Predictive phone dialers are just one small part of the telemarketing toolkit. Because people are more able than ever to disregard or block unwanted phone calls, a telemarketer’s job is both easier and harder. Easier, because the national (in the U.S.) Do Not Call Registry allows them to immediately eliminate millions of names that they might have had to call individually to find out they are not interested. And harder, because there is a smaller pool of phone numbers to work with.
Telemarketing calls to cell phones are almost always illegal. Federal rules prohibit predictive phone dialers from reaching phones where incoming calls cost the phone subscriber. Telemarketers can, however, dial each number by hand, but that is too labor intensive to be worthwhile. There are, however, cases of mistaken calling of cell phones, such as when a person buys something and gives out their cell phone number because they don’t have or don’t use their landline phone. Predictive phone dialers are not allowed to call these cell phone numbers either, though mistakes do happen.
Do Not Call registry
The national Do Not Call registry in the U.S., plus rules about automated calling systems accessing cell phones has resulted in a truce in the telemarketer / disgruntled consumer interface, but for companies whose business is telemarketing, how can it succeed in such an environment?
It succeeds because, in short, people still buy things from telemarketers, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars each year, according to the American Teleservices Association. Telemarketing has been around since the phone became a common household item. Direct marketing – particularly as it involves one on one communication – is actually an effective way to gain customers. In most cases, telemarketing is used to sell services instead of goods. These services consist of things like time-share vacations, subscriptions, and credit services.
With telemarketing, a two way conversation takes place, and when the potential customer raises objections, the telemarketer can address them immediately. Yet the costs for telemarketing are far lower than for face to face sales. It is a numbers game, and that’s why it works. Even if only a small percentage of people called actually purchase anything, when enough people are contacted, the costs of telemarketing are outweighed by the profits.
Predictive phone dialers
Predictive phone dialers have changed the game drastically from the days when a telemarketer had to manually dial a number on a list or in a directory. predictive phone dialers can dial several phones all at once, increasing the probability that a person rather than a machine will answer. Unfortunately, it means that some potential customers are “abandoned” once they answer because the telemarketers are still engaged with a previous customer, but call centers consider this collateral damage to be worth it for the economic advantages of mass dialing.
There are rules, however, about predictive phone dialers and abandonment. The Federal Communications Committee in the U.S. requires that dialers can abandon 3%, but no more, of all calls answered by people. State law in California is more restrictive having a 1% or less call abandonment rule.
The telemarketing “arms race” between consumer technology and telemarketing technology is considered by some to be the cause of much in the way of technological development and innovation. Technology that can distinguish between landlines and wireless numbers is needed, because the two are becoming harder to tell apart, particularly with landline portability initiatives. Telemarketing firms (and their automated equipment) must also ensure that they meet a number of other rules (in the U.S.) defining prohibited telemarketing practices, such as not calling before 8 in the morning or after 9 in the evening.
Furthermore, the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. has jurisdiction over industries that rely heavily on telemarketing, such as insurance and telecommunications. Telemarketing firms that use predictive phone dialers are not allowed to block or subvert call ID systems, and they cannot get a credit card number or an account number from anyone other than the consumer doing the purchasing, and they cannot share those numbers with anyone. Telemarketers must receive audio or written proof that the consumer gave the number directly to the telemarketer to stop the marketing technique where a consumer tries a service for a period for free and then by not opting out of it, continues receiving it and being charged for it.
Technological advances that keep automated calling systems from calling numbers on the various Do Not Call lists have allowed organizations such as the Direct Marketing Association (who are opposed to mandated Do Not Call lists) to make money by offering the service of managing such lists for the various states.
Predictive phone dialers can deliver messages to people or to answering machines, and they can distribute calls among operators. With predictive phone dialers, several numbers are called at the same time, and they are only passed to operators when a person answers the phone, thus eliminating time spent dealing with busy signals and answering machines.
Some auto dialers go even further, and can pre-qualify calls, only passing along calls to operators from answerers who express an interest. Because 90% or more say they are uninterested, many more unproductive calls are screened out, boosting productivity by keeping operators talking almost exclusively to customers who are interested in the product or service.
Advanced predictive phone dialers
The most advanced predictive phone dialers claim to result in 200% more actual operator talk time compared to manual dialing, and can adjust the pace of dialing based on the phone campaign assignment and call drop (abandonment) rate. Predictive phone dialers use methods like frequency detection and cadence change to predict whether a human or a machine has answered, and some systems even allow multi-campaign dialing, with targeted call lists based on demographics, products, zip codes, or other factors.
Today’s automated calling systems go far beyond dialing and transferring calls, however. Web based systems provide scripting for rebuttals for all types of customer objections. The agents click the objections, and are presented with tried and true rebuttals. Operators can schedule callbacks and set appointments using the predictive phone dialer software too.
Manager stations that are part of predictive phone dialer systems can control agent activities easily. They can collect daily statistics, produce reports, cross-reference Do Not Call lists, send messages to individual agents or to all agents using remote messaging. Manager stations in predictive phone dialer systems can create and set up campaigns, view agent station status (connected, paused, avialable, etc.) in real time, monitor what each agent is saying, and control and monitor the predictive phone dialer system from anywhere in the network or at off-site locations.
Automated calling systems also offer database and list management as part of their software today, that can work with Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) compliant data systems, like MY SQL-Server, ORACLE, Access, Informix, and Paradox. Using Structured Query Language (SQL), users can create and alter calling lists. ASCII comma delimited data can easily be imported into the system.
Predictive phone dialers have revolutionized telemarketing, making it far more efficient. High productivity is necessary in today’s world, where Do Not Call lists, answering machines, voice mail systems, and even fax machines hamper telemarketers abilities to get in touch with real potential customers. They are indispensable to modern telemarketing systems.
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