Predictive Dialer: Driving down the costs for Call Centers
May 17, 2019
It takes 30 seconds for an outbound call center agent to manually dial a customer or a prospect’s number on the phone. That time, multiplied by how many an agent could call in a day can equal to more customers being contacted when the call center company uses predictive dialer software.
It is difficult for call centers to call many leads and customers when they only have a medium-to-small number of agents. Good thing, there are many software and tools that can help increase the amount of calls a call center can make even though they lack in the employee department. Software like predictive dialer makes it easier for call centers to dial the number of customers.
Predictive dialer is a calling system where it automatically dials numbers from a list. It helps agents see if the number is busy, has no signal, or if the owner will pick it up. It also dials several numbers at a time and directs the answered call to the available agent. Unlike other robodialers, predictive dialer knows the exact time an agent will be finished with a call. They then, will direct one of their dialed calls to that agent for a maximum utilization.
Predictive dialer as an effective productivity boost
According to the journal article “Predictive Dialing for Outbound Telephone Call Centers”, agent’s utilization increases up to 50 percent when the company uses a predictive dialer. Another study showed that an agent’s productivity can increase by 400 percent once the company uses it.
With the 30 seconds they usually take upon manually dialing a number, it only takes 1-2 seconds for a predictive dialer to do it. It means receiving or handling higher volume of calls. Obviously, agents cannot handle all the calls, which is why the software calculates the exact time an agent will be finished. With this tactic, no time will be wasted and every second is utilized.
Moreover, the productivity of the agents is also improved. Their efficiency and skill will also be challenged and their training will put into a test. This way, managers and team leaders will also know which agent is good at their job and which ones cannot handle the pressure of too many calls at a small time.
Other advantages of predictive dialer
The aforementioned benefits are not the only reason why businesses and call centers should use predictive dialer.
Predictive dialer also boosts sales. According to “The Strong ROI of the Predictive Dialer” by Susan J. Campbell, there will be a 50-percent increase in sales and a complete 100-percent increase in profits once call center companies use predictive dialer software.
Making multiple calls a day for a call center is important. Saving up time in between calls is also important not only for the agents but also to the management. With predictive dialer software, not only the agents will save their time to make more calls but the management will benefit from it as well since it increases agents’ productivity.
There is also a ‘do not call’ list in the predictive dialer software. That way, leads, sales, and call backs are much more properly maintained rather than if an agent is manually handling it.
Maximize every second you’ve got. It is not a problem even if you have small number of staff; predictive dialer can help with it.