Best Predictive Dialer Software
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PRODUCTS
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BUYER'S GUIDE
Buyer's Guide
By Kriti Sahay, Technical Writer at SelectHub
Most outbound sales and marketing calls either never get answered or go straight to voicemail. If you’re running a call center, you’re probably as familiar with this problem as Douglas Samuelson was — the man who invented his revolutionary predictive dialer software in the 1980s.
Modern predictive dialers can screen and eliminate busy signals, hang-ups and answering machines to ensure that agents only connect to live calls. They’re the perfect call center solution for optimizing your outbound campaigns and boosting lead generation. But with so many choices on the market, arriving at a decision can be daunting. This buyer’s guide can help you make the right choice. Let’s learn more!
Executive Summary
- Predictive dialer software automatically dials numbers with the best chances of being answered and then routes answered calls to available agents.
- Predictive dialers are available as standalone applications or as a part of a more comprehensive call center management platform.
- Before making a final decision on which tool to use, make sure to ask the vendor any questions you have and ensure that it meets your specific needs and requirements.
What Is Predictive Dialer Software?
Predictive dialer software is a type of auto-dialer that dials numbers in the background and then automatically routes answered calls to available agents. It can dial multiple phone numbers simultaneously, upload call lists, screen for busy signals or volumes and more. It helps reduce idle or wasted time resulting from manual dialing or unanswered calls.
The software can make “predictions” by feeding data points, like average call length or rate of abandoned calls, into statistical algorithms. This allows it to predict when agents will wrap up a call and be ready to answer the next one, and which connections will most likely be fruitful.
In call centers, predictive dialers can also be used for better resource allocation. When the availability of agents is higher than the number of calls, the software dials numbers more frequently. Similarly, if agent availability is less than the average talk time, the tool adjusts accordingly to avoid keeping customers on hold.
Predictive dialer software can enhance your outbound campaigns, optimize the use of time and resources, and help your agents generate more leads.
Primary Benefits
Let’s take a look at some of the primary benefits of predictive dialer software.
Faster Outbound Calling
Predictive dialer software allows your call center agents to field more calls by automating the tedious and repetitive task of dialing numbers manually. The software can line up the next call before the agent is done with their current call so that once they hang up, they can immediately move on to a new contact.
Integrating technology into your call centers can empower agents and make them more efficient at their jobs, creating superhuman agents.
Better Queue Prioritization
With high call volumes, agents can often find it difficult to prioritize their call lists. Predictive dialers can help optimize agents’ queues by prioritizing which caller gets initial calls and callbacks first based on time zones, conversion potential and more. It also arranges outbound calls based on the agent selected. You can adjust your call schedule based on time zones to encourage higher pickup rates from important clients.
Combining this with call center scripting software can help improve lead generation and boost sales. Hubspot found that making the sales process more efficient is a top priority for two-thirds of professionals surveyed. Predictive dialer software can help you achieve exactly that.
Increased Contact Rates
A study by Hiya found that unanswered phone calls negatively impact customer retention, sales volumes, customer satisfaction and productivity. Predictive dialers can help you increase contact rates and avoid these pitfalls.
The software can identify and skip busy signals, fake numbers and answering machines to enable agents to spend their time more productively on live conversations, generate more leads and close more deals. This also helps you reduce idle time and maximizes call handling time, which improves agent productivity.
Additionally, predictive dialer software can ring multiple numbers simultaneously, which allows agents to field more calls and improve their chances of making a live connection.
Improved Lead Generation
The aforementioned benefits of predictive dialers lead to improved lead generation and conversion. But, in addition to what we already went over, there are other ways the software supports this as well.
Predictive dialer software can improve campaign outreach and workforce management by assigning each lead to suitable agents and boosting the chances of lead generation. The software is a better tool for this than power dialers because it allows agents the option to set up all outreach efforts according to existing client relationships. It can also be integrated with your CRM platform for long-term campaigns.
No Maintenance Cost
For cloud-based predictive dialer software, businesses don’t need to invest in infrastructure and hardware. All they need is a robust and reliable internet connection with enough bandwidth. Moreover, the vendor updates the software regularly wherever the new version is available without bothering the customers and agents. Cloud-based predictive dialers are also very suitable for virtual call centers.
