Are you looking for a more efficient way to simplify and smooth communications with your clients?

If so, among the different dialers in the market, you might want to take a look at predictive dialers as well. Predictive dialers have proven to be much more beneficial for businesses compared to other available dialers in the market.

In this article, we’ll explore what a predictive dialer is, its types, benefits, and how it can help maximize business communication efficiency.

Let’s begin.

What is a predictive dialer?

A dialer is a tool that is used to automate the customer calling process. It can either be a software or a hardware. Customer care services and call centers mainly use it to connect with customers and boost company sales and marketing. There are many different types of dialers available in the market. Some of them are:

  • Manual Dialers
  • Auto Dialers
  • Predictive Dialers
  • Smart Dialers
  • Progressive Dialers

A predictive dialer is an autodialer that calls a list of client phone numbers and connects only the answered calls to the call agents, filtering out any busy lines, unreachable calls, and unanswered calls, thus increasing customer connections and call efficiency.

It is mainly used by business owners, decision-makers, team leaders, and call agents.

The major benefit of using a predictive dialer is that it significantly reduces the wait times of outbound calls and helps businesses efficiently connect with more potential clients.

Predictive dialers are also of many types. Some commonly used kinds are:

  1. Cloud-Based Predictive Dialers
  2. On-Premise Predictive Dialers
  3. Preview Dialers
  4. Progressive Dialers
  5. Blended Predictive Dialers

Each type is designed to be tailored to specific business needs and must be chosen correctly. 

How does a predictive dialer work?

Predictive dialers get their name due to the fact that they are able to predict the next call for the call agents. They do so by imploring complex mathematical algorithms.

Predictive Dialer

A predictive dialer goes through a list of client phone numbers, which also contains a ‘Do Not Call’ list, and starts dialing multiple numbers simultaneously. It is done to instantly connect the agent to a new live call as soon as the old one ends. This reduces the call downtime significantly.

The dialer automatically connects the agents to all available clients and filters out any busy signals, voicemails, disconnected numbers, and no-answer calls. If the agent himself is busy, then the calls are held momentarily or abandoned.

A predictive dialer uses what is known as a “pacing algorithm” to analyze the rate of call pickups, rates of call abandonments, and the number of agents available at a time. The larger the company, the more abundant the data for prediction.

The algorithm calculates the average call duration rate and the number of dials it takes to make a connection. It then automatically dials numbers according to the predicted results. It is done to adjust the dialing pace so that more calls are connected and idle time is reduced. 

What are the benefits of a predictive dialer in a call center?

A predictive dialer is a powerful resource that must be employed to enhance all call operations and business connections. Some notable benefits of a predictive dialer in a call center are as follows:

Predictive Dialer

1. Increased Agent Productivity

Predictive dialers eliminate human errors, such as dialing the wrong number. Automating the calls will ensure the agent successfully gets connected to a viable live call as soon as they finish with their previous call. This reduces the time spent on unanswered calls and maximizes the agent’s talk time. 

2. Improved Call Center Efficiency 

Timely contact with potential clients is of the essence when it comes to telemarketing and sales. Predictive dialers make more successful outbound calls, which results in high customer engagement and increased sales. Connecting with more potential customers effectively increases customer base, business prospects, and quality customer service. 

3. High Scalability

Some predictive dialers, such as cloud-based predictive dialers, can be easily scaled up or down based on the increasing or decreasing call volumes and the number of clients. This makes using predictive dialers flexible for businesses of all sizes.

4. Highly Integrable

Predictive dialers can be integrated with software to handle both inbound and outbound calls. They are also commonly integrated with CRM software to better analyze and visualize the call metrics. This makes it easy for the algorithm to predict calls.

5. Reduced Downtime

Manual dialing requires more staffing compared to agents required for predictive dialing. Further, manual dialing is much more time-consuming and less efficient. The agents might have to respond to voicemails, wait for a long time, or get hung up.

Predictive dialing connects agents only to the live calls, and skips signals that do not respond to the agents. This greatly reduces the downtime or the wait time of the calls.

Difference between a predictive dialer and an autodialer

The most notable differences are:

Predictive Dialer Auto Dialer
It automates the dialing process but focuses more on maximizing agent talk time. It only automates the dialing process and connects calls.
Call agents are only involved when a call is answered. Agents are involved regardless of the calls answered.
It is mainly used by large teams such as call center sales teams or customer service teams. It is primarily used by small teams such as mass marketing teams. 
Calls are routed to available agents based on predictive algorithms. Calls are connected to agents or pre-recorded, and messages are sent.
It is highly efficient. It is comparatively less efficient.
It has the advantage of minimal downtime. It has high downtime. 
It involves complex algorithms. It is a simple and straightforward dialing system.
The cost is very high. It is less costly.
The call rate abandonment might be high due to less availability of agents. The call abandonment rate is low.

