Predictive Dialer Software - CallShaper Outbound Software

PREDICTIVE DIALER SOFTWARE: THE
UNSUNG HERO OF THE CALL CENTER
AGENCY
Call centers and telemarketing companies are among the largest industries today.
Commanding a large chunk of the global workforce, company owners consciously pursue
productivity without of course, sacrificing efficiency in the workplace. The stiff
competition among these companies has necessitated the use of a system that works in
harmony with the workforce.
If you are familiar with the inner-workings of the call center industry, then you must have
– at least at one point – come across predictive dialers in the past. Commonly used in
outbound call centers, a predictive dialer software makes the work of a call center agent
faster by employing computer algorithms in placing calls based on a pre-uploaded contact
list.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PREDICTIVE DIALERS
The history of predictive dialers takes us back to the 1980’s. As the decade saw rapid
advancements in technology, numerous inventions in many fields including the
automobile industry, genetics, entertainment, and what would be the predecessor of the
modern Internet had been introduced. Accordingly, these innovations brought forth the
opportunity to automate various segments of the business process including the way
multiple phone calls are handled.
Originally, the first predictive dialers were limited to the banks and were considered to be
the most basic system used for telemarketing and collections. The older versions of the
system required call centers to go through the inconvenience of loading floppy disks
containing the name and contact information of the callers. On top of that, call center
agents were required to sit next to the dialers in four-hour shifts. As the dialers did not
allow for integration with other system like a structured database, incidents of agents
calling the same client more than once were a common case.
All innovations that survived time are the ones that have come nearest to fulfilling the
insatiable desires of humankind. Those that have fallen short of the expectation are either
further enhanced or are simply buried along with everything deemed obsolete nowadays.

For the predictive dialer, it was the former. The introduction of a more efficient system to
the ancient “predictive dialers” people now would call a mere database, has greatly
improved the overall effectiveness in terms of productivity from workers and revenue
from sales. The modern predictive dialers have been an indispensable tool for the call
center agents of today. This miracle device gave birth to a higher standard in being in the
industry.
PREDICTIVE DIALERS TODAY: HOW THEY WORK
Since companies like call centers and telemarketing businesses rely on the maximum
number of calls made within the day, automating the process of handling calls reduces the
incidents that would otherwise lead to unanswered calls, longer waiting times, or dead
numbers.
The predictive dialer has proven itself to be an invaluable asset to the call center and
telemarketing industry. Owing to the dramatic improvements it had to go through since its
inception three decades before, the predictive dialer as we know today has been better
than ever. But first, how do they work?
In essence, a predictive dialer software works using statistical algorithms to minimize the
intervals between successful answered calls. Because the industry relies on sales of any
commodity or service closed by the agents on the other end of the line, it is impossible to
overemphasize the role played by the number of homeowners they connect with in one
day.
Unlike the ancient versions, the predictive dialers of today do more than storing contact
information for the agents to call. They also dial multiple numbers at a time, depending on
the rate of call successes. If only one out of five calls are answered, the software is very
likely to dial five numbers for every agent available. Aside from that, the average duration
of each conversation as well as the average time for people to respond to their ringing
phones. If one call usually lasts one minute and it takes five seconds for the call to be
taken, the software will start dialing numbers at the 55 second mark.
ADVANTAGES OF THE USING A
PREDICTIVE DIALER

LITTLE TO NO CHANCE OF BIAS
As any predictive dialer uses algorithms to predict the duration of each call and
automatically assigns calls to available agents, it does not wait for a particular agent to be
available. This ensures that all agents on the team do not get to choose which call to take
or to ignore. Accordingly, all agents are expected to be equally competent to handle any
call.
IMPROVES WORKER EFFICIENCY
Before the emergence of the modern predictive dialers, an agent is only spending 40
minutes per hour attending to calls. This device is known to increase the overall
productivity incredibly. With its help, each agent now spends 55 minutes of every hour
busied by potential customers. This is a great improvement in efficiency, downing idle
time from 33% to a mere 8%.
REDUCES HUMAN ERROR
There are at least two ways an agent can err when a predictive dialer is not at their
disposal. First, the monotony of dialing and waiting for an answer from the end of the line
can take its toll on you. After a few hours, it’s possible to find yourself switching the first
two digits of the number. Especially if the commodity offered is only relevant in a targeted
area, the call would be completely useless. The chance of two agents call the exact
number is also not an impossibility. While this is not a mistake of either worker, it still
reduces efficiency. Thanks to the predictive dialer software, all of these are a thing of the
past.
HELPS CLOSE MORE SALES
Definitely, not all calls will result in success. The fact that the agents are attending to more
calls increases the possibility that more deals would be closed by the end of each shift.
More calls result to more sales, and more sales mean more profits!
Truly, the predictive dialer software is the unsung hero of the call center industry. Much
burden is cast off each agent’s shoulders simply because such innovation exists.