Key Features & Functionality
Upload Lists | Agents can upload contact lists for campaigns in CSV format. |
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Manage Numbers | Administer numbers in contact lists and ensure that even if a number appears more than once in the list, it only gets called once. You can also avoid calling numbers or cell phones in specific area codes. |
Do Not Call (DNC) Compliance | Track customers’ requests to be placed on the DNC list in real time to ensure compliance with FTC rules. You can also upload your organization’s DNC list to the National Registry and exclude those numbers from their campaigns. |
Vertical Dialing | Agents working in collection agencies can upload and dial multiple phone numbers for each contact to improve list penetration rates in an outbound campaign. |
Customer Caller ID | Control the numbers and names that appear on outbound caller ID and dial out from a number with the same area code as the contact. |
Call Scheduling Rules | Limit the number of times the dialer begins and ends making calls in a day. |
Agent Scripts | Customize branching scripts that allow agents to handle calls throughout the contact center. |
Dialing Rate | Control the number of times agents dial each contact and adjust the dialing rate for outbound sales calls according to lead priority. |
Pacing Algorithms | Define a call abandonment rate and if the user exceeds this rate, they can adjust pacing by dialing fewer numbers until the abandonment rate drops. |
Answering Machine Detection | Screen calls answered by machines and avoid FAX, voicemail, busy signals and more. |
Software Comparison Strategy
With so many providers and features to consider, choosing the right predictive dialer software may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. To start out, you should outline your organizational goals and objectives, determine your organization’s core strengths and weaknesses, and define a solid framework based on your company’s needs.
It’s helpful to create a requirements checklist that clarifies what features will help your company most. Our requirements template can help you get a clearer picture of what your needs are. Finally, compare vendors or talk to our experts who can assist you with the best product depending on your budget, requirements and eligibility.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
When evaluating predictive dialer software, you must keep your budget in mind. Pricing depends on various factors such as deployment strategy, number of user licenses required and the modules and add-ons. You can also opt for packages and support options if necessary but be careful to evaluate the cost of the system before taking a pick.
If you’re using an on-premise solution, it’s always a good idea to check whether the one-time payment includes the cost of updates, repairs and maintenance. You may also have to pay extra for version upgrades down the line.
The Most Popular Predictive Dialer Software
It can be daunting to navigate all the options on the predictive dialer software market. To help you on your search, we’ve listed three top performers that hold a unique position among competitors and successfully deliver the essential requirements.
Aspect
Aspect is a leading call center solution that supports both inbound and outbound calls from across the globe over voice, email, SMS and other communication channels. It’s available with a wide range of contact management features such as inbound and outbound voice support, omnichannel agent and digital self-service designed to enhance operational efficiency and ensure compliance to deliver world-class customer experiences.
Outbound campaign management with Aspect. Source
Nextiva
Nextiva is a premier telecommunications management solution that allows organizations to integrate their customer service platform with AI, analytics and VoIP phones in a single platform to deliver a simplified and user-friendly experience to customers. Agents can access this software from anywhere and interact using video chat, message and email modules.
Contact management with Nextiva. Source
Five9
Five9 is a cloud-based contact center management solution that can help you enhance your call center’s productivity. Five9 is a reliable and secure platform that offers tools like artificial intelligence, agent assist, workflow automation and interactive analysis to enhance customer experience and improve agent productivity. Since it’s a cloud-based solution, it offers full support for remote agents and virtual call centers.
Contact management with Five9. Source
Questions To Ask
Selecting software for any organization involves a lot of research and analysis. Before deciding on a product, ask yourself these questions and evaluate software in the context of your organization’s needs:
- What features of the solution will be influential for my business workflows?
- What are my present and future priorities regarding business growth and development?
- Am I overpaying for the solution?
- Will the new predictive dialer system be able to integrate with my existing call center technology?
- How well will it replace or enhance the functionalities of the existing system?
Use these questions as a starting point for conversations with the vendor:
- How scalable is the software?
- How do updates occur and if they occur automatically, will they impact the software's accessibility?
- How well does the software integrate with other call center tools?
- What customization is available?
- Are there any extra costs associated with the plan?
Next Steps
The predictive dialer is an important part of any call center and streamlines critical parts of an organization’s outbound campaigns. It helps agents provide better customer experiences, create long-term relationships and stay on top of leads.
