Predictive Dialer Save Your Time and Money in Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Campaigns

 

No doubt, telemarketing has evolved as a very potent tool for marketers and companies to publicize as well as sell their product and services in recent times. However there are also hurdles in running the telemarketing business in case you are an owner of a contact centre or call centre. You must have faced the problem in your center where your agent hangs on a call more than allotted time.

In such a situation you can not even blame the guy who is handling the call as his process is clogged only because of the busy signals, answering machines, no answers and disconnects. However it has incurred expenses over the telephone bills as well as remained the same on the wage bill of the employee. Situation even worsens when you have committed a client for a large number of calls in limited time with an immense pressure of deadlines.

Predictive Dialers are great aid to any telemarketer to give solution to this problem as they are capable of handling a huge number of calls in limited time. They are unique in a sense that they can increase the productivity of an agent manifold. It ultimately lowers costs per transaction and increases contact rates for you.

It is highly recommended for large as well as small telemarketing groups. Predictive dialers enable a calling person with unique capacity to judge and detect unnecessary calls like busy signals, answering machines, no answers and disconnects.

You can understand this way, a Predictive Dialer is devised to predict or rather anticipate during the call process to ascertain availability the next representative or agent will be free and when the next hello will be detected. It is an intelligent outbound call processing mechanism employing complex mathematical algorithms to predict when to dial next. The working of a Predictive dialer takes place in following manner.

In a call centre a predictive dialer that can be a hard as well as soft dialer happens to be attached to a network server that stores the information related to the numbers of people and businesses to be called are stored in a network server. All agents are linked to that server. In the dialing process when the server or dialer stars calling the number it is predictive dialer that manages the calls. In a situation while calling there is no response or silence from other side the dialer hangs up. From the other calls, the dialer will screen out busy, unanswered, and answering machine calls. Only the live calls are put through to the agents. As soon as the agent gets connected to a call he can view all the information related to the call on his screen.

The biggest advantage with predictive dialer is that it can adjust to calling patterns depending on various factors.
• Total number of rings while a customer picks up a phone.
• On the calls which are answered
• On the length of talk time, in case calls are short the predictive dialer adjust to dial more numbers
• On the basis of available agents if fewer agents are available predictive dialer set the calls to be dialed less frequently.
• Desired abandonment rate, under this a person who hangs up before the dialer switches the call to a free agent will not have a live telemarketer available to talk to.

Keeping all the factors in focus a predictive dialer dynamically manages the pace at which to dial out, to keep all agents talking. While managing it ensures waiting period of the agents to be minimum at the same time keeping abandoned calls down to acceptable levels.

A predictive dialer, after estimating the number of agents approximately can doubles the telephone numbers to be called thus prevents agents from sitting idle. The predictive dialing program saves an agent’s time by dialing on its own and give only attended call to the agent. This way predictive dialer enables a call centre owner to increase profits per hour with maximum number of calls.

The biggest benefit of predictive dialer is this that it dials on the behalf of an agent. This saves an agent from any personal approach however let him free only for sales pitch.

David is an internet marketer specializing in Internet Marketing. For more information about what a predictive dialer & IVR system can do for your business, visit http://www.yoursautodialer.com

What is Autodialing and What is Smart Autodialing

Autodialing is the process of automatically dialing (hence the term) a list of phone numbers using a device called an autodialer. The autodialer calls through a list of phone numbers one by one, allowing for much quicker dialing than human fingers alone. An autodialer can be a standalone electronic device, but these days many autodialers are actually computers running special software.

One type of autodialer is what is known as a smart autodialer. As the name implies, these devices are more sophisticated than traditional autodialers, in that a smart autodialer can interact with the person or device on the other end of the phone. When a smart autodialer places a call which is answered, it first detects whether it has connected with a human being or another machine. If it is the latter, it can leave a personalized message to encourage the person to return the call. A smart autodialer can detect keypad tones, so it is able to give a list of options to a person on the other end of the phone call. This allows the recipient to confirm the call or press a key to speak to a person live. A smart autodialer can also be programmed to automatically perform this transfer without the recipient pressing a key.

Many of the features of a smart autodialer are made possible by a text-to-speech engine. This is what enables it to leave voice messages or “talk” to a human respondent. The device can be programmed with a message template, containing variables which can be replaced with specific values to create a personalized message. For example, the autodialer can replace a name variable with the name of the person being called on a specific call.

