Predictive Dialers and Other Vital Tools to Increase Your Telemarketing Profits

Telemarketing has changed a great deal over the past few years. With innovative technologies being released such as Spitfire predictive dialers and other call center software and products, your telemarketing team can now be more productive than ever. Computerized telemarketing tools and the recent integration between the Internet and telephone systems enable your telemarketers to spend less time dialing and more time actually giving their presentation to potential customers.

Below are some unique telemarketing services and products that have revolutionized the way telemarketers conduct their businesses.

Predictive Dialers

A predictive dialer was developed to dial phone numbers automatically and then monitor calls and the types of answers it receives when dialing. It then connects telemarketing agents to the call once it recognizes that a real person is on the line. Predictive dialers are used in many call centers today, and have helped thousands of telemarketers maximize their efforts and waste less time dialing non-responsive numbers.

How It Works

With a hosted predictive dialer system, you'll only need a computer, Internet connection, and a telephone line for each telemarketing agent. With a Spitfire Predictive Dialer, for example, you'll receive outbound and inbound dialing capabilities, and can integrate the system with your T1 or analog lines without having a separate database server. Other features include query-based dialing, and time zone sensitivity. You'll also have the capability to run multiple campaigns simultaneously, alternate number dialing, and monitor and record calls. This setup is an easy-to-use system and requires minimal effort to get started.

This amazing CRM (customer relationship management) software drastically reduces the number of answering machines, voice mails, busy signals and hang-ups that your telemarketers may encounter during the workday.

Auto Dialers

Auto dialers were available prior to predictive dialers. These can dial telephone numbers automatically for your call center agents, but do not use algorithms such as the predictive dialer to connect the agent to only successful calls. The auto dialer is a handy tool if you have a limited budget but want to automate your telemarketing efforts.

Monitoring Systems

A monitoring system enables you to monitor calls for testing, training, motivation and assistance. You can ensure better quality service by keeping an "ear" on your telemarketers during their training.

Amplifiers

Amplifiers are great for ensuring good sound quality for each telephone call. With an amplifier, you can control the volume and enable muting. With some amplifiers, you can switch from your telephone to your computer easily.

Headsets

With headsets, your telemarketers can have free hands to write, type or do anything else while talking with potential clients. This prevents dropping of the receiver or the need to hold the receiver in an odd position while trying to write or type the client's information. There are many types of headsets including voice tubes, in the ear, over the ear, noise canceling, wireless, and convertible.

These are just a few of the basic tools every telemarketer should have to be successful. In today's ever-changing marketplace, you have to stay ahead of the game with innovative call center software and products like predictive dialers to be a success. Telemarketing is still a great way to contact potential customers once you have all the tools you need.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Predictive Dialers - Telemarketing or Majon's Communications directory.

Predictive Dialer System

Predictive dialer systems are generally used by telemarketing organizations involved in B2C (business to consumer) calling, because sales representatives require more customer contact time. Market survey companies and debt collection services that need to contact and personally speak to people by telephone may also use predictive dialers. To automate all sorts of calls, predictive dialers are used as a quick and easy way rather than manually by a call center, such as customer service callbacks, or welcome calls for new customers.

Predictive dialer systems have features such as automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR) and call recording that has added a new dimension to the predictive dialer and auto dialer capabilities of this system.

Voice broadcasting with text-to-speech software acts as a unique solution that is ideally suited for ACD and IVR outsourcing. The computer telephony software opens this phone system to outside applications and developers.

Some predictive dialer systems have an extra edge in efficiency and productivity not available in other dialing systems, the agents have the option at any time during a call to click on the "answering machine message" button or "3rd party message" button.

When the "answering machine message" button is selected, it plays the digitally recorded message to the answering machine, allowing the agent to be available for the next dialer-generated call. If the "3rd party message" button is clicked, it plays a digitally recorded message to the called party, releasing the agent to handle the next call.

When combined with customer relationship management (CRM) software, the predictive dialer system is a complete call center software solution. With the new predictive dialer system revolutionizing predictive dialing, the call center can become more productive with more calls handled by fewer agents, including work at home employees. The modern predictive dialer systems far outpace old predictive dialer technology.

Predictive Dialers provides detailed information on Predictive Dialer, Collection Predictive Dialer, Predictive Dialer Software, Predictive Dialer System and more. Predictive Dialers is affiliated with Free Phone Answering Service.

