Sales Dialer

Auto Dialer: Saves 2-3 hours per agent per day

Thinking of investing in auto dialer software for your call center or sales team? A wise decision!

Using an auto dialer can boost agent productivity and efficiency by as much as 300 to 350% (that is 3x more calls every hour per agent).

In this blog, we will deep-dive to understand the auto dialer functionality. Let’s jump right in.

What is an Auto Dialer?

Sales Dialer

Let’s start with the very basics and understand what an auto dialer actually is. An auto dialer app basically is a system that automatically calls a list(s) of phone numbers to target customers/prospects or allow sales agents to leave messages. You can create dialing campaigns with specific objectives and ensure that your customers connect to available agents or an interactive voice response (as the situation presents itself).

If your brand deals with repetitive phone conversations and wants to boost the volume of calls as well as the agent productivity, that too without hiring new agents, an auto dialer is an ideal tool for your business. This is why this piece of software can be useful for sales teams, customer support teams, the healthcare sector, the hospitality sector, and so on. 

Remember that you can choose from different types of auto dialers, as per your company’s needs. An auto dialer comes in handy when manual dialing is lowering your agent’s productivity. Your agents can leave pre-recorded voicemails and don’t have to waste time on disconnected phone lines or wrong numbers. 

Types of Auto Dialer

Let’s now cover the different types of auto dialer options you have at your disposal:

types of auto dialer

Types of Auto Dialer

Let’s now cover the different types of auto dialer options you have at your disposal:

1. Preview dialer:

  • Place an outbound call or skip it (as opposed to automatically calling the next number on the list without giving you an option to avoid it)
  • Preview critical information about the customer/prospect and familiarize themselves with unique customer data prior to auto dialing the number, thereby providing a more personalized and contextual customer interaction

Ideal for: Teams with a small-scale outbound calling strategy, requiring agents to handle complex customer situations and focusing on quality calls than quantity. 

2. Power dialer: A power dialer immediately places the next call once the call is over. In other words, it doesn’t allow the prospect/customer to decide whether the call should be placed or not.

Ideal for: The end-game here is more quantity-focused. If you want to reach out to more prospects and gather high-quality leads, a power dialer is a good option for you.

3. Predictive dialer: This is an advanced type of dialer that can:

  • Dial multiple phone numbers at once as it uses a pacing algorithm
  • Determine when the agent will be done with their current call and will then place the next one before they complete the sales script

Ideal for: Businesses that want to connect with multiple customers/prospects on a large scale. However, note that you may not be able to drive lengthy, detailed conversations that require in-depth research beforehand with this type of a dialer.

How Does Auto Dialer Work?

So, the real question that might be circling your mind at this point might be this: how does auto dialer work? Here’s a step-by-step lowdown:

How Does Auto Dialer Work?

Step 1: The agent needs to create a new call campaign. This can be done by uploading a list of contacts from your CRM as a CSV file.

Step 2: The Auto Dialer starts the campaign by dialing numbers one by one and allowing your agents to take calls each time a prospect/customer picks up the phone.

Step 3: In the off-chance that the call goes straight to a voicemail box, the agent can use the voicemail drop feature present in most robust auto dialers today and drop a pre-recorded voice message for that contact.

Step 4: During the call, the agent can view a call script and take notes as needed.

Step 5: Once the call ends, a pre-configured ‘cool-off’ period might kick in where the agent can rate the call, add notes, take a water/coffee break, and so on. Think of it as a breather for the agent.

Step 6: Once the cool-off period ends, the Auto Dialer gets back to work and starts dialing the next number.

Note: If a specific number is incorrect or is not reachable for some reason, the auto dialer will automatically skip the number and dial the next number in the list. This is how it saves the agent’s invaluable time, which can be spent elsewhere (think: addressing the customer’s needs or problem-solving complex issues at-hand).

Top-6 Benefits of an Auto Dialer

Benefit 

How an Auto Dialer Can Help

1. Reduces idle time

  • For agents, manual dialing can lead to high idle time as they may spend time waiting for the call to get connected, listening to busy tones/ answering machines, or facing disconnected calls.
  • An Auto Dialer prevents agents from facing these types of time-consuming scenarios and ensures that the agents end up spending time only talking to leads and customers. Moreover, the auto dialer can also effectively segment prospects and filter out unproductive contacts and leads.

