting, the quantity of agent speak time is substantially increased. Even though they both eliminate monotonous tasks like manual dialling and browsing through contact databases, a significant amount of time is wasted when the numbers dialled do not connect. The use of a predictive dialer saves your firm at least one or two hours every day, depending on the workload. This is a considerable amount of time that could be spent converting more visitors into customers and closing purchases.
Data mining also provides your firm with the opportunity to implement critical changes whenever necessary based on the information gathered via the process. For example, you may categorise your consumers based on their age, socioeconomic background, and area of origin, and then market to each group separately. These pieces of information could be critical in improving the user experience, and they could also provide useful information to the agents when negotiating transactions. Finally, the corporation may find itself in a highly favourable situation in terms of increasing sales and attracting new clients.
What Are the Benefits of Making the Switch From Manual Dialers?
Even though technology has progressed, many businesses continue to operate in the same manner as they did decades ago. If you are a manager in such a company, you must implement the new practices as soon as possible.
Here are a few advantages of using Robo dialers over the old-fashioned method:
Efficiencies in Operations
Auto dialers and predictive dialers share some essential characteristics, one of which is that they are both designed to increase the efficiency of call centre operations. Of course, this isn’t something that comes to mind while thinking about manual dialers. Because everything has to be done manually in the old systems, agents who work with them are prone to making a lot of mistakes. For example, when searching for a specific number in a contact list, it is very easy to enter the incorrect digits into the phone.
The ultimate result will be a significant amount of time spent attempting to rectify the faults made. Robo dialers, on the other hand, are designed to eliminate such concerns and ensure that the company receives greater output without placing undue pressure on the company’s existing workforce. Because of the high level of stress experienced by call centre agents while using an automatic dialling system, any error made by an agent will have a substantial impact on the overall operation of the centre. The use of an automated dialer should be high on your priority list, along with the use of other types of business software.
It’s “Idle Time” now.
As previously stated in the article, agent idle time refers to the time spent waiting for a call to connect that is not spent working on the call. The few seconds missed before every call add up to many hours over a week, which is a significant amount of time for even a small organisation. To avoid missing a call, predictive dialers are programmed to skip it if they identify any factors that might prevent the call from being picked up quickly. Of course, some aspects, such as the recipient’s vicinity, are out of our control, but the system continues to function as planned. Because of this, less time is lost and more consumers are served, which is a significant advantage over manual dialers.
It’s time for Agent Talk.
Without a doubt, with less idle time, agents have more time to interact with clients. This is a very important component in any marketing industry, especially when dealing with prospects that are difficult to persuade. Time may increase from approximately 20 minutes per hour to approximately 50 minutes per hour on average. That’s a 30-minute increase, which translates to improved consumer engagement and increased sales.
Keep in mind that, even if the amount of time spent by agents grows, the overall output will continue to be determined by the quality of the agents. Possessing effective marketing skills is essential for convincing prospective customers. This can be determined by examining the percentage of clients who have been won for each batch of phone calls made. Additionally, the feedback you receive from callers or call recipients should provide you with the essential recommendations and pointers.
Conversion Rate of Leads
Using the advanced capabilities of predictive dialers, you may benefit from the agility that these tools provide to your business operations. Suddenly, the phone call process becomes straightforward and significantly faster. The fact that you may get a glimpse of the customer’s contact information seconds before the call is connected is perhaps the most advantageous feature of these dialers. Thus, the agent is provided with sufficient time and knowledge to plan on how to initiate the conversation.
Remember, the more information you can gather about your prospective clients, the greater your chances of acquiring their trust and business. Because of this, your personnel will be able to lead tailored interactions, which is an extremely vital aspect of any marketing campaign.
Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting
Yet another motivation for upgrading to a more complex dialling system is the ability to track and report on the performance of each representative. The customizable dashboards and reports provide the manager with a better understanding of the talents and overall capacities of each employee. The ability to obtain call recordings quickly is provided by both auto and predictive dialers, and these recordings can be used to evaluate the agents. As a result, supervisors become acquainted with the employees who require additional training or whose performance results in increased client traffic.
Conclusion
Even though both predictive and auto-dialers have been available for a long time, predictive dialers were first launched as an enhancement over what auto-dialers could offer at the time. The most significant distinction between the two is the advanced capabilities that have been introduced to predictive dialers. As their name implies, they are capable of predicting whether or not a call will be fruitful even before the caller dials the number. It reduces the length of time an agent has to wait before beginning to speak with prospective consumers as a result of this.
One further element that distinguishes predictive dialers from all other robot dialers is the procedure of configuring and configuring the predictive dialer. Given that they contain more advanced functions, they require a significant amount of configuration before you can begin to use them effectively. The upside, on the other hand, is that you will be able to mine a large amount of valuable data that will aid in the improvement of the organization’s performance. Because of the advantages that predictive dialers provide, it is generally reasonable to assume that they are more productive than auto dialer systems. Because of this, if your firm has not yet moved to adopt new technologies, you must do so to remain competitive in the market.
