Wednesday, June 17, 2009

What are the Different Types of Predictive Dialers

By Sam Purdy

There are five different types of dialers commonly used. They are the Soft Dialers, Hard Dialers, Smart Predictive Dialers, Hosted Predictive Dialers and Hybrid Predictive Dialers.

Soft Dialers are a soft-ware only system that is connected to a Private Branch Exchange systems. These are usually the lesser expensive option in a Predictive Dialer because you are not investing in the expensive hardware commonly seen with the Hard Dialer systems. The downside is that these systems don't do as well with detecting answering machines and other systems with voice integration.

Hard Dialers use special dedicated telephony boards to analyze phone calls and detect the presence of answer machines. They have two types of connection, agent audio and external audio. The agent audio makes a phone call to the agent working when they first log into their desk for their work session. This phone call remains open while they work. The external audio is used to make the calls to the customers. When a connection is made to a person these connections merge so that the agent is able to speak with the customer. This Dialer system can handle larger call volumes and can switch from call to call faster than the soft Dialers. The disadvantages are that these systems are more expensive to obtain and maintain than the soft dialers.

Smart Predictive Dialers are a combination of auto dialing with voice messaging with phone agents. This Dialer handles busy, disconnected and answering machine calls the same way as a regular Dialer system. The major difference is that when an actual person is detected on the phone, the system relays a message informing the person of the nature of the call and allows them to make the choice to speak to a live representative. These systems allow for calls to be managed much quicker and fewer agents are needed to handle more phone calls because the agents are only speaking with interested individuals. The problem to this option is that your success rate may be less because of people's resistance to talking and listening to recorded messages.

A Hosted Predictive Dialer is a system that utilizes a computer, telephone and Internet connection for every agent. This system is outsourced through a service provider. The benefits are that there is very little cost or investment to set up, any problems are directed to the service provider and connections can be made from any location. The problem is that you need the Internet for this to work, so if your connection is down, so is the service. Its also not as reliable as the other systems.

The final Dialer type is the Hybrid Predictive Dialer. This Dialer is a marriage of both the Soft Dialer and Hosted Dialer systems. It has all of the advantages of both systems with the major disadvantage again being that its reliant upon the Internet connection.

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