Predictive Dialer

A predictive dialer is a computerized system that automatically dials batches of telephone numbers that connect to agents assigned to sales or other campaigns. Predictive dialers are widely used in call centers.

Predictive dialers were developed from the auto dialer. While the basic auto dialer merely automatically dials telephone numbers for call center agents who are idle or waiting for a call, the predictive dialer uses a variety of algorithms to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling process to the number of agents it anticipates or predicts will be available when the calls are answered.

The predictive dialer monitors the answers to the calls it places, detecting how the calls it makes are answered. It discards unanswered calls, engaged numbers, disconnected lines, answers from fax machines, answering machines and similar automated services. It only connects calls answered by people to waiting sales representatives. Thus, it frees agents from listening to unanswered or unsuccessful calls.

A predictive dialer can dramatically increase the time an agent spends on communication rather than on waiting. The system is most suitable for low quality lists and large numbers of agents, as a high contact rate can overwhelm the system.

Predictive dialer systems are commonly used by telemarketing organizations involved in business to consumer calling as it allows their sales representatives to have much more customer contact time.

More commonly predictive dialers are being used as a quick and easy way to automate all sorts of calls that would otherwise be made manually by a call center. These include welcome calls for new customers, customer service callbacks, appointment confirmations, or the automation of large numbers of ad hoc calls that might take place (by a taxi company, or parcel delivery service etc.).

Predictive Dialers provides detailed information on Predictive Dialer, Collection Predictive Dialer, Predictive Dialer Software, Predictive Dialer System and more. Predictive Dialers is affiliated with Free Phone Answering Service.

Predictive Dialers To Save Your Time And Money In Telemarketing 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. http://www.yoursautodialer.com

Predictive Dialers - Maximizing Human Interaction

Predictive dialers are many steps removed from their predessors, the automatic dialers of the past. Whereas automatic dialing allowed callcenter agencies to dial numbers quickly and efficiently, predictive dialing also processes and makes use of a whole range of information, linking callers to live voices every single time. In fact, with predictive dialing, agents' 'talk time' has increased from an average of twenty minutes per hour to fifty minutes per hour. This is a fabulous rate of improvement - instead of wasting more than half of their time on listening to busy signals and answering machine messages, agents now spend the majority of their time engaged in producting interaction. The dialer also manages the line to agent ratio by pacing the call rate at the desired level. In this way, quotas are met, and agents are neither idle nor overwhelmed. In other words, because the hardware and software does its job, agents are able to spend much more time doing theirs. And of course, increased contact time means that the center's goals are reached much more quickly.

In many ways, it is still true that the real value of a call center depends on its 'human capital' - the agents who interact with clients and potential clients. The more the center's human capital is brought to the forefront, the more everyone benefits. The aim of technology, therefore, is to maximize the time that agents are able to spend doing what only they can do - conversing, communicating, interacting. Predictive dialing and other call center technology represents a perfect symbiosis between person and machine.

A predictive dialing system is able to keep track of which agents are available, while monitoring the responses to the outgoing calls that it makes. Numbers that are busy, disconnected, fax lines, or calls that are answered by machines or voicemail systems are not connected to an agent. Only the calls that are answered by a live voice are put through to an agent, which means that the agent spends almost all of his or her time on the line with a live person. Facilitating and maximizing talk time is the goal of every call center.

The hidden benefit in all this is the fact that the agent is much less likely to get bored or disheartened. Human contact is important to everybody, and particularly to those who select careers that highlight communication. Many of the agents who choose to work in call centers are there precisely because they are attracted to the work due to the fact that they have excellent communication skills and enjoy interacting with people. An endless stream of answering machines or busy signals is bound to frustrate them. When they are able to spend fifty minutes out of each hour actually interacting with clients, however, the agents find that time goes by much faster and their workday is more varied and interesting. Furthermore, they know that their skills are valued, and that their company supports them by investing in the appropriate technology.

Predictive dialing technology is improving all the time. One problem that we occasionally still encounter is a short lag between the time the outgoing call is answered and the time the agent gets on the line. Generally, this is only a matter of a few seconds, and some systems play a short recorded message during this time. Nevertheless, any sort of lag time increases the possibility that the potential client will become confused, and that part of the agent's talk time will be spent sorting out the confusion. There is also the chance that the client may hang up. Therefore, measures are being taken to speed up voice connects and minimize this lag time to the point where it may become imperceptible.

