Is your business at the point where you need to start ramping up your sales that lead to conversions and support that leads to customer retention? Considering an outbound dialer to boost your outbound calling process may be an effective solution. But before you choose which you want to go ahead with, it is important to understand the difference between the different types of outbound dialers available.
Types of Outbound Dialers
Outbound dialers or softphones usually come along with the outbound calling software you purchase for your sales calls. Businesses of all kinds and sizes use this software to make outgoing sales calls to prospects and potential customers. Agents usually work off of a predetermined list put together through market research. Similarly, you can use this software or tool to boost your customer success efforts by making it easy to contact existing customers.
With dialers, such as those listed below, agents and employees don’t have to spend most of their time looking up contact information and dialing. This, in turn, ensures that more time is spent on the call instead. Therefore, outbound dialers can help increase efficiency and productivity within your contact center or sales team.
There are a few different types of outbound dialers. But choosing one that works best for your needs depends on the size of your sales team and how you want to reinvent your outbound calling process.
Softphones
Softphone applications are offered by virtual phone service providers. You can download the softphone to your computer, laptop, or smartphone. Some providers even offer a softphone app as a browser extension that you can assign to your browser. And with Google Workspace integrations, you may even be able to add the softphones and dialers within your Gmail inbox features. Once you download the softphone, you can use the keypad to place calls. You can also access other features such as the voicemail inbox, call transfer, customer information, and so on.
Manual Dialing
Most small to medium businesses start here and continue to use manual dialing for their sales calls. Manual dialing gives agents more control and responsibility. In most cases, they refer to a predetermined list and make calls to specific prospects. A manual dialer allows them to choose who to call and when to call.
Click-to-Call Features
A click-to-call type of dialer is a feature that may be integrated into the customer relationship management (CRM) used by the company. A click-to-call feature will allow users to click on a phone number entered in to the CRM and place the call. A robust and resourceful CRM will store all customer information. And so, when agents place calls, they will have access to call notes and other important details. Additionally, they can enter more notes into this system-wide database.
Preview Dialers
Preview dialers provide agents a preview of the prospect before placing the call. Once an agent is ready to call, the dialer offers information about the call and the person being called. Then, after a set amount of time, the dialer places the call giving the agent time to prepare for the call. This type of outbound caller is most useful in cases where each call is complex and has different sensitive information.
Power Dialers
These outbound dialers use automation to automatically make outbound calls when an agent is available. These are relatively inexpensive when compared to predictive dialers. But they can help reduce dialing time and increase time spent on the call itself.
Predictive Dialers
Predictive dialers use AI automation and automated agents to place calls. These outbound dialers will collect information about how agents are handling calls. And then, they themselves take on the role of agents and call multiple contacts simultaneously. When answered, the dialer transfers it to the right agent. Even though such outbound dialers are more expensive than other options, they are growing more and more popular because they can greatly reduce the time spent on calling leads and increase efficiency.
So, Which Dialer is it Going to be?
Part of being a good business manager is providing your employees and agents with the right tools needed to increase productivity, leading to better results. Ultimately, it is your call when it comes to making necessary changes and additions to your business processes. Research, experiment, and make the right decision on which dialer is best for you.
