Auto Dialer vs. Predictive Dialer: Making the Best Choice for Your Business

In 2020, the market for predictive dialer software was estimated to be worth USD 1.03 billion, and from 2021 to 2028, it is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 37.0%.

Are you planning on integrating an auto dialer or predictive dialer in your communication to enhance the efficiency of your call center?

If so, there is a good chance that you are having issues deciding the best software for your business, considering both have several benefits and some limitations. 

So, we have prepared this blog to address your issue and assist you in making the best choice for your business between Auto dialer vs Predictive dialer.

In this blog, we will understand the critical difference between auto-dialers and predictive dialers, their advantages, limitations, and criteria for choosing between them. 

Let’s start with the introduction of these dialers.

What is an Auto Dialer?

Automatic Dialer, or just Auto Dialer, is an automated calling software used for making outbound calls. An auto dialer automatically dials a list of numbers on behalf of a call center agent. 

This call software connects call agents, marketing teams, and sales representatives to customers, leads, and prospects or plays a pre-recorded message after the call is answered.

Most of the process in this software is automated; however, the users must upload their phone numbers and other information before starting the calling process. After inserting the number and other details, the software makes several calls chronologically. 

Moreover, most auto dialers can recognize and differentiate the human voice when calls are not picked up and go to voicemail. In such cases, the dialer automatically ends the call. 

What is a Predictive Dialer?

Predictive Dialer is an outbound calling software solution that makes two or more calls based on statistics and artificial intelligence. This software makes another call before the agent has ended the previous call, which reduces time waste. 

Predictive Dialer reduces the time wasted by an agent between calls and wait time when no active agents are available to address the call. Predictive Dialer uses advanced algorithms to predict agent availability and calculate when an agent will answer a call based on previous call patterns.

For example, if an average call takes 15 seconds for pick up and lasts 60 seconds, the software will start making calls at 45 seconds. 

Moreover, the Predictive Dialer also filters out busy signals, unanswered calls, and answering machines, ensuring agents are only connected with live calls. 

Advantages of Auto Dialers and Predictive Dialers

Both Auto Dialers and Predictive Dialers are advantageous on their own terms. Here are some advantages of each one of them. 

Advantages of Auto Dialers

1. Improved Agents Efficiency

With Auto dialers, agents are not required to dial each number after calls, as the software automatically dials the uploaded numbers systematically. This automation ensures that agents can handle more calls at any given time. Hence, there is an improvement in the agent’s efficiency. 

2. Call Accuracy

There can be human mistakes and errors while dialing the number manually. However, when using the auto-dialers, there is very little chance of such errors, enhancing the call accuracy. 

3. Reduces Idle Time

With auto dialers, agents do not have to wait between the calls. The Auto Dialer connects answered calls directly to available agents. As a result, the agent’s downtime is minimized, and they can engage in productive conversations.

4. Voice Mail Drops

When the calls are not answered and go to voicemail, auto-dialers automatically send a prerecorded voice message, which can save the time and effort of the agents. 

Advantages of Predictive Dialers

1. Improved Agents’ Productivity 

Predictive dialers have several advantages, starting with improved agent productivity. Using predictive algorithms, predictive dialers dial multiple numbers simultaneously and predict when an agent is available. As a result, agent downtime is minimized, and agents are engaged in live conversations, which maximizes productivity.

2. Monitoring and Metrics

Predictive dialers keep track of calls using different metrics, including call number, average call duration, overall call duration, etc. But wait, there is more: predictive dialers offer real-time reporting and analytics, enabling call center managers to track agent performance, track center metrics, and assess outbound campaign effectiveness.

3. Customizable List

With a predictive dialer, users can customize their list of customers, meaning any agent can design their marketing campaigns based on their experience and plan. Furthermore, as the dialer makes the dialing process easier, they can achieve their targets.

4. Enhanced Call Pace

The predictive dialers make calls based on the statistical algorithm and AI. It considers the availability of the agents and other assumptions like the time taken for each call to be picked up and the average time for each call. Based on these data, a predictive dialer makes calls, which enhances the call pace. 

Limitations of Auto Dialers and Predictive Dialers

Like there are two sides to the same coin, auto-dialers, and predictive dialers have advantages and limitations. Let’s look at some of the disadvantages. 

Limitations of Auto Dialers

• There can be delays before an agent can connect to a live call with customers, leads, and prospects, leading to call drops. 
• If Call dialers are not optimized and set up properly, they might make more calls than the agents can handle, leading to overwhelming and inefficiency. 
• Sometimes, auto-dialers might not recognize the call being transferred to voicemail or the answering machine picking up the call. 
• More than one agent is required for the successful implementation of auto-dialers. 

Limitations of Predictive Dialers

• Sometimes, the prediction made by the predictive dialers might be wrong, leading to several calls being in line. 
• Agents may feel rushed due to the high call pacing of predictive dialers, which can negatively affect their quality of customer service.
• Too long connection times can lead to abandoned calls.
• The predictive dialers need a huge amount of data for making predictions, and it might take some time to make accurate predictions. 

Key Differences Between Auto Dialer and Predictive Dialer

Here are some critical differences between auto-dialers and predictive dialers:

Criteria for Choosing Between Auto and Predictive Dialer

The decision of whether to implement an auto dialer or a predictive dialer highly depends on the objective and size of your call center and its features. Let us have a look at these criteria in more detail. 

