Information technology and business process outsourcing have become an important part of the global business arena. In spite of the recent economic downturn, the outsourcing industry has been able to register slow, yet steady growth. Operation costs, in most industries, had to be reduced due to the economic downfall. This had a direct effect on the level of recruitment. Instead of hiring professionals, most organizations started outsourcing their jobs to call center employees.
What are the challenges faced by the call center industry? To reduce wait-times, and enhance customer satisfaction, call centers use predictive dialers. A predictive dialer is a computer system that automatically places an outbound call, and routes answered call to agents. Predictive dialing systems automate the processes, and thus help maximize agent-output.
There are three types of predictive dialer software available today- soft dialers, hard dialers, and smart predictive dialers. Soft dialers are less expensive than hard dialers as they do not require costly telecom components. In general, modern soft dialers are actually VoIP dialers. Thanks to their flexible architecture and low cost, they work well in both multi-site and distributed environments. Hardware-based dialers are known as hard dialers. They make use of dedicated telephone hardware to monitor call progress. However, these dialers attract higher total cost of ownership (TCO), and maintenance. If you are looking for a dialer that can offer automatic-dialing feature, and automatic voice messaging at the same time, you might ask for a smart predictive dialer.
Recently, a new model of predictive dialer hit the markets. These are known as hosted or VoIP predictive dialers. These dialers are based on the SaaS (Software as a Service) model. You would require an Internet connection, and a telephone line for using a hosted dialer. Predictive dialers can increase the productivity in a call center. Avaya and Aspect are some of the popular vendors in the communications industry.
