What is a predictive dialer, and how can it benefit your business?

As contact center software continues to proliferate across customer-facing departments within organizations of every size and industry, many capabilities are now available to supercharge customer service operations using predictive dialers for enhanced productivity and customer experience. 

For instance, delivering personalized messages is one of the few ways to provide a unique customer experience. Other high-tech capabilities include conversational AI, which can automate otherwise regular customer interactions and generate sentimental insights about your customers. 

Here, we discuss predictive dialing - and how it fits into modern contact center platforms. Also utilizing AI and machine learning, predictive dialers are key components for contact centers, as they can significantly streamline call volumes, ease burgeoning workloads and maximize agent productivity.

Predictive dialers are a special type of program that allows contact centers to maximize the talk time of their employees. They perform all the necessary dialing duties and use a complex statistical predictive dialer algorithm to determine how frequently the system should attempt to connect to outside lines. Predictive dialers also tend to be very easy for a company to operate and maintain. 

As contact centers play an important role in creating a good customer experience, utilizing contact center features that are backed by AI and machine learning can make all the difference for your business – and predictive dialers can help you stand out from your competitors.

The predictive dialer calls multiple phone numbers at once and connects employees to live calls. The system then starts dialing a new phone number after a certain amount of time has passed, so the employee will have a new person to talk to once the phone call is ended. Predictive dialer tends to increase the agent utilization rate, by reducing the idle time as well as the time it takes to manually dial numbers.

The predictive AI-powered algorithm takes into account such factors as the average number of rings it takes for a person to answer the phone, the standard length of most phone calls, and the average percentage of unanswered calls. The predictive dialer algorithm also considers the number of employees talking on the phone and the number of phone lines that are currently available within the system. 

There are several potential benefits to using a predictive dialer system. 

• Dialing phone numbers is a thing of the past

A predictive dialer can substantially lessen the amount of time that employees spend dialing phone numbers and listening to the phone ring. Predictive dialers connect most phone calls in less than a second and pace the phone calls in an appropriate manner to make sure that employees have sufficient time to speak on the phone. They also provide the ability to manage call lists and switch between predictive and manual campaigns.

• Scalability

Furthermore, most predictive dialers are highly customizable and can be quickly scaled up or down by a company as needed. There can be separate dialing parameters for multiple sales campaigns going on at the same time. The predictive dialer software also tends to have the ability to automatically detect answering machines and choose to ignore them in some cases, while connecting employees to them with others. Other common features include dynamic preview dialing, GUI-based home system integration, and campaign-level metrics to assist with marketing campaigns.

• Multiple campaign management

If your call center tends to run multiple call campaigns at the same time, a predictive dialer can be a very handy tool. The predictive dialer feature gives call agents access to pertinent information via the user interface. Predictive dialers ensure that an agent can quickly move between campaigns and manage calls more efficiently. 

These are the advanced features a predictive dialer should be aware of when using this feature:

• Time zone awareness: being aware of the time zone to which you are calling would avoid awkward interactions and dropped call volumes from calling at the wrong time with your predictive dialer function. 
• SMS/Email integration: A predictive dialer with multiple integrations for other channels can help your agents carry on with aftercare if needed after the phone call interaction. 
• Voice call recording: a predictive dialer with a voice call recording feature will help you improve the quality of your call center by monitoring call agents.
• Auto callbacks: a predictive dialer can create callbacks automatically for your call campaigns and redirect the call to one of your available call center agents. 

Auto dialers call numbers in a sequence, at an agent’s availability. Predictive dialers, on the other hand, calls several numbers simultaneously, a short while prior to the agent completing their current call. Auto dialers are a simple form of automation, while their predictive counterparts are based on a predictive dialer algorithm that calculates when a call is about to end, which numbers are bound to answer, and many other such factors. In essence, predictive dialing is a form of auto-dialing - but not all auto-dialers is predictive dialers.

While predictive dialers simultaneously dial multiple numbers based on an algorithm, progressive dialing only dials a single number at a time, without an algorithm - and only when an agent deems themselves available. Depending on the customer experience strategy of your business, feel free to toggle between progressive and predictive dialers - based on seasonality, campaign, agent availability, and any other factor that will influence call volumes in your business.

To know whether predictive dialers are included with the applications that leading contact center vendors provide, it’s best to do an online contact center software comparison to confirm. If not, predictive dialers can generally be included for an additional cost. 

Compatibility

The decision on whether to add one with a predictive dialer is normally based on the specific focus of the contact center. If the contact center is primarily being used for customer support, there may not be sufficient need for the system. If the contact center is being mainly utilized by the sales department, however, the employees can often make great use of the predictive dialer feature.

Knowing what to look for when purchasing contact center software can substantially help you and your team narrow down the best options that are available in the market. By assessing your business’s unique needs and speaking to the right vendors, you will be on the right path to obtaining software that isn’t just adapted to your present needs but can conveniently scale up or down in the future alongside your business.

Some of the best contact center providers that have predictive dialers available currently are:

Nextiva offers customers a large variety of phone services connecting businesses large and small throughout the world. Enjoy monthly packages or take advantage of their PBX/SIP Trunking services for a low $14.95 monthly cost. 

Nextiva not only offers its customers predictive dialer, sip trunking, and PBX phone systems but also the best VoIP (voice over internet protocol) for business needs. You can also obtain some of the best office phone systems on the market with a predictive dialer.

Choose a Cloud PBX (private-based exchange - that transitions internal phone lines to outside lines using a predictive dialer), unlimited virtual faxing, shared call appearance, HD music on hold, and add voicemail to text. 

Genesys offers a modernizing solution to the company looking to maintain its competitive edge with full virtualization of enterprise services. Increases in customer satisfaction, revenue growth, employee engagement, and significantly lowered costs are just a few of the many benefits to gain from making the move to this predictive dialer software vendor.

Five9 is the industry-leading, all-in-one cloud contact center software that uses Practical A.I. predictive dialer to increase your team's effectiveness on the phone, web, email, chat, and more. Whether you're looking for an inbound, outbound, or blended solution, Five9's Intelligent Cloud Contact Center has the features your business needs: 

• Get your customers to the right agent with intelligent routing using a predictive dialer.
• Use customer intent data to help your agents and suggest the next best action.
• Use smart dialers to give your agents more time with live prospects.
• Analyze and report on performance in real-time.