Predictive Dialer vs Auto Dialer: What You Need to Know.

Using a predictive dialer or an auto dialer in place of manually dialing calls is like the difference between walking to work or taking a high-speed commuter train. You get to your destination a whole lot faster. There’s no time wasted looking up phone numbers or punching them in. Sales and support agents don’t have to wait for someone to answer the call or a machine to pick it up. 

When it comes to efficiently making outbound calls, there’s nothing like automation to get the job done. Automation software for outbound calling comes in many forms. Let’s dig in by describing the similarities and differences between a predictive dialer vs an auto dialer.

¿What Is a Predictive Dialer?

Imagine that you could tell your phone that you’ll be off the current call within 3 minutes and ask it to dial another call with a different number for you in 2 ½ minutes, so you can immediately go from one call to the next. That’s a simple explanation of how a predictive dialer works.

¿What Is an Auto Dialer?

An auto dialer is a type of predictive dialer. It needs four things to work — a computer to run the software, a person to answer the phone, a voice modem, and an active telephone line. The voice modem enables the computer to play an audio recording over a telephone line. With VoIP technology, auto dialers can also work with PBX business phone systems that use SIP trunking.

Predictive Dialer vs Auto Dialer: What to Know

Back in the 1940s, banks used the first auto dialers to make calls for collections. In those days, auto dialers were semi-automatic dialers, and they were limited to storing between 12 and 52 numbers. Employees had to press a key to initiate the features. With advancements in technology, auto dialers come in different types and support a wide variety of use cases including sales, support, telemarketing, market research, and debt collection. Overall, predictive dialers and Auto Dialer make it possible to dial as many numbers as possible in the shortest possible time.

Benefits of a Predictive Dialer

• Screens out voicemails, unanswered calls, disconnected numbers, and busy signals.
• Uses algorithm-based dialing.
• Dials multiple calls at once and increases the call connection ratio.
• Checks for an available agent.
• Provides a steady stream of calls to reps.

Benefits of an Auto Dialer

• Improves the chances that customers will connect with a human vs. Voicemail.
• Distributes calls between available agents.
• Offers call waiting.
• Reduces agent idle time and improves talk time.
• Sends a recorded message when voicemails pick up calls.
  Weaknesses of a Predictive Dialer
  

• Doesn’t have call waiting.
• Possible risk of algorithm failure.
• Requires reps to be skilled at quickly answering calls after one ends.
• Performs better with large campaigns so the algorithm has more data to work with.
• Presents the risk of abandoned calls if agents take too long to connect.
  

Weaknesses of an Auto Dialer

• Produces a short wait time before reps connect to the line.
• Doesn’t check for agent availability resulting in abandoned calls.
• Requires more than a few outbound calling reps.
• Doesn’t always detect answering machines accurately.
  

Choosing the Right VoIP Phone
How to Choose a Small Business Phone System

The right small business phone system makes life at work better and easier for everyone in the company.

And in terms of configurations and features, there’s more choice than ever when it comes to selecting a small business

However, a truly unified communications system today requires switching over to VoIP phone systems and cloud-based phone systems, which can offer a feature-rich and intuitive upgrade to older analog, PBX, or IP systems.

If you’re considering purchasing or updating a small business phone system, it’s advantageous to understand the pros and cons on offer from different systems.

Among the considerations, you’ll need to think about the costs, features, and your needs for inbound and outbound calling.

Here we take a closer look at everything you need to help you find the right small business phone system for you.

¿What Is a Small Business Phone System?

Many office phone systems are designed for big companies that have large numbers of employees working in multiple locations.

Small businesses, however, often lack the budget or infrastructure for enterprise phone systems; yet, they still need to have a phone system that gives them the ability to communicate consistently and flexibly with their partners, vendors, and customers.

Types of Business Phone Systems

To make any purchase decision you first have to understand what’s on offer. Small business phone systems come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The first thing to understand is the differences between analog and digital systems, which work in very different ways.

Analog phone systems are quite basic. In simple terms, these legacy phone systems send electric signals through copper wires to the phone system.

PBX Phone System

A term for private branch exchange, comprising multiple analog phone cables where each one has the capability of 23 individual lines.

IP PBX

A variation of the PBX phone system where voice signals ultimately travel in data packets over the internet rather than through physical cables.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol also uses data packets to transmit voice signals over the internet. With a VoIP system, though, you can also share information between your phone system and other valuable software tools to give you omnichannel communication benefits and unlock the benefits of cloud-based calling.