Predictive dialing has revolutionized call centers, and has the potential to continue doing so. Calls are made much more efficiently, employees are happier, and the goals of the call center are likely to be me much faster. Now that this technology is readily available (and improving all the time) it would be almost unthinkable for any sizable call center not to invest in predictive dialers.

Prodialing strives to provide concise information concerning the high tech arena of callcenters, including predictive dialers, inbound/outbound, IVR and much, much more. See our website at ProDialing.com (http://www.prodialing.com).

Phipe - Automatic Dialer for Skype

Skype is one of the most used free voice over Internet protocol solution. It is well known media to connect to a remote user and is extensively used for telecalling purposes across the world. However, in the case of a telecalling company/ call center that needs to make calls to a large list of clients in a short interval, a need of an automation system arises that makes the process simpler and faster. This is exactly where an automatic Skype dialer can prove to be an indispensable utility.

Phipe automatic dialer for Skype is one such utility, which every telecalling / call center businesses should implement to facilitate their processes. The software application is highly customizable and integrates an organization’s CRM with Skype. However, in case an organization does not use a CRM, plain-text CSV files can also serve the purpose. Phipe automates the calling process by retrieving a list a contact numbers based on the criteria/ parameters set by the user. Once the list is generated the calls can be scheduled accordingly.

Apart from the above utilities, Phipe also offers some supportive features. The users can add their specific comments with respect to a client in the contacts database, create call dispositions, view contact information, create do not call lists, facilitates automatic detection of common file delimiters and also lets calls to be scheduled within a session.

Phipe is an easy to use utility. The user specifies selection criteria to Phipe; it then sends requests to select the related records. Once the user gets the sorted list; the call is initiated and directed to Skype through Phipe. Skype then sends back the response to Phipe. While disconnecting the call, the user sends the request to Phipe, which initiates the disconnecting process. Skype then sends back the response to Phipe, the disposition field is then updated and the next number is dialed.

All those involved in the process of making calls to a large list of contacts through Skype need automatic desktop dialer software that makes the entire process a lot faster and simpler. Their search surely ends with Phipe.

Alfred Anderson has rich experience in the field of online brand marketing. His interests includes Internet marketing and research on emerging online business trends. Automatic Dialer for Skype

Auto Dialers Meet IM - Innovative Solution For Call Centers

Call centers are fast becoming an important aspect of successful business in the contemporary scenario. With the global recognition of Customer Relationship Management as a tool for retaining customer loyalty, call centers have become essential for business and industry worldwide for enabling the organization establish a professional linkage with their clients. These call centers or communication centers help the business by providing the clients with excellent customer service, increasing customer satisfaction level, building customer relationship and maximizing revenue by maximizing customer loyalty.

Due to the nature of their function, i.e. communicating with clients all the time, these call centers have to ensure a smooth flow of work under all possible circumstances. This might call for regular upgradation of their systems and being in-tune with the latest technological trends, which can be time consuming and quite expensive at times. However, one of the most effective and affordable means used by most call centers in recent times, is the popular IM-VOIP solutions i.e. instant messaging system with voice over internet protocol.

One of the most common and widely used systems of this type is the Skype. Skype allows users to make telephone calls from their computer to other Skype users free of charge, or to landlines and cell phones for a small fee. This system is further aided with the introduction of automatic dialers or more popularly, auto dialers. Together, they power call centers with easy, affordable and fast means to get their routine works run smoothly.

Auto dialers, as the name rightly suggests, are electronic devices that can automatically dial telephone numbers to communicate between two points in the phone or pager networks. Once a connection is established between the two points, the auto dialers transmit data or verbal message to the other point. Auto dialers, along with Skype, have the potential to transfer a normal desktop PC into a fully functional communication device with the help of Internet. They cost comparatively cheaper and are easy to maintain. Some of them might also get upgraded for free as and when upgrades are available over the Internet, thus reducing a chunk of the time-consuming maintenance periods effectively.

However, it is important to choose right auto dialers to team up with Skype. Ideally a right system should provide multiple benefits and not just perform automation in the dialing procedure. It should support many more advanced features that could have additional benefits and thus effectively enhance a smooth workflow. A perfect auto dialer should essentially be compatible with Skype and automate manual dialing procedure. But then that is just the basic. It should also insert comments on a call to the database of contacts and create customized call dispositions. It should be able to provide detailed information about the contact being called. One important function that helps is the detection of file delimiters. The system should be able to detect common file delimiters and if possible, even customized ones. It also needs to create DNC i.e. do not call lists and schedule calls within a session.

