What is Predictive Dialing Software?

Predictive dialer software uses advanced automatic dialing technology and intricate algorithms to match the number of agents available with the number of dialed calls being answered. Before this innovative software hit the scene, basic automatic dialing methods were used to make rapid, widespread calls without considering the number of live agents available to actually speak with the recipient if and when they answered the call. Not only was this a waste of resources for businesses using automated dialing for marketing purposes, but it often resulted in a poor customer experience due to the impersonal and slightly invasive nature these calls had.

With the ability to do everything from skipping busy and unanswered phone lines to avoiding disconnected lines and leaving voicemails, predictive dialing software can significantly help boost agent productivity. By only involving your agents when a live person answered the phone, you’ll no longer have to worry about wasting valuable agent time and risking the success of your company’s bottom line.

How Does Predictive Dialer Software Work?

The most time-consuming part of outbound dialing for agents is answering machines, either to skip it or leave the same message again and again. On average, agents reach machines more than half the time or even worse, depending on the time of day. This means half or more of your agents’ day is wasted!

A predictive dialer solves this problem by making more calls than the number of available agents, usually in 1 to 2 ratio. In the simple case, one agent uses two lines to call, if one line is answered by a machine, the dialer either skips it or automatically leaves a message – all without human intervention. If a call is answered by a live human, the dialer connects the call to an agent right away. So basically while the agent is talking to customers, the dialer is handling machines automatically in the background.

If both lines are answered by a live human and there is only one agent available, one of the calls is dropped (dropped calls). A predictive dialer will try to predict whether a call will be dropped or not and automatically adjust the dialing speed. By the nature of the algorithm, dropped calls cannot be completely eliminated.

Normally, when you have more than one agent, the dropped call happens less. In addition, the dialer automatically pauses when all agents are busy; it resumes automatically when an agent becomes available.

This allows agents to maximize their time, broaden their target audience, and capitalize on the effectiveness of predictive dialing technology. This software has proven to be a valuable resource for companies looking to create an exceptional business experience.

Who Uses Predictive Dialer Software?

Predictive software technology is commonly used by businesses for purposes such as telemarketing, market research, requesting customer feedback, and identifying weaknesses or strengths in the customer experience. Additionally, depending on the business’s area of expertise, predictive dialing software can be used as a means of debt collection or important notifications. This makes predictive dialing a critical tool for marketing agents, sales reps, and call centers.

It’s important to note, however, that predictive dialing software isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every business. Distributors of fine art, for example, might find that the automatic nature of predictive dialing doesn’t allow the time needed to research their target clients or do the groundwork needed to make the call as effective as possible. If your business is thinking about integrating predictive dialing software, consider doing a risk-free trial first, to make sure it works best for your wants and needs.

How Effective are Predictive Dialers?

Because predictive dialing isn’t the right fit for everyone, the reported effectiveness of the software is variable and inconsistent. Though it may have little to no effect on some businesses, others report that predictive dialing has increased their agents’ productivity by 200 to 300%, instead of wasting valuable time dialing phone numbers (which takes about 30-seconds per call—time that adds up quickly), manually arranging calls, listening to answering machines, busy tones, and no-answers, leaving voicemails and scheduling call-back times.

Voicent Predictive Dialer is particularly great for:

All in all, while the effectiveness of predictive dialers isn’t the same for every business, for those it works for, it really works.

How Much Does Predictive Dialing Software Cost?

Before purchasing a predictive dialer software (on-premise), consider using Voicent’s cloud service. It is much easier to use and you have no software and hardware to manage and maintain. The price starts from $19 per user per month.

The cost of predictive dialing software can vary a lot depending on what features you want, and how many users you’ll have. When requesting a quote find out if there is a yearly or monthly fee, and a per call or per minute fee, and whether the dialer can be used internationally. Some systems may be relatively inexpensive with monthly, yearly, and per call fees, while others may be more expensive with no fees. Voicent’s systems cost a flat fee, and include free upgrades if you buy a maintenance contract.

Think about the size of your calling list as well. If you make fewer than 20 or 30,000 calls a month, a small system dialing up to 120 calls per hour might meet your needs quite well. At Voicent, we’re aware that every business has its own unique marketing needs. So instead of offering one predictive dialing software package, we offer several. Our packages come in the form of channeling systems, with each channel opening a line to make a call. One-time payment packages include:

In addition to no monthly, yearly, or per call/per minute fees, Voicent predictive dialing software can be used internationally.

