Technology has made what seemed impossible for small and medium enterprises the new normal. Telemarketing and call centers are no longer restricted to large organizations. They’ve become an integral part of small and medium businesses as well.
One of the key components that make these functions work is an outbound dialer. How it routes calls and updates, the status of such calls in the database plays a key role in their effectiveness.
What is an Outbound Dialer?
An outbound dialer (also known as autodialer) is a system that automatically dials numbers fed into it from a database, without human intervention. This means that your agents just have to focus on speaking to call recipients and don’t have to worry about the tedious manual task of dialing the numbers.
As technology evolves, outbound dialers continue to add more features to make agents more productive. At present, the different types of outbound dialers are:
1. Predictive Dialer
- This outbound dialer automatically dials phone numbers from a database and connects agents to calls. It uses logic and rules to route calls based on agent skills and availability, calls answered, and more.
2. Manual Dialer
- A manual dialer dials a number that the agent manually clicks on to call and updates the call status depending on the outcome. Companies with small telemarketing teams and databases or with complex sales processes use this dialer.
3. Progressive Dialer
- A progressive dialer is quite similar to a predictive dialer, but the difference is that it dials a number only when an agent is available to take a call. When a call connects, it gets routed to available agents and stops dialling until an agent is free to take a call.
5 Important Outbound Dialers Metrics
An outbound dialer ensures maximum reach in a cost- and time-effective way and enables the lead generation and quick information spreading. But there are certain metrics you must track and improve on to make the most of it.
1. Number of People Answering
- Outbound calls are effective only when recipients answer them. If most calls go unanswered, agents will sit idle while the dialer dials number after number only to reach unanswered numbers or answering machines.
- It’s important to track which hours are the ones where most calls get answered and experiment to optimize the number of agents during those times of the day.
2. Number of Calls Dropped
- Calls get dropped for various reasons – lack of available agents, calls not answered, and so on. Dropped calls indicate a leak in a process, either in agent staffing or timing of calls being made and so on.
- It’s essential to track how many calls are getting dropped and reasons for the same and take necessary action to correct the issue.
3. Agent Performance
- Technology supports human beings to connect with human beings on a call (unless it’s automated voice broadcasting). This is why the performance of agents – number of calls handled, average call handling time, number of conversions – should be tracked.
- Track the metrics of agents that make your call center more efficient and effective: reward agents who perform well in them ethically, and train and coach the ones who can improve.
4. Use of IVR
- Many times, customers ask agents for generic information, or agents make outbound calls to provide information repetitively. A lot of these tasks can be automated by using an IVR system and a voice broadcast system.
- Identify which non-confidential information can be shared with clients and make it available to be broadcast form through the IVR. The more optimized your IVR is, the more time your agents get to pursue lead generation.
5. Contribution to the Outcome
- Without a periodic focus on the outcome, it’s easy to do the activity just for the sake of doing it without checking whether it’s effective or not. A lot of unnecessary processes and tasks get created for this very reason.
- Observe trends in customer feedback and actions from your calling activities and use them to refine your business processes and offerings. The more customer-centric <link> you remain, the more customers will reward you with loyalty and revenue.
Summing Up
Technology is a great source to improve your business efficiency. Leverage is to contribute to a goal rather than making it a goal in itself. The result is that every decision you make will be calculated and lead to great returns on investment.