An auto dialer with all these features when paired with Skype could be an ideal system for effective workflow in any call center.

This article is written by Ronn Jones, a marketing expert with years of experience in branding and internet marketing. Check out more information on Skype compatible auto dialers

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.

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

The Auto-Dialer Virus Strikes Again

 

I've Been Infected By An Auto-Dialer Virus
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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
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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
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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

Dialing Up a Scam: Avoiding the Auto-Dialer Virus

 

For many, the daily walk to the mailbox evokes mixed feelings: The glee that your favorite monthly magazine – or a friend’s hand-written letter (quite a surprise in the e-mail age) may be waiting is countered by anxiety of how many bills the postman left you.

Now, imagine coming across your phone bill, thicker and heavier than normal. When you open it, instead of “statement stuffers” from the phone company’s marketing department, the bill is dozens of pages long ending in a one-month total of almost $5,400.

A quick glance at the details reveals hundreds of calls to the same 1-900 number. “A mistake,” you insist. After all, you're the only person in the house and you have never called a 900 number before. Actually, this is no mistake. In this true story, the homeowner had fallen victim to one of the oldest computer scams around: the "Auto-Dialer" virus.

How Did This Computer Security Nightmare Begin
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What is an “auto-dialer”? Some time ago, the phone companies came up with a feature that allowed merchants to reach a broader range of customers by allowing consumers to make payments via your phone bill. If you did not have a credit card, you just dialed a 900 number, connected by voice or modem (for Internet sites). Every minute you used the service, you were charged a fee ranging from $1 to $5 or more per minute. At month’s end, the charge appeared on the phone bill. Many services were legit: Consumers called weather, horoscope and gambling services offering this feature. But many merchants sold expensive phone or online adult content.

How Did An Auto-Dialer Get Installed
-----------------------------------------------------------
But how did $5,400 in charges end up on the person’s phone bill? Although many of these services require the user to physically dial the number or connect to the online site by instructing the modem to dial the number, this can happen without the user’s knowledge. In the above case, the person’s computer was infected with an auto-dialer virus. Somewhere during his Web travels, he connected to a site that popped up a rather confusing message instructing him to "Hit OK" to make the message go away. What this person didn't know was he was agreeing to download,install, and execute an adult content auto-dialer.

Behind the scene, the auto-dialer installed itself, checked for the presence of a modem and dial tone, and then proceeded to dial an overseas 900 number over and over again. Even though the person surfed using an always-on broadband Internet connection, the modem remained so he could send and receive faxes. One problem: When he wasn’t using the modem, it remained plugged into the phone jack. Why should he have unplugged it? It's not like it could hurt anything, right? Wrong.

How To Protect Yourself
-----------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, there is no single solution to avoid these types of malicious acts. A short list of protective measures would include:

1) If you no longer need a modem in your computer, remove it. Or at least disconnect the phone line from the modem;

2) Install anti-virus software such as Trend Micro or Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus. Many are designed to prevent this kind of malicious software, or “Malware.” More importantly, make sure your subscription for new virus patterns is current and configured to automatically download and install updates;

3) Install and regularly run Adware protection solutions such as LavaSoft's Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search & Destroy;

4) And do not, under any circumstances, blindly hit “OK” to pop-ups or similar annoyances without first making sure what you are agreeing to.

This tale is not fiction; in fact, it happens frequently, to businesses and consumers, kids and adults. But even the least savvy among us can thwart such an attack. A neighborhood teenager recently avoided potentially thousands in fees when an auto-dialer was downloaded and installed. How? She had unplugged the modem.

Darren Miller is an Industry leading computer and internet security consultant. At the website - http://www.defendingthenet.com you will find information about computer security specifically design to assist home, home business and small business computer users. Sign up for defending the nets newsletter and stay informed and empowered to stay safe on the Internet. You can reach Darren at mailto:darren.miller@paralogic.net or at mailto:defendthenet@paralogic.net
URL
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http://www.defendingthenet.com/NewsLetters/Auto-Dialer-Newsletter.htm

Predictive Dialers - Human Interaction Maximized

Predictive dialers are many steps removed from their predessors, the automatic dialers of the past. Whereas automatic dialing allowed callcenter agencies to dial numbers quickly and efficiently, predictive dialing also processes and makes use of a whole range of information, linking callers to live voices every single time. In fact, with predictive dialing, agents' 'talk time' has increased from an average of twenty minutes per hour to fifty minutes per hour. This is a fabulous rate of improvement - instead of wasting more than half of their time on listening to busy signals and answering machine messages, agents now spend the majority of their time engaged in producting interaction. The dialer also manages the line to agent ratio by pacing the call rate at the desired level. In this way, quotas are met, and agents are neither idle nor overwhelmed. In other words, because the hardware and software does its job, agents are able to spend much more time doing theirs. And of course, increased contact time means that the center's goals are reached much more quickly.

