A telephone auto dialer, or automatic dialer, does exactly what its name says: it automatically places calls, using telephone auto dialer software. Once the call is placed through the telephone exchange, an auto dialer announces either a verbal message, or it transmits digital data, such as an SMS message, to the party that is called. In the U.S., such calls are often referred to as “robocalls.” Auto dialers are also known as predictive phone dialers.
So who uses telephone auto dialers? The biggest users are telemarketing companies. The telephone auto dialing software is able to listen for a human voice, the sound of a fax machine answering, or a busy signal. When a person answers the call, the software transfers the call to a human phone agent. Telephone auto dialers do this repeatedly. When they reach busy signals, fax machines, answering machines, or voice mail, they can take different actions (such as leaving a voice message) based on how the software is programmed.
Telephone auto dialer software
Telephone auto dialer software must be able to accurately detect the sound of a live human answering and be able to distinguish it from a machine or voice mail system answering. There’s not a specific signal that distinguishes between whether a machine or a person is answering, so the software must analyze the actual audio in order to make the decision as to whether a person or a machine has answered. While the algorithms to do this are good, none are 100% accurate.
Businesses small and large use telephone auto dialers to increase call center personnel efficiency. These dialers do the repetitive task of dialing numbers, determining if there is a person at the other end, and if there is, handing the call off to a person working in the call center. This keeps agents from spending a lot of time dialing and dealing with fax machines, busy signals and answering machines and lets them concentrate on cases where a person answers. Telephone auto dialer software is very useful in businesses that make a lot of cold calls.
The same software can be programmed to re-try calls that result in busy signals every few minutes. It can be programmed to leave a message upon encountering an answering machine or voice mail system. Telephone auto dialer software must be programmed to comply with state and federal laws concerning hours of operation, and complying with state and federal “Do Not Call” lists. The software is also able to measure and collect statistics on the average length of outbound calls. This allows the telephone auto dialer to distribute calls efficiently among live agents and increase productivity.
Turn a laptop or desktop computer into a telephone auto dialer
A modem or telephony board can be used to turn an ordinary laptop or desktop computer into a telephone auto dialer. Many software packages can be set up to work with a PC and an ordinary telephone line. Telephone auto dialer software is now able to be used without a modem or phone line. These auto dialers use the internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make calls. The advantages of using non-modem based systems over traditional phone line setups include the ability for the software to detect and interpret touch tones and transfer calls more quickly.
Because of the continuing rapid evolution of software technology, hardware-based telephone auto dialer functions are now done by software, resulting in lower hardware costs and an easier ability to upgrade an auto dialer software system. Voice modems are so inexpensive that some computers come with them pre-installed. Modem-based telephone auto dialer software can transfer calls, measure call progress, distinguish between answering machines, voice mail systems, and live human voices, and interpret touch tones.
Telephony cards
Hardware telephony cards offer advantages over voice modems, particularly in cases where a single call system initiates a large number of calls at the same time. These telephony cards can perform many of the telephony functions itself rather than using the PC’s processing unit to do so. Calls can also be transferred or otherwise handled at the level of the telephony board rather than the computer’s CPU.
VoIP
Voice Over Internet Protocol, or (VoIP) technology is putting more of the telephone auto dialer software functions “in the cloud” rather than on the individual computer system hooked up to the internet. Another advantage of VoIP is that they can transfer calls to live agents quicker than hardware-based telephone dialers so that fewer customers or leads have time to hang up before being spoken to. Web hosted phone dialers don’t involve the purchase of any hardware at all: all the call making and call switching takes place over an internet broadband connection. Some VoIP systems allow companies to try them out before buying.
Prices for telephone auto dialer software vary, depending on whether they’re locally hosted or hosted on the internet. If your small business needs this software, it is a good idea to request quotes for systems that address the current needs of your business, and find out the cost of upgrading as you need more services. Some sellers of auto dialer software sell bundles of services that cost less than buying each service separately. It’s best if you have some flexibility in choosing which services are bundled together.
The best telephone auto dialer software is able to accurately analyze incoming audio signals when a call is picked up in order to determine whether the call is being answered by an answering machine, a fax machine, a voice mail system, or an actual person. Though no system is 100% accurate, these systems are much better than they used to be, and you should choose a system with a high degree of accuracy.
Turning an ordinary laptop or desktop computer into a telephone auto dialer with a telephony board or a modem at a relatively low cost. This option may be sufficient for the needs of a small or new business. The telephone auto dialer software that works with such systems are able to do their job over regular, existing telephone lines. Some VoIP-based telephone auto dialer systems are becoming very reasonable in price, however, and they do not require the installation of phone lines, but use the internet instead.
Non-VoIP
Non-VoIP based auto dialer software systems come with touch tone interpretation, detection of various answering devices, call progress detection, and the quick transfer of calls to live operators as standard features. Small businesses that only need a few phone lines per computer can benefit from this type of setup. With single telephone auto dialer software systems that must make many calls at the same time, telephony hardware boards can easily perform extra functions such as determining call status, playing music while the customer is on hold, and transferring calls to operators without having to rely on the computer’s CPU to perform any of these functions.
The so-called “smart” auto dialer is a type of telephone auto dialer that can personalize message and collect information from the parties called by having them press buttons on the phone or with the help of voice recognition software. Speech engines are included for taking text and converting it into speech over the telephone auto dialer system. In order to customize the messages it gives out, a smart auto dialer uses what is known as a message template. The message template contains variables that can be changed by the person programming the system. The message templates can also do handy functions such as reporting the actual time a call is made and when it is ended.
Semi-automatic telephone auto dialer software is controlled by a person. Any action like dialing, playing a message, or recording, is initiated by an actual person by pressing certain keys on their keyboard. This helps keep productivity high in telemarketing firms.
These auto dialers for large operations must have two essential capabilities. They have to be able to initiate thousands of phone calls at the same time, and they have to provide an application interface for integrating the telephone auto dialer software into the computer system. Most of the larger systems use networks of computers to work at their most efficient.
Distributed dialers are another result of the advancement of internet technology. These are telephone auto dialers made up of independent dialers linked by internet, but controlled by phone dispatch software. Distributed dialing systems can be scaled up with almost no limits. They can be accessed remotely, and allow businesses to handle 2,000 calls or more at the same time with one server and a single 100 mbit connection to the internet. This is in contrast to hardware voice boards that have a fixed number of open ports and cannot be scaled up without a group of computers linked together in order to support a large number of phone lines.
As for the legality of using telephone auto dialer systems, in the U.S., they must all comply with the provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which was enacted to restrict the rampant use and abuse of auto dialer systems. This law amended a telephone law that went all the way back to 1934, so there were some six decades of telephony technological progress to address. The 1991 law put restrictions on when robocalls could be used, and put a stop to unsolicited faxes.
In the U.S., there are several general restrictions on the use of telephone auto dialers:
* They are not allowed to place calls to residences early in the morning and late at night
* They must obey state and local Do Not Call lists for ten years
* On request, they have to provide the name of the business and a phone number or address at which it may be reached
* Junk faxes are forbidden
* Violations of the law can entitle individuals to collect damages of $500 to $1,500 per violation or actual monetary loss
Telephone auto dialers must also have contact and identification information from the business using the device.
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