If you’re ready for the next step, our free comparison report can help you see how leading products match up with what your business needs. We hope this guide helped you on your software selection journey!
Additional Resources
Products found for Predictive Dialer Software
Aspect
Aspect is a contact management solution that supports global inbound and outbound communications across voice, email, SMS and other methods. It improves operational efficiency, ensures compliance and delivers satisfactory customer experiences. Other offerings include inbound and outbound voice support, omnichannel agent, digital self-service and more.
Nextiva
Nextiva allows users to combine customer service and internal business with VoIP phones, analytics and AI all located in a single platform creating a user-friendly, simplified experience. Accessible from anywhere, at any time, it includes video chat, email and message modules for communicating within the business and with customers. It’s equally suitable for small, medium and large companies.Analytics track sales pipelines, allowing for in-depth insights on how customers interact with the business and what they want and need. Keep customers satisfied with automated switching to direct them to the correct person to help with any questions they may have.
Five9
Five9 is a cloud contact center solution to facilitate customer engagement globally. It helps enhance agent and supervisor productivity, increase revenue, and improve the customer experience. Along with simplifying the complexities of a contact center, it also reduces the cost of on-premises maintenance. Other offerings include historical dashboards, agent scripting, web callback, speech-enabled IVR, pre-built CRM integrations and more.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 facilitates the execution of the customer journey. It supplies organizations with tools for marketing, sales and customer service activities such as lead generation, marketing automation, campaign management and call center support.It comes with a free edition for companies with less advanced needs or a smaller budget. Deployment is available in the cloud and on-premise. It’s suitable for smaller businesses as well as enterprises with up to 50,000 employees.
Gong
Gong is a revenue intelligence solution that helps capture customer interactions across web, calls, emails and other communication methods. It facilitates better decision-making for revenue strategy by offering real-time insights and analytics based on sales conversions. Its other major attributes include deal intelligence, integrations, people intelligence, field sales and market intelligence.
Avaya
Avaya is a cloud-based business communication solution to digitize business interactions and enable better team collaboration. Users can access it across channels on the go and ensure an improved customer experience. It offers unified communications, anticipates inquiries and enables self-service to answer frequent questions. Its other major offerings include omnichannel connectivity with a single desktop, meetings and conferencing, AI support and more.
Tenfold
Tenfold improves customer interactions for contact centers by providing sales reps with real-time data in a centralized location. This improvement increases conversion rates and streamlines workflows. It offers seamless integration with CRM and other technology, manages agent status and availability and provides natural language processing.
TalkDesk
Talkdesk is an AI and cloud-based call center software that helps businesses build stronger customer relationships. Empower agents with a 360-degree customer view, more personalized conversations and improved conversion and first-contact resolution rates. Its capabilities include integration with over 20 business tools such as Zendesk, Salseforce, Desk.com, Slack and more. Other capabilities include automated workflows, skill-based routing and live reporting.
CXone
CXone (formerly called inContact) provides contact center and workforce optimization solutions to enterprises. Customers can connect to call agents through more than 30 interaction options including chat, messaging, email, voice calling and social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp. Businesses can monitor contact center and employee performance through a live dashboard that provides basic reporting. Customers are connected to the best skilled resources through automatic call distribution (ACD) based on analytics and artificial intelligence. IVR call flows integrate with analytics to ensure efficient data-directed routing for quicker resolution of customer queries. Workforce intelligence automatically triggers alerts and actions based on historical interactions and scheduling patterns to free up resources. Its no-pause predictive dialer helps call agents get through call lists faster.Call center analytics include metrics on agent-customer interaction, productivity data, reports and performance management aids. Businesses can get feedback on customer experience through surveys, identify discrepancies and boost productivity. It provides out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, Microsoft 365, GSuite, Microsoft Teams, Oracle, Zendesk and RingCentral.
Aircall
Aircall is a cloud-based professional phone system that streamlines customer support and sales engagement. It integrates with CRM and helpdesks. It offers a power dialer, call routing, ring groups, call queuing and live feeds. The software is best suited for modern small and medium-sized businesses, especially those that have call centers.e dashboard to control team activity, coach agents and listen to live calls. Create inbound and outbound call centers. It can integrate with Zendesk, Salesforce and Hubspot.
