Why Do Call Center Managers Prefer Preview Dialer?

The call centers these days run multiple outbound calling campaigns at a time. Some of these campaigns require call centers to connect with more potential customers in a short amount of time, while others require personalized customer communication.

The automated dialer or auto dialers make it easier for call centers to run outbound calling campaigns by dialing telephone number of customers from a database or a phone list automatically.

They are also designed with the capability to detect answering machines, voicemails, busy tones, unanswered calls, and disconnected calls. Hence, they play a prerecorded voice message or connect the caller to a live agent only when the outbound call is answered by a real person.

A call center manager has the option to choose from different types of auto dialer software – predictive dialer, power dialer, and preview dialer – according to the precise needs of each outbound calling campaign.

Like other types of auto dialer software, preview dialers also place outbound calls automatically. They further make agents handle only live calls or answered calls. But this dialer, unlike predictive dialers, does not determine agent availability using algorithms.

It places the next outbound call only after being instructed by the agent to do so. The agents cannot use this dialer to connect with more customers in a short amount of time as the auto dialer software supports one-to-one calling ratio.

But the auto dialer software helps agents to personalize customer communication by providing information about the customer or lead before initiating the outbound call. It allows agents to decide about placing the outbound call and skipping a particular number.

Hence, a call center manager cannot use preview dialers to run large-scale marketing campaigns that require customer connection management. But many call center managers still prefer them to other types of outbound dialers due to a number of reasons.

7 Reasons Why Call Center Managers Prefer Preview Dialers to Other Auto Dialers

1. Enable Agents to Preview Customer Information

As noted earlier, a preview dialer enables agents to view or preview information about a customer or lead before initiating the outbound calls. The hosted dialers further display the customer record on the screen through the conversation.

The on-time access to updated information about a customer or lead helps agents to add a personal touch to the conversation. The agents can further leverage the information to convert a lead into a customer through personalized and customized interaction.

2. Reduce Call Abandonment Rate

No manager can run outbound calling campaigns successfully without reducing the call abandonment rate. Unlike predictive dialers, preview dialers do not determine agent availability using the statistical algorithm. They enable agents to decide when to place the next call and which customer/lead to contact next.

Hence, it becomes easier for managers to reduce call abandonment rates due to the unavailability of agents. The improvement in agent availability helps agents to keep prospects engaged and persuade them to place orders.

3. Curtail Average Call Handling Time

The call center managers use average handling time (AHT) as a key metric for measuring efficiency and performance of agents. AHT refers to the average amount of time an agent takes to handle an outbound call. The preview dialers enable agents to reduce the amount of time required to handle outbound calls by accessing the required information at the right time.

The managers can further make agents access updated customer information by integrating it with a CRM system. The reduced AHT helps agents to handle more outbound calls in a short amount of time.

4. Interact with Customers without Any Delay

Many customers these days hang up the phone when they realize the person at the other end of the line is a telemarketer. The predictive dialers make it easier for customers to identify telemarketers by causing a delay in connecting the call.

But a preview dialer places the outbound call based on the agent’s explicit instructions. Hence, an agent starts talking to the customer immediately as soon as the outbound call is answered. The no-delay in connections helps call centers to boost outbound calling campaigns by increasing customer interaction.

5. Boost Customer Experience and Engagement

Often call center agents impact customer experience adversely by asking irrelevant or wrong questions to customers. No outbound agent can keep a customer interested and engaged without asking questions based on his or her needs, desires, and expectations.

The agents must do some initial research before placing the outbound calls to avoid asking irrelevant questions. Hosted preview dialers help agents to plan and control customer conversation by previewing relevant information. They further make it easier for agents to close sales deals with the right questions to each customer.

6. Simplify Complex Sales Deals

Often call center agents need to put extra time and effort to close complex sales deals successfully. They need a variety of information to prepare for the sales call adequately and control the sales call fully.

The preview dialers make it easier for agents to personalize and control customer conversation by accessing relevant and updated information. Many call center managers opt for these dialers to close complex and B2B sales deals by providing more power and control to agents.

7. Boost Sales Conversion

Unlike other auto dialers, preview dialers help call centers to keep interaction between customers and agents result-oriented. The on-time access to customer data helps agents to understand the needs and expectations of a customer or lead.

The agents can further refer to the customer record consistently to keep the conversion result-oriented. The result-oriented conversation helps agents to convert prospects into customers. Many call centers these days leverage these dialers to increase the conversation rate through customer communication personalization.

On the whole, a preview dialer does not help call centers to increase customer connection by supporting one-to-one dialing ratio. But it helps call centers to increase sales conversion by enabling agents to personalize customer communication by providing relevant information about a customer or lead at the right time.

The hosted predictive dialers further make it easier for call center managers to keep customer-agent interaction result-oriented without handling hardware-based IT infrastructure.