2. Increased agent talk time

  • As the idle time gets minimized and the call connect ratio improves, your agents can spend more time talking to prospective and current customers on call. This not only improves the agent talk time but also helps deliver a stellar customer experience.

3. Higher revenues

  • As the call volumes increase, so do the conversion rate and the revenue per unit time. Statistically speaking, an Auto Dialer can save you up to 2-3 hours per agent per day as it helps eliminate unnecessary time-consuming events from your sales operation. 

4. Improved call quality

  • Since the agents are not spending time manually dialing phone numbers, they can redirect their energy to driving more customized and effective content.
  • For example, instead of looking at the best phone number to dial, agents can focus on understanding the key issues of a customer, how the customer/lead was captured, and what their current relationship is with the organization. This invaluable data can be used to further improve the customer experience.

5. Lowers chances of human error

  • An auto dialer can relieve agents from common pain-points such as accidentally dialing the wrong number, repeatedly being sent to voicemail, and more.

6. Provides actionable data to improve performance

  • An auto dialer provides recording and monitoring capabilities that can:

– Offer insights into the overall performance of an agent/ outbound calling campaign

– Help understand which approaches are working and which ones aren’t?

– Help gauge key trends such as what is the best time of day to call prospects?

– Take real-time customer data and convert it into actionable insights regarding your team’s calling efforts

Auto Dialer: Must-Have Features + Functionalities

An auto dialer worth its salt is one that allows you to scale your outbound call campaigns and increase your sales exponentially. To that end, here are some of the most important features your auto dialer must have:

1. Auto Dialing: Your agents should be able to upload a list of contacts that they want to call and start the campaign. Once the upload is complete, the Auto Dialer will start auto dialing these numbers and connect the call to the agent as soon as a prospect/customer picks up the call. Here’s a preview of the JustCall auto dialer software:

Auto Dialer Software

2. Contact List Management: Your agents should be able to easily upload or copy-paste their contacts list to kickstart the auto dialing campaign. They should also be able to manage individual contacts and run new auto dialing campaigns by selecting contacts in bulk.

3. Voicemail Drop: A super-useful feature, it allows agents to leave a pre-recorded voicemail message for the prospect if they encounter a voicemail box. As you can imagine, this little feature empowers agents to save a lot of time and energy.

4. Sales Pitch Script: The agent must be able to view the sales pitch script and read it out during the phone calls within the auto dialer area.

5. Call Notes: Agents should be able to take notes directly from the dialer area while on the call.

6. Disposition Codes & Rating: After every call, agents must be able to select a call outcome as well as rate the call on a scale of 1 to 5. Additionally, while creating a campaign, they should be able to set a success goal in relation to the rating and easily track how successful the campaign was.

7. Incoming Call Routing: This feature comes in handy if the prospective customer calls the team back. The auto dialer must allow your agents to easily configure their incoming calls settings and set a phone number to route these incoming calls to.

8. Analytics and Reporting: The sales team should be able to access detailed and insightful analytics relating to the call campaign. It should also allow the agents to download these reports at the click of a button, as JustCall’s dashboard demonstrates below:

Sales Dialer

9. Customer Number Privacy: The Auto Dialer must provide an option to hide customer phone numbers from agents.

10. Cool-Off Timer: Another extremely important feature, the Auto Dialer software, must allow agents to set a pre-defined ‘cool-off time’ before dialing the next number. This time can be used by agents to take notes, make preparations for the next call, or simply take a breather.

11. Contact Tagging: It must allow agents to track their campaigns and tag contacts as needed. These tags can also be used to filter contacts, generate filtered reports, or create new campaigns for certain specific contacts.

12. Call Recordings and Call Monitoring: It should allow sales managers to go back to previous calls and refer to the call recordings. These recorded calls can be used to coach other agents on what they’re doing wrong and establish best-practices for what’s going right. If your business does not have a robust quality assurance mechanism in place, you are setting yourself up for failure.

In addition to the features mentioned above, the auto dialer should also be able to:

  • Detect unproductive numbers (think: numbers being sent to voicemail/answering machine or a busy line) and avoid dialing said numbers to save time
  • Filter lists and avoid people who have put your business on the do not call (DNC) list
  • Integrate with your existing CRM software to get a complete view of the customer, including their past interactions with the business, preferences, where they are in the buyer’s journey, and more
  • Auto adjust the time zone of the customer/prospect and place the call accordingly.
  • Transfer calls to another person or device as seamlessly as possible
  • Allow you to customize the auto dialer’s speed, depending on the needs of the outbound campaign
  • Schedule follow-ups or callbacks if a prospect/customer doesn’t call back, ensuring no leads fall through the cracks
  • Provide exceptional security, which includes keeping the customer data safe and sound from unauthorized users

The takeaway: In the end, remember that the main purpose of using auto dialer software is to save the agent’s time by automating repetitive tasks and boosting productivity. More importantly, it should also allow agents to have a meaningful and personalized conversations with the customer.

