Inside Sales Blog » Power dialer

February 26, 2008

Learning Curve

Filed under: Dialers, Power dialer — andersli @ 11:29 am

I am surprised to discover that I am fascinated by some of this stuff I’m learning at my new job. I would not have thought that dialers would be so interesting. Did you know that there are different kinds of dialers? And that is why sometimes when you get called by a telemarketer there is no one there. I hate that…so much worse than just talking to them for a minute and finding out if I want what they got, ya know?? Anyway, I guess that kind of dialer is called a predictive dialer. It actually dials several numbers at once, and it does this before the phone rep is even on the line, and basically blindsides them with calls, relentlessly. That doesn’t sound like a fun job at all, by the way. And no wonder they sometimes sound a little disoriented when you answer! This dialer just pounds through the numbers, losing a lot of them along the way because so many of the calls are placed and then the dialer hangs up on them before they’re answered.

Another kind of dialer is called a power dialer and it seems a bit more sophisticated–like it could have cocktails with visiting diplomats, or whatever. Haha! But when compared to the predictive dialer, it is more refined, truly. It allows the phone rep to choose when to place a call. This dialer calls one number at a time, and it’s still pretty time efficient but it doesn’t waste leads or waste people’s time.

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February 25, 2008

Power Dialers: The Cadillac of Dialers

Filed under: Dialers, Power dialer — andersli @ 10:47 am

Of the several varieties of dialers, power dialers are the most refined and the most customer-friendly. For a call center whose goal is to churn through thousands of numbers a day, this may not be the best tool for the job. However, if a business hopes to foster deeper customer relations, to make calls to senior management, or to live by a quality-over-quantity motto, then a power dialer is the luxury vehicle required for that purpose.

A power dialer is the first step toward streamlining the entire process of making business-to-business calls. This dialer automates a significant amount of the process by managing the list of numbers and dialing, which allows for up to 30% increased productivity over manual dialing. Although predictive dialers automate the entire process, the power dialer is superior for several reasons.

Top on that list is that with a power dialer, each customer is called individually and treated with dignity, unlike the cattle-herding attempts of predictive or ratio dialers. Even though the power dialer is technically less efficient than its faster-paced counterparts, it still results in a substantial increase in productivity.

By allowing each lead the space in which to be processed there is drastically reduced waste—more leads are closed, and fewer are lost to the ghost in the machine that is a predictive dialer. By taking this approach, a solid return on investment is produced and even smaller call centers are able to operate at a fraction of the cost.

With predictive dialers there is a problem with the phone system getting ahead of the phone rep—calls will be placed, and answered, but the lead is in effect left hanging, while waiting for the caller to respond. Very often this results in a hang up from the lead’s side and generally cultivates a high level of annoyance from those on the receiving end. This is not a practice that any company would want to be involved with if it is trying to build a relationship with a future client, customer, or associate. Because a power dialer puts the control in the hands of the caller, that never happens.

Power dialers are a solid investment for any company, but especially for a business-to- business call center. They boost productivity, keep lead costs down, and help maintain smooth customer relations.

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