In many ways, it is still true that the real value of a call center depends on its 'human capital' - the agents who interact with clients and potential clients. The more the center's human capital is brought to the forefront, the more everyone benefits. The aim of technology, therefore, is to maximize the time that agents are able to spend doing what only they can do - conversing, communicating, interacting. Predictive dialing and other call center technology represents a perfect symbiosis between person and machine.

A predictive dialing system is able to keep track of which agents are available, while monitoring the responses to the outgoing calls that it makes. Numbers that are busy, disconnected, fax lines, or calls that are answered by machines or voicemail systems are not connected to an agent. Only the calls that are answered by a live voice are put through to an agent, which means that the agent spends almost all of his or her time on the line with a live person. Facilitating and maximizing talk time is the goal of every call center.

The hidden benefit in all this is the fact that the agent is much less likely to get bored or disheartened. Human contact is important to everybody, and particularly to those who select careers that highlight communication. Many of the agents who choose to work in call centers are there precisely because they are attracted to the work due to the fact that they have excellent communication skills and enjoy interacting with people. An endless stream of answering machines or busy signals is bound to frustrate them. When they are able to spend fifty minutes out of each hour actually interacting with clients, however, the agents find that time goes by much faster and their workday is more varied and interesting. Furthermore, they know that their skills are valued, and that their company supports them by investing in the appropriate technology.

Predictive dialing technology is improving all the time. One problem that we occasionally still encounter is a short lag between the time the outgoing call is answered and the time the agent gets on the line. Generally, this is only a matter of a few seconds, and some systems play a short recorded message during this time. Nevertheless, any sort of lag time increases the possibility that the potential client will become confused, and that part of the agent's talk time will be spent sorting out the confusion. There is also the chance that the client may hang up. Therefore, measures are being taken to speed up voice connects and minimize this lag time to the point where it may become imperceptible.

Predictive dialing has revolutionized call centers, and has the potential to continue doing so. Calls are made much more efficiently, employees are happier, and the goals of the call center are likely to be me much faster. Now that this technology is readily available (and improving all the time) it would be almost unthinkable for any sizable call center not to invest in predictive dialers.

Prodialing strives to provide concise information concerning the high tech arena of callcenters, including predictive dialers, inbound/outbound, IVR and much, much more. See our website at ProDialing.com (http://www.prodialing.com).

Collection Predictive Dialer

 

Collection predictive dialing offers a highly flexible and scalable open architecture, enabling the customer to integrate with virtually any debt collection software solution available. Many agencies have successfully worked with many credit and collection software agencies. In many cases, they have increased their productivity by over 500% and revenues by well over 250% over their existing collections software.

Collection predictive dialing engines in integration with leading collection agency software solutions significantly extend the capabilities of debt collection agencies by making maximum use of an extensive suite of call center automation modules. Many agencies have benefited in areas of debt collection including medical collections, business collections, consumer collections, bad debt collections, etc.

During a call run, the collection predictive dialing system dials multiple telephone lines from lists of accounts from the database system. Upon detection of a "live voice," the system connects the telephone line to the agent’s headset. At the same time, the full account information regarding the called party appears on the agent’s computer screen. Rapid dialing is an automatic process.

Collection predictive dialing utilizes the latest call center automation modules such as the 100% digital call center recording system that has the capability to record all inbound and outbound calls while saving only calls with customer-specific disposition codes. When an agent at any collection call center receives a call, the agent assigns a disposition code to the call. Depending upon the results, the call center recording system saves only assigned disposition codes.

Collection predictive dialing has a real time campaign and script adjustment capability that allows management to execute full control of floor activity. It can be integrated with virtually any debt collection management software.

As a result the integration with any debt collection system software forms a complete solution for a successful debt collection agency.

Predictive Dialers provides detailed information on Predictive Dialer, Collection Predictive Dialer, Predictive Dialer Software, Predictive Dialer System and more. Predictive Dialers is affiliated with Free Phone Answering Service