Top 3 Auto Dialer Software Worth Considering

1. JustCall Auto Dialer Software

justcall-auto-dialer-software

Pricing:

  • Essentials -$19 per user per month, billed annually
  • Team – $29 per user, per month, billed annually
  • Pro – $49 per user, per month, billed annually
  • Business – On request

We also offer new JustCall iQ pricing plans with AI capabilities.

justcall-ai-product-pricing 

JustCall’s Powerful Predictive Dialer is a must-have tool if you want to boost your sales significantly. You can easily upload contact lists and let software dial the numbers for you. Other top features of this tool include:

  • The ability to answer only the connected calls
  • Agents can read call scripts during the calls, take notes, tag contacts and leave ratings once the call is complete
  • Agents can work from a centralized platform and drive effective customer communication as well as workflow automation needs. 

This tool is ideal for sales teams looking to scale their operations. According to estimates, JustCall gives back 12 hours per week per rep on average. 

JustCall Auto Dialer Pros JustCall Auto Dialer Cons
Easy-to-use software  Sometimes, there might be lags in the call
The ability to dial numbers from any website is amazing; it is a great option for any size business looking for a great solution with lots of options  
Can be easily integrated with CRM and Slack  

2. Talkdesk Auto Dialer Software

talkdesk-auto-dialer-software

Source: Talkdesk

Pricing:

  • CX Cloud Essentials: $75 USD per user per month
  • CX Cloud Elevate: $95 USD per user per month
  • CX Cloud Elite: $125 USD per user per month
  • Experience Clouds: Price available on request

Think of Talkdesk as an enterprise, cloud-based contact center tool that focuses on delivering a positive customer experience and empowers teams to adapt their outbound calling campaigns to the ever-changing needs of their customers, teams, and the overall business at large. Over 1,800 companies globally use this software, which includes the likes of Fujitsu, IBM, Trivago, Hunter Douglas, Tuft & Needle, YMCA, and more. 

This tool is ideal for customer-first organizations who wish to improve their customer experience via personalized and data-driven customer interactions.

Talkdesk Auto Dialer Pros Talkdesk Auto Dialer Cons

 

Its simplicity and ease of use make it a great fit for a Contact Center

Sometimes, there can be call drops

 

The product is flexible and offers great reporting features

You can’t place the call on hold and transfer; you need to mute the call and then transfer

 

The desktop app is good and user-friendly, the quality of sound is great, and the software can be integrated with Salesforce

 

3. Five9 Web-based Auto Dialer Software

five9-auto-dialer

Source: Five9

Pricing:

  • Inbound: $100 per seat
  • Outbound: $100 per seat
  • Blended: $100 per seat

Five9 is a web and cloud-based contact center operations software that empowers organizations to run a contact center at any scale. Servicing more than 2,000 customers globally, Five9 leverages best-in-class AI to automate interactions and assist live agents. Whether you want to lower your service costs or deliver a high-quality conversational service experience, Five9 can streamline your sales operations and deliver on all accounts.

This tool is ideal for organizations looking to transition from premise-based software to the cloud.

Five9 Auto Dialer Pros Five9 Auto Dialer Cons
Offers excellent scalability and the ability to add agents immediately as needed The support can be better

 

You can take calls and route them reliably

Sometimes, the headset disconnects

 

Offers robust integration with ZenDesk 

 

Final Thoughts

There you go. For customer-centric businesses, an auto dialer is an absolute must. Organizations should take advantage of tools that can successfully automate routine and repetitive processes to boost productivity and revenue. This is where an auto dialer is worth the investment. It allows businesses to scale their calling campaigns without hiring agents.

An auto dialer will do the grunt work for your agents and dial numbers so that they can focus on the most important asset of any business: the customer. 

With a foundational role at Saas Labs, Anand has been a key player in establishing the Product Management function and spearheading the launch of our Conversation Intelligence solution. His expertise in AI innovation guides both the strategic direction of the products and a team committed to excellence.

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