4 Types of Dialing Software from Voicent

In an effort to make our software as accessible as possible, Voicent has developed four types of dialing modes:

1. Progressive: Dials the next call automatically as the agent finishes a call. Increases efficiency but can make it difficult to take a break between calls.
2. Preview: Shows the next call in line. Agent clicks the call when ready. Useful if the agent has to read notes or do some research on the client before calling.
3. Manual (click-to-call): Useful if the prospect refers you to another phone number.
4. Predictive: If you’ve answered the phone and waited a few seconds for a reply your call was likely made by a predictive dialer dialing more numbers than there are agents available. The dialer’s algorithm predicts a certain percentage of calls will not be answered and over dials accordingly, but there’s not always an agent to reply when a call is answered, so some calls are abandoned. One drawback is that both the FTC and the UK’s Ofcom have stringent rules about abandoned calls, and penalties can be stringent.

With easy management tools like Live Connect, automatic time zone adjustment, advanced OptPace volume pacing algorithm, detailed campaign reports, and more, you can have the ability to make hundreds of calls per minute which will ultimately help you boost your bottom line.

Due to the potentially volatile nature of elections, campaign organizers pull out all the stops to ensure victory for their candidate. In addition to tireless grassroots initiatives, political phone banking and robocalls are commonly used as a method to connect with voters and spread awareness.

Does Political Phone Banking Work? Are Political Robocalls Effective?

Political phone banking and robocalls have been used with great success by many campaigns for decades. The most effective political robocalls are candidate messages addressed directly to voters, recorded in the candidate’s own voice. Other effective political robocall tactics include get-out-the-vote reminders, a major endorsement, and polling.

Over the past decade, the public’s perception of robocalls has changed: what once was thought of as an effective means of garnering votes has morphed into a mixed bag of half-truths, scare tactics, and, honestly, genuine campaign efforts. Today, despite the love-hate relationship that many voters have with them, robocalls continue to be a reliable resource throughout many campaigns. Generally speaking, the answer is yes, political phone banking does work when used properly. By bombarding voters with too many calls, however, the tactic can backfire and ultimately turn away votes instead of gain them.

Political Phone Bank Volunteers: How to Recruit

As wonderful as it would be to have volunteers line up to help with phone bank calls, gathering volunteers is one of the biggest challenges of running a campaign. Fortunately, these tips can help you recruit a team of volunteers who are ready and willing to put in the work your candidate needs to earn votes:

1. Reconnect with people who have been known to volunteer in the past. Chances are high that these individuals will be willing to contribute again and will likely have connections to others who will do the same.
2. Get creative when drawing out supporters for volunteer efforts. From asking super-voters from the last primary election to pitch in to having your volunteers slip in the question “would you like to volunteer?” there are virtually no bad ideas when it comes to recruiting support.
3. Scheduling, encouragement, and appreciation are all key when it comes to working with your current volunteer base. Never let a volunteer leave before scheduling another phone bank shift and highly encourage them (or even offer incentives like free coffee from the local coffee shop) to bring a friend or family member. And ALWAYS remember to show your gratitude and appreciation for the time and effort they put forth. Everyone likes to feel valued, especially if it’s for a cause they believe in.

Volunteers can make or break your political phone bank. While computer-generated robocalls act as a viable alternative, there’s nothing as effective as speaking with a real person on the phone who can answer questions, engage in conversation, and excitedly encourage participation.

The Best Tools and Resources to Use for Political Phone Banking

In addition to the help and support from volunteers, there are several high-tech tools and resources you can use to boost your political phone banking efforts. Voicent, for example, is predictive-dialer software with productivity-boosting features like automated dialing, skipping busy, no-answer, and disconnected lines, and optionally leaving an encouraging voice message on answering machines. With advanced auto-dialer features, you can send a single pre-recorded message to thousands of phone numbers at once. Multi-level phone surveys make it easy for voters to participate in your survey, and easy for you to analyze results. Finally, 2-way text messaging and text broadcasting allows you to interact with people in a way that many younger voters will appreciate.

More importantly, resources like Voicent help capitalize the time and effort of volunteers by never involving their participation until a live person answers the phone. With Voicent, your volunteers can even work from home. All they need is an internet connection and a computer. And volunteer managers can take advantage of tools to monitor calls, provide whisper coaching, and specify call scripts. With tools like this, not only can you effectively reach and expand your target audience, but you can ensure that all of your volunteers’ time is being used as efficiently and effectively as possible.

How to Train Phone Bank Volunteers

Politics can be brutal and unforgiving. However, if you properly train your volunteers and provide them with the information and resources needed to be successful, being involved in politics can also be rewarding and gratifying. There are several things to consider when training your volunteers for working the phone bank, including:

Training is key. Volunteers to feel confident and supported during their time at the phone bank are much more likely to recruit voters than those who don’t.

