Modernizing your company’s call center is not a simple task. There are any number of platform and dialer considerations to be made, that is to say nothing of the immense challenge presented by the decisions relating to size, location, layout, and setup. If you’re struggling, read on for the basics of some reliable dialer options to see what works best for you.
Things to avoid
Rise of robots threatens to terminate the UK call-centre workforce
Call center operations are phasing out the old, slow, and often dreaded systems that both callers and clients have had to struggle through in the past. AI is a trending among modernizing call centers, with 60 percent of surveyed C-level executives claiming that their business plans to increase spending in this segment in 2019. The trouble with AI implementation is that consumers enjoy the benefits of targeted advertising and promotional material, but remain averse to handing over what feels like sensitive data to a form online or an annoying robocaller over the phone.
This is where advancements in calling procedures come into stride. People simply feel safer when discussing important matters with another human, but this only works if the representative on the other end of the line sounds professional, competent, and knowledgeable. Nothing ruins a sales pitch like a rookie caller fumbling through the rigidly compiled sample script or a hung computer that causes the agent to make a customer on the other end wait. Matched with the rising number of scammers posing as IRS agents trying to “settle” your suspiciously high tax debt, it is no wonder that people are becoming more enraged every time the phone rings.
Modern options
Will Contact Centers Still Take Calls In 10 Years?
These architectural factors can actually form a significant reason for your call center’s high rate of attrition, or lack thereof. When call center agents feel the pressure of outdated technology, slow calling procedures, or an iron fisted manager in the face of these difficulties, it is only a matter of time until they simply take their calling talents and move on to another outfit.
The setup begins with a choice among a variety of calling apparatuses: do you select some form of a predictive dialer, a power dialer, or none at all, leaving your agents to hand dial leads in order to connect with clients? This is the most important choice you’ll make regarding the calling infrastructure; you can chose the cheap route, but this will likely cost you in the long run.
Predictive dialing is a giant leap ahead in the efficiency of a call center campus and, through either traditional or cloud-based platforms, is a much more cost effective solution to snail paced calling efforts than a power dialer. These allow for automatic dialing and intuitive disposition assignment at the end of each and every call. A predictive dialer differs from run-of-the-mill auto dialers in that they dial batch numbers for the center’s CSA’s and connect them to live calls as soon as someone connects on the other end of the phone. This is a fantastic way to improve call center efficiency over the antiquated scenes of salesmen and customer service representatives dialing up a client, waiting for an answer and then filing away the record after either connecting or being routed to an answering service before even beginning to dial the next record.
Power dialers, on the other hand, operate as dedicated dialers for each rep in the office. When a call is ended, the dialer initiates contact with the next phone number on the list. This can be an effective solution as many automatically end and sort calls that go to answering machines or reach busy or disconnected numbers. Predictive dialing, on the other hand, is more attuned to these temporary slowdowns and simply doesn’t assign these responses to a caller, moving on to live lines for agents to speak with clients over.
Predictive dialers are the way of the future, seeking out live connections to real people before routing the call to an agent, and in this way, agents are able to spend more of their energy on the phone with a lead or recurring customer and less time playing phone tag with the ones who don’t want to be found.