1. Objective of the Call Center

First and foremost, the criteria for choosing either the auto dialer or the predictive dialer depends upon the objective of the call center. For instance, if the objective of your marketing and sales team is to engage with the customers, clients, and leads in more personalized communication, you can opt for auto callers. 

However, you can use a predictive dialer to launch many advertisements, marketing, or organizing a survey with a larger audience. It helps in addressing multiple actions at the same time.

2. The Size of the Customer Base

The Auto dialer gives more control to the call agents, meaning agents can initiate and end the call. Moreover, it also offers details of the customers before or during the call, which enables them to handle conversations more personally. 

So, if your business has a relatively smaller customer base and you value meaningful customer conversation, consider using auto dialer. 

On the other hand, if you have a comparatively larger customer base, you might want to consider a predictive dialer, as it is designed to handle multiple people and actions simultaneously. In short, large companies can benefit from predictive dialers as they can reach out to a large customer quickly.

3. Size of the Call Center

The size of the call center plays an important role in determining whether an auto dialer or predictive dialer is better for your business. Ideally, an auto dialer is suited to call centers with small to medium-sized teams. 

By using the auto-dialer, agents can concentrate on the conversation rather than worrying about the queue of incoming calls. 

A predictive dialer is better suited to large teams for generating leads or conducting surveys. It is possible for the agent to speed up the calls and end the campaign more quickly and effectively. 

4. Features

Automated dialing systems provide features like answering machine recognition, CRM Integration, dashboard reporting, etc. A predictive dialer deals with various call metrics; this makes call monitoring and analysis simple for an agent. 

The dialer facilitates keeping track of the overall quantity of calls placed, their average duration, the proportion of answered to unanswered calls, etc.

Call centers can easily decide which dialer is better for them based on the need for the features.

Optimizing Outbound Calls for Your Business

Implementation of a dialer automatically improves the outbound call strategies for your business. However, there is one thing or two that can help in optimizing outbound calls for your business. Let’s discuss some of them in more detail. 

1. Prepare Scripts

Marketing and sales scripts can act as a foundation for outbound calls. Using the script, you can make a very effective start to the call and then improvise the communication later based on the leads, customers, and prospects’ needs, wants, and preferences. 

However, scripts should only be used as a supporting component and not overused. For the optimum return, equip your sales and support representatives with CRM data and train them to use it for personalization.

2. Diversify Communication Channels 

When businesses only use cold calls for their advertisement strategy, potential customers leads, and prospects might consider it a scam. Hence, businesses should diversify and use various communication channels like email, social media, and SMS. These communication channels help in establishing better strategies. 

3. Upgrade and Scale your Call Center

Lastly, you can optimize your outbound calls by upgrading and scaling your call center. First, you can check your dashboard and analyze the data to evaluate the performance of the agents and sales and marketing representatives. Furthermore, you can also check the customer feedback and reviews to check the current efficiency of the call center. 

After assessing the call center performance, you can decide about setting objectives, metrics, and employee quotas. Furthermore, you can make other decisions like increasing the team or downsizing based on the needs. This way, you can significantly optimize the outbound calls in your business. 

Future Trends and Innovations in Dialers

The dialers have already worked as a marvel of invention, especially for call centers. However, there might be several future trends and innovations that can further help improve these dialers. Let’s look at some of them in more detail. 

1. Inclusion of Opt-ins

Opt-ins are heavily used in other forms of marketing, like email newsletters, and the exact mechanism might benefit the various dialer systems. Including auto-dialer opt-ins and predictive dialers can help data privacy and consent management from the clients, leads, and prospects. 

2. OmniChannel Communication

As people and businesses become more present on other platforms, dialers can soon be integrated into omnichannel communications to support other communication channels like email, social media, messaging, etc. This integration will ensure exposure to a greater audience. 

3. Personalization

With the help of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, the dialer can offer customers more personalized service. For instance, the agents can access the customers’ data and offer a tailored service based on their preferences and wants. The personalization can significantly enhance the customer experience and lead to better conversion. 

4. Multilingual Global Support

Last but not least, call centers can use dialers to get global exposure and expand their reach globally by offering multilingual global support. This future technology can be ideal for businesses that operate internationally. 

Conclusion

Summing up, auto-dialers and predictive dialers have become prominent software applications for enhancing the efficiency of the call center. However, choosing the best software for your business can be difficult as both dialers have several advantages. 

Nevertheless, the final decision can be taken on the objectives of the call center, the size of the call center and customer base, and finally, the features required for the business. In addition, you can cover the critical difference between the auto dialer and predictive dialer before making investment decisions. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why should one use a dialer?

One should use dialers to increase call center efficiency, reduce idle time for agents, facilitate call monitoring, and improve call paces. The efficiency of the call center, reduce the idle time of the agents, facilitate call monitoring, and improve the call paces. 

Are auto dialers illegal?

Auto dialers are not inherently illegal. However, there might be some legal issues on how they are used and whether they comply with telemarketing regulations in any particular region.

Is auto dialer effective for cold calls?

Yes, auto-dialers are one of the most efficient tools for making cold calls with a higher conversion rate.