In addition, a smart autodialer can many more capabilities, including automatic redial for a busy signal, scheduling and automatic rescheduling capabilities, and the ability to check the federal Do Not Call Registry before placing a call. Real time records of each call are stored in a simple spreadsheet noting the name and number of each party called, whether the call has been confirmed by the target party, and the status of each call. This makes it simple to keep track of which calls have been successfully completed, which need to be rescheduled, and so on.

Traditional autodialers require expensive equipment to operate. This is no longer true, largely because PCs are getting more powerful and many of the hardware features are implemented in software. One commercially available smart autodialer is the Broadcast by Phone Autodialer by Voicent. It requires only the autodialer software, a voice modem, and your computer.

Autodialers revolutionized the telemarketing field. With the addition of smart technology to these devices, the field was revolutionized again. Autodialers can enhance your business by eliminating cold calling and improving your bottom line.

Andrew Kern - Technology evangelist for automatic phone technologies, including Autodialer, Predictive dialer, and VoiceXML gateway

Auto Dialer: A Virtual Call Agent

An auto dialer is an electronic device that can automatically dial telephone numbers to communicate between any two points in the telephone, mobile and Pager networks. Once the call has been established (through the telephone exchange) the auto dialer will announce verbal messages or transmit digital data (like sms messages) to the called party. A regular PC, desktop or laptop, can be turned into an auto dialer.

If a customer is attended by the telemarketer it will take long time. He may not be interested to hold for a long time to talk to the telemarketer. The development of auto dialer technology is a great gift for the entire telemarketing industry. Auto dialer enables business to broadcast phone messages without the use of call center agents. Auto dialer service will begin to dial out from a predefined list of phone numbers.

Auto Dialer application allows you to out dial to consecutive or random telephone numbers. There are several types of auto dialer:

· Smart Auto dialer: Smart Auto dialer is an auto dialer capable of personalizing messages and collecting touch tone or speech feed backs. A speech engine is usually included for converting text to speech and recognizing speech over the phone. To customize or personalize messages, a smart auto dialer system uses message template, which contains variables that can be replaced later by actual values.

· Preview Dialer: Preview dialer enables your phone agent to view the phone information before the call is being placed. Preview Dialer is an application that enables outbound "preview" or "progressive" dialing through the agent desktop. Preview Dialer gives agents the opportunity to review contact information to know whom they are calling and the purpose of the call before dialing the outbound call.

· Power dialer: The power dialer provides efficient, reliable, and scalable multi-line outbound dialing. It is used in situations when an application needs to be able to make large volumes of outbound calls. For example:

1. An application that monitors the status of a large network may need to call hundreds of technicians all over the country.

2. A large-scale voice mail delivery system that delivers messages directly to a large number of individuals.

Progressive Dialing: Progressive dialer is used to save time and effort in manual dialing. It provides a real time monitoring. The call information is passed at the same time the moment number is dialed.

For more tips and detail you can visit =>www.yoursautodialer.com

The Auto-Dialer Virus Strikes Again

I've Been Infected By An Auto-Dialer Virus
The Auto Dialer Virus Strikes Again - Here at Defending The Net, we receive hundreds of e-mails daily regarding various computer security issues. Because we receive so many e-mails and requests for information, we typically write an article that provides the answer. However, from time to time, we receive requests that seem important, or critical in nature, and do our best to try and help.

On October 4th, we received an e-mail from a visitor we felt compelled to assist. This person appeared to have a home computer infected with the Auto-Dialer virus, a malicious piece of Malware that can cost you a tremendous amount of time, and more importantly, money.

An Unwelcome Letter From a Long Distance Carrier
Unfortunate results of the auto dialer virus - Our visitor received a letter from a well known long distance carrier indicating they had blocked all long distance calls from their telephone number, the reason; there were hundreds of phone calls to 1-900 numbers with fees in excess of $1,500. Our visitor had contacted his internet provider, explained to them what was going on, and the Internet provider directed them to and article located here at Defending The Net on auto-dialers.

The long distance carrier who contacted him was not even his provider, they represented the company with the 1-900 number. He contacted the long distance provider and explained to them that he had no idea what was going on and that he has never dialed a 1-900 number. They explained that there was nothing they could do for him and they were going to turn over the charges to his local service provider for collection.

