FUTURECALLS

FUTURECALLS TECHNOLOGY PRIVATE LIMITED

DIALERS - FAQ

What is a Dialer? Why is a Dialer essential for a Call Center?

Dialer is an equipment that automatically dials out contacts from a database on behalf of Agents.
They are essential in an outbound Call Center, to increase the efficiency of Agents.

Dialers are intended to reduce the wastage of time, at the level of the Agents while coming across
unsuccessful call attempts.

What are different types of Dialers

Dialers are broadly be categorized into 3 types ie, Preview Dialers, Progressive Dialers and
Predictive Dialers, depending on the their functionality

A Preview Dialer will dial the number from the database record, but will not have the capability to
detect the call progress. Agent will need to sense the call progress (Connect or No Answer or
Busy or Answering Machine, etc) and dispose the call, to start dialing the next call.

A Progressive Dialer, refinement of the above, will have the additional capability to detect the call
progress, automatically. A Progressive Dialer locks an agent for a call and dials the numbers for
the agent, until it gets a valid `Contact’. Will put the call through to agent if live `Contact’ is made.

A Predictive Dialer is similar to a Progressive Dialer, but for the difference that the dialer will not
lock an agent until a `contact’ is established. Predictive Dialer automatically determines the
dialing pattern, based on a heuristic algorithm and dials out the calls, on its own.

Once a `live contact’ is made, the dialer puts the call through to a longest idle agent waiting for a
call. The dialer adjusts the dialing pattern in such a way that at least one agent would be idle
when a live contact is made.

Can we quantify the efficiency improvement with a Dialer?

Yes. The improvement with a dialer is that the dialer increases the number of dial
attempts and `Right Party Contacts’.

The improvement depends on many factors like Number of agents, Average Call Length,
Quality of the leads, Answering Machine Detection, Capability of the Dialer, Pacing
Ratio, etc.

On an average, good dialer is expected to increase `Right Party Contacts’ by 3 to 4

times, over a normal manual dialing.

What is the difference between `Server Based’ and `Switch Based’ dialers?
 FUTURECALLS
Server Based dialers are application programs running on a server (typically Windows
based programs) which gives dialing functionality. It dials through PC Telephony H/W
such as Intel Dialogic, Aculab, etc.

Switch Based dialers are proprietary Hardware systems, with a firmware built to achieve
the dialing functionality. AVAYA Mosaix, DAVOX Unisen are Hard Dialers.

Name some reputed Predictive Dialers?

Some of the known dialers sold in Indian Market are :

1. Ensemble Pro from `Concerto Software’

2. ATOM Noble Systems
3. CICS from Interactive Intelligence
4. PARAGON from PARSEC Software
5. Melita e-share from `Concerto Software’
6. Mosaix dialer from AVAYA.

What are different pricing models for `Dialers’?

Owned Model: Dialers can be acquired by `outright purchase’.

Rental: Some vendors offer dialer solutions on a `Pay per Use’ RENTAL model.
ASP Model: There is another category of service providers who offer Dialer access on `hosted’
model, widely known as ASP option. Call Centers can connect to a central dialer product on
IPLC or VoIP and use the dialer on shared basis.

What are the different functional modules in a `Dialer’

`Software Based’ dialers normally support other contact channels - other than voice such as
email, web. Hence, they are known as `Contact Management Solution’.

Different functional modules in a Contact Management Solution are:

Inbound Voice Management ie ACD
Outbound Voice ie Dialing
IVR
Voice Mail
Email Management
Web Chat
Web Colloboration
Voice Recording

What are some of the important features of a Dialer?

A good dialer has to support most of these features:

Answering Machine or Voice Mail Detection
Agent GUI tool
Option to set target `Abandoned Calls %’
Time Zone detection and processing
Manage `Do Not Call’ lists.
`On Demand’ and `Continuous Recording’.
Blended Agent Support
 FUTURECALLS
Automated Campaigns
API interface with external programs
Customizable Reports

What are the important performance criteria in a Dialer?

Important performance criteria in a Dialer are:

`Average Wait Time’ between calls.
% answering machine detection
Number of Right Party Contacts per agent per hour.

What factors determine these performance values?

There are many factors that determine the performance

Effectiveness of the dialer
Pacing Ratio, Ratio of Number of trunk lines to Number of agents. This is normally set for
2:1. A Higher pacing ratio will ensure more dialing attempts and thus more `Right Party
Contacts’.
Effectiveness of the campaign database.

What is an `Abandoned Call’?

Dialer attempts a call and looks for an idle agent, once a `live contact’ is established. If the caller
disconnects the call before it is answered by an agent, the call is considered `Abandoned’.

What factors determine `Number of Abandoned Calls’?

Number of Abandoned Calls depends on

Dialing Speed
Answering Machine Detection. If `Answering Machine Detection’ is enabled, the number
of abandoned calls might increase. This depends on the algorithm used by the dialer.

Why the limiting of % Abandoned Calls’ is important for a Call Center?

US telemarketing laws mandate that the ‘% of abandoned calls’ for any telemarketing campaign
should be less than 2%. Call center is liable to be penalized, for a higher ratio than 3%.

What is the typical price of a good `Predictive Dialer’?

Price of a `Predictive Dialer’ depends on many factors such as:

Model of the Dialer. Some dialer models come at premium price.
Module required – Only Outbound, Outbound + Inbound voice, Email, Web, etc.
Number of agents’ licence. The higher the number of agents, the price per agent would
go DOWN.

Indicative price for a good MNC dialer, for a 50 seater configuration, would come around $2000 to
$2100 per seat, inclusive of dialer hardware, dialer software and implementation but exclusive of
taxes and duties.

Can a call from a dialer be avoided?

 FUTURECALLS
Yes, Equipments are available in US market known as `Telemarketing Busters’. The claim is that
these equipments can deceive a Dialer that the called number is ‘invalid’ and that the dialer will
remove the number from the dialing list.

Some dialer vendors claim that their products cannot be deceived by the telemarketing busters.

What is a `Do Not Call’ List?

As per US telemarketing laws, those subscribers who have opted for `Do Not Call’ Registration
should not be called, for telemarketing purposes. Dialers support a facility called `Do Not Call
List’. Dialers avoid calling a number if it is under `Do Not Call’ list. This list can be obtained from
campaign database providers. It can be manually amended by the Call Center Agents.

What is a Disposition?

There are two types of disposition, System Disposition and Agent Disposition.

Dialer adds a specific `System Disposition Code’ for every dialing attempt, to indicate the
outcome of the call such as No Answer, Busy, Operator Intercept, Call Connect, etc.

Once a right party contact is established and passed on to the agent, he closes the call with a
specific disposition code, to indicate the outcome of the conversation. These codes are specific to
the campaign type and can be customized for each campaign. An example of disposition could
be Sale, Not Interested, Call Back, Do Not Call, etc.

How long does it take to complete a dialer implementation?

Dialer implementation would normally take about 4 to 6 weeks from the date of purchase.

Noone else would know this business like we do:

Please contact FutureCalls @+91-44-28340186 or info@futurecalls.com for additional

information, product independent consultancy for your Dialer project. We ensure that you take
the right & calculated decision and your project gets implemented properly.