An auto dialer is a dialing technology that not only makes calls on behalf of your agents but also systematically adjusts its call-to-agent ratio based on available resources. A power dialer, on the other hand, relies solely on human contact center management to manually dictate that ratio.
Both types of dialer have benefits for contact center operations. But in terms of giving personnel fewer things to do outside of having conversations with customers, auto dialers provide more value.
Most modern auto dialer solutions are not illegal because they typically come with compliance features. These features guarantee that they’re only contacting customers who are open to telemarketing calls and the like.
This is, of course, in response to regulatory mandates that protect consumers like the TCPA (for North America) and the TPS/TCPS (for the United Kingdom).
These regulations also protect individuals from receiving unsolicited calls that deliver messages using a computer-generated voice.
If you don’t have the necessary compliance features, you run the risk of calling people who don’t want to be contacted for commercial purposes—a violation that can cost the organization anywhere from $500 to $1500 per offense in the US and Canada and up to £500,000 in the UK.
How much an auto dialer costs can depend on a few things. But the biggest factor may very well be whether you’re getting a standalone dialer (separate dialing solutions) or a dialer that’s already part of a cloud-based call center software.
A provider may charge you on an annual, monthly, per call, or up-front basis for standalone software, and that can start at a few hundred dollars. This works fine for smaller operations that don’t rely heavily on phone calling campaigns for their marketing and sales. But this can shoot up to several thousand dollars as your needs evolve. It's even worse if you want the dialer to work with an old-school phone system—you'll have to invest in at least one voice modem for that.
If your contact center operations are going to be a big part of your business strategy, it’s much more cost-effective to partner with a provider that offers comprehensive cloud-based call center solutions that already include an all-in-one auto dialer. For example: 8x8’s X6 charges you $125/user/month for a service that not only offers cloud-based call center software with an adjustable dialer but unified communications features as well.
To get the best auto dialer for your business, you have to be absolutely clear on what you need it for and how you’re going to be using it today and in the future. With that in mind, here are three questions you need to ask yourself:
- What kinds of campaigns will my company run? This gives you an idea of what features you need your dialer to have.
- How big is our outbound calling workforce now and how big will it be? If you don’t have a lot of manpower and have no plans on growing it, you’ll probably want to avoid solutions that only offer predictive dialer modes.
- How easily can we deploy this software? When looking into automated dialer options, make sure you check reviews for user-friendliness (For example: Does it have an intuitive interface?) and implementation support. That way, you know that the outbound dialing solution will help rather than hinder your entire sales process.