PhoneBurner
PhoneBurner is a sales dialer solution that helps improve profitability with enhanced outreach through calls, live connections, closed deals and appointments. Its customizability allows users to reach customers right after deployment and include new users with minimal extra setup. It reduces VoIP related audio issues and simplifies the remote sales process. It also offers workflow automation, lead distribution, remote dialing, collaborative onboarding and more.
Qualfon
Qualfon provides comprehensive contact center, BPO (business process outsourcing) and back-office processing solutions. Its offerings include customer service, integrated marketing, big data analytics and back-office processing. It provides outsourcing services through offices in India, Philippines, United States, Mexico, Guyana and other areasQualfon supports multi-channel customer service through phone, email, live chat, text and social media. Integrated marketing and campaign management tools are geared towards optimizing campaigns and improving lead generation. Advanced data mining, customer segmentation, data analytics and predictive modeling tools help forecast customer behavior to provide superior customer experiences.
CallTools
CallTools, a cloud-based contact center solution, helps increase conversion rates and sales revenue by delivering satisfactory customer interactions. Users can monitor teams on the fly, connect with customers and access real-time analytics based on call records. Its main offerings are CallTools Predictive and CallTools Preview, each with its own set of attributes.
Sharpen
Sharpen is a cloud-based contact center platform allowing agents to interact with customers more efficiently and deliver better user experiences. The resources ensure agents are effectively trained and well-prepared to handle customer interactions. Other offerings include platform architecture, inbound routing, reporting and analytics, remote work support and more. .
ReadyMode
ReadyMode (formerly branded as Xencall) is a browser-based contact center solution with a predictive dialer for CRM and VoIP. It enables users to close more deals and maximize sales. Built-in CRM and third-party integrations as well as analytical performance reports help automate and streamline administrative tasks, improving productivity. Its other major offerings include conference calling, custom agent statuses, do-not-call lists, firewall security and more.
Plivo
Plivo is a cloud-based communication platform to digitize and modernize business communications. It allows users to automatically interact using text messages in over 190 countries. It’s possible to manage communication workflows visually using PHLO. Other attributes include number lookup, call tracking, appointment reminders, SMS reminders, call forwarding and more.
VanillaSoft
VanillaSoft is a cloud-based sales engagement solution that helps businesses improve their sales processes and increase revenue-per-rep by securing more leads, driving higher interaction rates and utilizing sales cadence automation to close deals faster. Combining features for lead management, telemarketing and contact management, it streamlines sales operations to manage, route, market and sell efficiently.
Kixie
Kixie is a cloud-based voice call solution that automates sales processes and helps increase productivity. It connects agents with prospects and gives valuable insights into conversations. Enables sales teams to close deals at a faster rate.It offers call history, call coaching, voicemail drop, reporting, call recording, a sales leaderboard and call queues. It’s easy to set up, reliable and integrates with third-party modules. Users can start making calls within three minutes of setting up without any hardware. It also provides a free trial.
Toky
Toky is a cloud-based phone system that consolidates data, personalizing customer service by automatically synching interactions to customer records. It also provides virtual phone numbers in multiple countries, and integrates well with CRM and other tools. Its other attributes include IVR phone trees, bulk SMS, reporting and analytics, speech-to-text, fax-to-email, call monitoring, a power dialer and more.
UJET
UJET is a cloud-based, AI-powered platform that consolidates and optimizes customer support for sales and marketing. Its major offerings include predictive, contextual communications routing, a conversational AI-based virtual agent, specialized bots and smooth integrations with CRM, WFM and QM.
VICIdial
VICIdial is an open-source, cloud-based contact center solution that consolidates phone calls, emails and web chats. It allows agents to perform inbound and outbound actions, while skill-based routing helps assign customer calls, emails and messages to the most suitable agents. Other functions include lead previews, call recording, automated forwarding for dropped calls and more.
Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud is a consolidated, cloud-based contact center solution. It allows employees to field inbound and outbound communications, predict potential customer issues and collaborate efficiently using chat, voice, video and search functions.
Intradiem
Intradiem helps customer service teams automate and streamline their daily operations based on real-time data and service requirements. Users can leverage AI-powered technology to process large volumes of data and take instant actions according to defined rules. Along with better employee engagement, it improves productivity and efficiency, leading to quality customer experiences. Its main attributes include staffing, call handling, analytics, process automation and more.
