What is a Predictive Dialer?
In the pre-AI world, Agents made hundreds of calls a day. Not every call connected. These ‘dead calls’ saw the agent sitting on the line, idle, waiting for the call to ring out, or for the customer to pick up. This created a huge black hole within agent workflows; time that could be spent providing service to the customers that do pick up.
The predictive dialer was created to plug this black hole. In essence, it automatically calls up customer numbers until a connection is found. That connection is then passed to a waiting agent. The agent would be able to speak to the customer immediately, without having to wait for the connection to be made, and without the risk of the call failing.
This had a number of key advantages for the contact center:
- Predictive dialers could dial multiple numbers at once, and incorporate analytics into their dialing decisions. This added an element of strategy to outbound automation; certain numbers could be called at certain times, according to what was known about the customer on the other end.
- Agents no longer had to sit around, dialing numbers and hoping the customer would pick up. Their time would now be spent speaking to those customers who picked up dramatically boosting contact center efficiency.
- Better targeting of services led to more efficient outcomes, which in turn led to cost savings. Any impact on contact center performance has a knock-on impact on savings, so the predictive dialer was a powerful cost-cutting tool.
In its day, the predictive dialer was a revolutionary new system. Today, it’s bare minimum technology. AI is offering new ways to drive contact center efficiency and deliver cost savings. How might AI interact with existing predictive dialers?
AI Goes Beyond the Predictive Dialer
The predictive dialer was a revolution in its time, but that time was the 1980s. Consumer behavior has changed dramatically since then. Younger generations, in particular, are no longer responsive to outbound calls. 70% of people under 34 prefer a text to a phone call. The causes of this are manifold; for one, the internet and data leaks have radically increased the frequency of spam and nonsense calls. The policy of most millennials is to reject calls from unknown numbers, for the sake of security. Outbound calls simply aren’t as effective as they used to be.
The landscape of the contact center has shifted accordingly:
- Today’s contact centers are omni–channel. That means that they interact with customers of the channels that customers prefer; any time, any place, and channel. Whilst most customers still reach out to businesses over the phone, preferences for outbound communication tend to be different.
- Today’s customers expect outbound communications to come via SMS or email. These are asynchronous channels and give customers the space to consider and plan a response. Rather than surprising a customer with a call, you give them the space to respond when they’re ready. It’s a simple issue of respect.
- The predictive dialer, whilst effective for delivering call automation en masse, might not be the best tool for creating an outstanding Customer Experience. Nowadays, customers value the freedom to communicate with businesses however and whenever they prefer.
In an omni-channel contact center, AI opens up automation possibilities that go beyond what the predictive dialer was able to deliver.
The Future of the Predictive Dialer
In the age of AI, we can do much more. AI can automate outbound communications over more channels, in more ways, and to greater effect than a predictive dialer. Here’s how:
- A predictive dialer only exists to make connections. Once the connection is made, it’s up to the agent to handle the entire interaction. An AI ‘Machine Agent’, on the other hand, could conduct an entire customer interaction single-handedly. Equipped with voice recognition and Natural Language Processing technology, it would be possible for a Machine Agent to complete simple outbound tasks, without the need for human automation.
- Advanced predictive dialers were capable of leveraging data and analytics to select numbers from a list. AI can leverage customer data and interaction history to a far greater extent; planning outbound messages days in advance, to ensure that contact is made at the optimum times.
- If outbound calls have to be made, there are ways to optimize the experience for customers. Scheduling calls in advance, for instance, give your customers the space to plan around them. If the customer feels that you respect their time, they’re going to have a much higher opinion of your business.
We’re living through a golden age of contact center automation. There’s no reason to stay hung up on 1980s technology. But, whatever it is your contact center needs, you need a strategic AI partner to help drive that transformation. That’s where Content Guru comes in.