Applications of a predictive dialer

Predictive dialers are used by businesses of every kind, whether small business or large business, temporary or permanent. Companies mainly use them for telemarketing, sales, and customer service. 

Further, organizations also use them to conduct market research and surveys for products, services, or political campaigns and fundraising. Another main area of usage is contacting individuals for debt collection and payment.

Predictive dialer software pricing: what does it cost?

The cost of a predictive dialer software depends upon the following factors:

  • Type of dialer deployed(cloud-based, on-premise, blended, and so on)
  • Range of features selected
  • Number of users
  • Number of agents
  • Call volume 
  • Geographical location
  • Add-on features

The pricing model can be either a monthly subscription model, pay-per-agent, or usage-based cost model.

The price for predictive dialer software varies according to the service predictive dialer provider. However, looking at multiple providers, the cost seems to be in the range of $50 to $150 for the pay-per-agent model. 

At the same time, an on-premise model can cost from $5,000 to $20,000. The most cost-friendly would be the pay-per-use model, which costs $0.01 to $0.05 per minute.

Tools for predictive dialing

Based on their multiple advantageous features, performance factors, and brand reputation, the top 3 tools for predictive dialing in 2024 are as follows:

1. Five9

Five9 is a cloud-based call service software that offers predictive dialing, customer relationship management (CRM) integration, and real-time monitoring and reporting.

It is best for call centers with complex workflows and large numbers of people.

Its unique features are:

2. Genesys Cloud

Genesys Cloud is a popular cloud-based call service provider used by small, medium, and large business owners worldwide. It enhances predictive dialing by automating outbound calls and making real-time adjustments to calling strategies with the help of advanced analytics.

Its best features are:

  • It offers 3 types of dialing: progressive, predictive, and preview dialing.
  • It supports omnichannel customer communications.
  • It uses AI-driven tools for predictive analysis and automated call distribution.
  • Since it is cloud-based, it is easily scalable.                                                          

3. Convoso

Convoso is one of the leading cloud-based software companies that provides quality predictive software. Its unique features are:

  • It enables smart call distribution through the detection of voicemail and answering machines.
  • It provides dynamic scripting and multiple dialing modes.
  • It allows real-time reporting and analytics to effectively monitor performance and adjust strategies accordingly.

Why is Dialaxy the best choice for predictive dialer software?

If you are looking for a service provider to help you with predictive dialing, look no further. Dialaxy is one of the best choices for all your telecommunication solutions and services for your booming business. 

Let’s look at some of the reasons why you should choose Dialaxy for quality outbound calling:

  • Dialaxy provides you with a unique business caller ID to make outbound calls to designated clients. 
  • It also provides you with customized advanced call features such as call recording, call scripts, and call campaign settings.
  • It allows for integration with various CRM softwares to automate communications and call analytics to track telecommunications and their outcomes. 
  • It complies with all the legal rules and regulations, thus guaranteeing secure daily operations. 

Final words

Without a predictive dialer, agents are forced to spend a lot of time waiting for the calls to connect. This reduces an agent’s overall productivity and increases call downtime. Manually managing calls can lead to missed prospects and errors. 

If a company doesn’t consider incorporating predictive dialers into its valuable resources, it is likely looking at low work efficiency, higher staffing and operations costs, limited scalability, and decreased sales.

Thus, predictive dialers are very important for effectively and efficiently managing and operating successful outbound calling campaigns and operations.  

FAQs

1. What is predictive dialer software?

A predictive dialing software is a software tool that allows automated dialing of outbound calls from the company call centers. It also provides features such as call filtering of non-productive calls, call recording, reporting, and lead management integration. Today, predictive dialer softwares has AI and predictive algorithms to enhance real-time agent matching and compliance management.

2. How many types of dialers are there?

There are many types of dialers used in telecommunications. Some are as follows:

  • Predictive Dialer
  • Auto Dialer
  • Power Dialer
  • Progressive Dialer
  • Voice Broadcasting Dialer
  • Preview Dialer
  • Preview-Predictive Hybrid Dialer

3. What is a predictive dialer call?

A predictive dialer call is a phone call made by a call agent using automated predictive dialer systems. To increase call connectivity, a predictive dialer places more than one call at the same time. 

4. Is predictive dialer illegal?

Predictive dialers are not illegal. However, their use is heavily regulated. Predictive dialers must comply with regulations such as:

  • Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • Do Not Call (DNC) lists
  • Abandoned call regulations as imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
  • Time-zone-based call restrictions

Prasanta Raut

Prasanta, founder and CEO of Dialaxy, is redefining SaaS with creativity and dedication. Focused on simplifying sales and support, he drives innovation to deliver exceptional value and shape a new era of business excellence.

Prasanta, founder and CEO of Dialaxy, is redefining SaaS with creativity and dedication. Focused on simplifying sales and support, he drives innovation to deliver exceptional value and shape a new era of business excellence.