Zingtree
Zingtree is suitable for a wide variety of organizations and departments. Users can create interactive decision trees to assist agents through repetitive customer interactions. Other attributes include customized agent scripting, tracking and analysis of customers who use support, interactive troubleshooters and actionable click-through insights.
AVOXI
Avoxi is a cloud-based communication platform that simplifies customer interactions with a fully integrated communication experience. Users can manage agents, phone numbers, call routing protocols and customer service data on the go. It offers remote team management, inbound call routing, monitoring and reporting, outbound dialing and more.
Cisco Contact Center
Cisco is a call center solution offering a vast portfolio of products, including calling, contact center, team collaboration, meetings and devices. It delivers call treatment, omnichannel contact management, contact routing and network-to-desktop CTI over an IP infrastructure. Moreover, it combines IP telephony with automatic call distributor (ACD) functionality to rapidly deploy a distributed call center infrastructure. Its flexible cloud architecture offers integration and customization along with user experience management.
Bright Pattern
Bright Pattern is a cloud-based omnichannel solution that offers a wide range of features to improve customer experiences. It allows effortless switching between multiple channels, like text, email, social media, video and web chat, with minimal downtime. Its major offerings include interactive voice response, bots and AI support, a predictive dialer and CRM.
Ameyo
Ameyo is a suite offering an extensive range of call center and helpdesk solutions. It helps minimize wait time, take more calls and increase sales by managing inbound and outbound operations. It offers smooth integration with in-house and third-party APIs along with a personalized customer service experience. Other attributes include skill-based routing, reporting and analytics, a smart dialer for improved coverage, and more.
Genesys PureConnect
Genesys PureConnect is an omnichannel communications solution. It simplifies communication through business-specific customization and the integration of external data, guaranteeing consistent customer experiences. Some of its notable features are automated routing, automatic call distribution, inbound contact center, outbound call center and customer self-service.
RingCentral Contact Center
RingCentral is a cloud-based unified communications and collaboration suite. It allows teams to connect on the go with conferencing, messaging and more. Users can customize workflows and integrate with third-party APIs for better efficiency. Other offerings include skill-based routing, real-time insights, self-service and supervisor modules.
CallShaper
CallShaper is a premier platform that ranks 15 among all Call Center Software according to our research analysts and 34 crowd-sourced reviews from 2 sources. Starting from $70, CallShaper is priced a notch under most others and is most suitable for all business sizes. CallShaper can be deployed online and is accessible from a limited set of platforms including Windows and Apple devices.
LeadsRain
LeadsRain is a well-known software solution that ranks 116 among all Call Center Software according to our research analysts and 6 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Starting from $200, LeadsRain is priced within reason, offers a free trial on occasion and is most advisable for any sized business. LeadsRain can be deployed online.
eTollFree
ETollFree is a popular software system that ranks 121 among all Call Center Software according to our research analysts and 56 crowd-sourced reviews from 2 sources. Starting from $99, eTollFree is priced lower than average, commonly offers a free trial and is most advisable for midsize companies. ETollFree can be deployed online and is accessible from a handful of platforms including Windows devices.
OpenScape Contact Center
OpenScape Contact Center is a cloud-based, all-in-one communication solution that offers an industry-leading Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). It empowers remote workforces, helps deliver quality customer service and provides productivity and full office communications across teams without the need for additional third-party technologies. It enables responsive and informed customer interactions and supports round-the-clock communications with clients through video calls and conferencing, phones, chats, files, emails and more. It facilitates unified communications, integrations, file management and more on a unified dashboard that makes it easy to use.
ICTBroadcast
ICTBroadcast is a notable software product that ranks 164 among all Call Center Software according to our research analysts and 5 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Starting from $199, ICTBroadcast is priced reasonably, commonly offers a free trial and is most suitable for any sized company. ICTBroadcast can be deployed in the cloud and on-premise and is accessible from a limited amount of platforms including Linux devices.
DialerAI
DialerAI is a rising application that ranks 36 among all Predictive Dialer Software according to our research analysts and 3 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Starting from $199, DialerAI is priced moderately, has offered a free trial in the past and is most advisable for any sized business. DialerAI can be deployed in the cloud and on-premise and is accessible from a handful of platforms including Windows and Linux devices.
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