As you can imagine, this was a very strange and stressful time. The fact of the matter is, these auto-dialers can be quite stealthy, masking themselves as legitimate software, or installing themselves in a way that keeps you unaware it has infected your system. These nefarious pieces of software can even re-program your modem to turn off the speaker so you are unaware that it is making unauthorized calls. I cannot stress how dangerous and how much of a negative impact something like this can have on your computer, and your checkbook.

How Do I Protect Myself
One thing you must always be aware of is what type of sites you are visiting. If the sites you visit have tons of pop-up's and banners, some of which may be less than moral / ethical, you can bet there is a high chance of getting infected with something. There are other things you should keep in mind or do on a routine basis:

1) Make sure you have anti-virus software installed and keep the virus signatures up to date. Out of date virus signatures are a major cause of computer infection;

2) Install spyware detection software, keep it up to date, and run it regularly. I run mine at least twice a day. Some of these software packages have real-time protection similar to anti-virus software;

3) If you now have high-speed internet access, like cable or DSL service, and you no longer need the internal modem for faxes or anything else, remove the phone cable from the modem or remove the modem from the computer altogether. Many people leave these devices connected and are at risk for auto-dialer impact; And,

4) If you are on a site that has a lot of pop-ups do not just click ok when they present themselves. You may be agreeing to something that can cause you problems.

Conclusion
If you think you have become infected with an Auto-Dialer, or receive a letter from a long distance carrier stating you owe them money for 1-900 or like calls, contact your telephone service provider right away. Also, disconnect your modem to make sure no additional calls can be placed and run your anti-virus / spyware detection software to try and locate the problem. If you can't locate the malicious software, you will need to back up all your data and reinstall your computers operating system. This is the only "real" way to feel confident you have eradicated the Auto-Dialer that infected your computer.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Darren Miller is an Information Security Consultant with over sixteen years experience. He has written many technology & security articles, some of which have been published in nationally circulated magazines & periodicals. If you would like to contact Darren you can e-mail him at Darren.Miller@ParaLogic.Net. If you would like to know more about computer security and auto-dialer virus please visit us at http://www.defendingthenet.com

Skype Auto Dialer - The Right Choice For Call Centers

Dialers have become essential equipments for call centers in present times. The job requires handling calls in large numbers and can become really chaotic. Moreover, just to stay competitive in the market, a call center requires to update its technologies and equipments at a regular basis. Most businesses of this type use all in one CRMs and dialers come bundled with these packages. The dialers that come integrated with the CRMs are often easy to configure as they have maximum compatibility with the other equipments of the CRM. Moreover these all-in-one CRMs are more cost effective. So purchasing a good CRM is probably one of the easiest and cost effective ways of having a good dialer for using in a call center.

However, there are certain problems in using these all-in-one CRMs. As already mentioned earlier, the call centers need to adapt to the latest technologies continuously to keep themselves in the competition. As a result the softwares and equipments need to be upgraded from time to time. Using a CRM would mean upgrading the whole system. This is quite a time consuming job and also very expensive. Most of the entrepreneurs might not have enough time for the upgrades, as they need to focus on other aspects of the business. As a result there’s a great threat to growth and future prospects.

In order to avoid these issues, plenty of web-based CRM systems have been launched in the market. These are easier to adopt and are also more cost effective. The three equipments required for a web based CRM are computers, Internet connection and telephones. With the help of these hardwares, a business can connect to the web-based interface of a CRM service provider. These service providers are the ones who have installed the entire CRM systems in some servers, allowing access to the call centers for a small fee. These providers undertake the trouble of keeping their system updated, providing the entrepreneurs their much-needed time to focus on the other aspects of the business.

However, there’s another option that most call centers are adopting nowadays. It’s the use of the popular web-based communicating system, Skype. It is a truly ‘next generation’ communication system that allows cheap and affordable PC-to-PC calling and also PC-to-Phone calls throughout the globe. But Skype alone, with all its features, could not have met the demands of a fully functional call center. So a new feature rich automatic Skype dialer has been launched into the market, which specifically handles calls through Skype. This dialer integrates itself to the system and has the ability to even record details from the CRMs. This dialer along with Skype, is probably the most suitable option for call centers. It does not require frequent, expensive and time-consuming upgradations and is flexible enough to enable the operators to customize it according to the requirements. It can surely be called the right choice for call centers in the present time.

 Ronn Jones, a marketing expert with years of experience in branding and internet marketing. Check out more information on automatic Skype dialer