How to Assign Volunteers

While having volunteers to make the actual calls is imperative, it’s also important to remember that volunteer efforts can be incredibly resourceful and effective in other areas of the phone bank campaign as well. In addition to cold-callers, you can also use the help of volunteers when it comes to filling positions like:

When it comes to volunteers, the more the merrier. Even if you have enough people making calls, there are always positions that can be created and filled to further boost the impact of your campaign.

What Call Center Volunteers Should Be Aware Of

Unfortunately, phone bank volunteers who make calls to potential voters are often faced with the ugly side of politics. From dealing with people who are insulting and verbally-abusive to being accused of engaging in illegal political activity, the possibilities of things people can say during political phone calls are endless. However, by going over all of the possible scenarios in detail and providing your volunteers with responses and resources for each one, not only can you reinforce their confidence and education, but you can also ensure that each call will be handled with the respect and grace needed to uphold the integrity of your candidate.

How to Set a Calling Schedule

In order to effectively build a call schedule for your volunteers, you’ll first need to review the number of people on your call list. Though you’ll want to start your phone bank initiatives as early as it will take to complete a proper call to each individual on the list, you must also be sure not to start so early that the first-called voters forget your message. Keep in mind that the number one goal of a political phone bank is to recruit people to the polls, and the closer to Election Day you’re able to do that, the better your candidate’s chances of winning are.

As a general rule, however, you’ll want to begin your call schedule no earlier than the Wednesday prior to the election, with all calls ending on the night of Monday, November 5th. It’s also critical that you keep time zones in mind and not call voters too early or too late in the day. Late afternoons and early evenings are best. Voicent software has automated time zone control so that if calls are set to be started or finished at a certain hour, it can check the target phone number’s timezone and automatically delay the if it’s too early or too late.

Lastly, remind your volunteers to always record their calls and that even if a machine answers and they leave a message, the call should be marked as “completed.” Monitoring calls this way will ensure that each person is contacted and prevent voters from being bombarded by the campaign.

Appreciation Is Key

Individuals heading the campaign must keep gratitude for volunteers at the top of their priorities. There’s never a bad time to thank a volunteer for his or her contribution and it’s a good idea to host a party or volunteer appreciation night once the campaign wraps, regardless of the candidate’s success. Not only do repeated acts of appreciation make volunteers feel like their time was well spent, but it also increases the chances that they’ll volunteer again in the future. By arming your volunteers with the knowledge and support they need, they can be an incredibly powerful, beneficial resource for your campaign.

Types of Outbound Sales Reps

There are two important types of outbound salesmen/saleswomen. The first is Sales Development Reps, and they’re the ones primarily responsible for prospecting leads and creating promising opportunities for Account Executives. Sales Development Reps often use cold calls to engage their customers, but more modern approaches include social media and email engagement prior to calling.

The second type of outbound salesperson is a Lead Response Rep. These salespeople are responsible for engaging customers who have filled out a web form, asked for a quote, or otherwise expressed desire for the product or service your organization offers. Although they are responding to inbound sales engagement, it’s important that these salespeople are using outbound sales methodologies to keep the lead active. When dealing with B2B (business to business) prospects, following up is crucial. B2B sales pipelines are usually filled with more steps than ones dealing with regular customers, and involve more finessed engagement with one or more decision-makers.

Tools for Outbound Sales Reps

Auto Dialers

An Auto Dialer is a piece of software that manages long call lists, dialing out to several numbers at the same time to maximize the productivity of an outbound salesperson. These dialers often either play a prerecorded message (Auto Dialer) or connect the callee to an agent (Predictive Dialer), depending on the nature of the call. By providing agents with this software, sales teams can cover more leads within a given workday, and spend more time following up with qualified leads than prospecting them. Voicent’s dialer products go one step further to provide customer data, giving the call context to assist the agent in the call, or giving the prerecorded message a person touch by dynamically inserting CRM records into the message.

Click To Dial CRMs

Another way to engage your leads is to manually choose records to call using a CRM (Customer Relations Management software). This software gives the user the ability to see engagement history, products/services they’re interested in, and other insightful information that can help close the deal. By using a CRM, your sales teams can focus on the leads that have prerecorded data, while ignoring (or putting off) leads where data is limited or nonexistent.

Automated Workflow

An important facet of lead management is knowing how to get the most of customer/lead interactions with software and websites. By tracking the interactions customers have with your website, you can glean valuable information like what products or services they need, how big their organization or team is, and even how much they’re willing to spend. By using an automated workflow system that allows you to automatically log this information, Lead Response Reps can have a plethora of information to guide their interactions with the customer so that their offers are well-targeted and satisfy the customer’s needs.