- Kixie: Best top-rated all-in-one contact center solution
- Nice CXone: Best for CXone next-generation cloud CX platform
- VanillaSoft: Best for most productive telemarketing software
- RingCentral: Best for all-in-one message, video and phone solution
- Five9: Best for virtual call center and contact center as a service (CCaaS)
- ChaseData: Best for custom-tailored solution for all industries
- Nextiva: Best for fully integrated voice messaging and video communications system
Updated: Oct 15, 2024, 9:04pm
In today’s ever-expanding world of technology, things are changing quite rapidly. Not only do clients and customers have higher expectations but they also want quicker answers, shorter call times and clear resolutions to their problems. They also have numerous options, so call centers need to be ready to offer exceptional service. Gone are the days of manually dialing phone numbers, busy signals and wait times. Organizations are transforming and transitioning to new technology using auto dialer software. Forbes Advisor has selected seven of the best auto dialer software on the market.
- The Best Auto Dialer Software of 2024
- Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business
- Summary: Auto Dialer Ratings
- What Is an Auto Dialer
- Benefits of Auto Dialers
- How To Choose the Best Auto Dialer for Your Business
- How Much Does an Auto Dialer Cost?
- How To Set Up and Use an Auto Dialer
- Auto Dialer Features
- Methodology
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Next Up in Business
The Best Auto Dialer Software of 2024
Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
To find the best auto dialers, we considered over 25 of the leading CRM providers in the space and narrowed it down to 14, which we then evaluated across five key categories and 27 different metrics. Our ratings consider factors such as transparent pricing, employee self-sufficiency, compatibility with third-party integrations, access to customer support and ratings. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Summary: Auto Dialer Ratings
Company | Forbes Advisor Rating | Starting price | Free trial | Standout feature | Learn More |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kixie | $35 to $95 per user, per month, billed quarterly. | Seven-day free trial; no credit card needed | Designed to work with your existing tech stack | ||
NICE CXone | Call for quote | Yes; 60-day free trial | Complete CXi Platform | ||
Vanilla Soft | Free; $110 per month | Free personalized demo only | Fully customizable | ||
RingCentral | Starting price of $20 per user, per month annually or $30 per user monthly | Yes; limited to five users and two desktop phones | Global private branch exchange (PBX) services in over 40 countries | ||
Five9 | $175 per month | No | AI-powered automation services | ||
ChaseData | $89 per agent, per month | Yes | Highly customizable for all industries | ||
Nextiva | $20 per user, per month | Yes; seven-day free trial | Unlimited calls, toll-free numbers and voicemail to email or SMS |
What Is an Auto Dialer
An automatic dialer is an electronic device or software system that calls customer telephone numbers automatically from a database of leads. It has the ability to target customers and connect them to an agent or an interactive voice response (IVR). You’ll no longer spend a tremendous amount of time searching through a contact database or dialing numbers manually. Auto dialers are designed to help companies increase productivity by making a larger volume of calls without hiring new agents. There are three types of outbound dialers:
- Predictive dialer: The predictive dialer uses statistical algorithms to minimize the time the agent spends between conversations. It also reduces the occurrence of a customer answering when no agent is available. The dialer calls multiple numbers and connects the answered dials to agents.
- Progressive dialer: A progressive dialer is implemented to help agents avoid manually dialing a number. It will wait for an agent to finish with a call before dialing the next number on the list. A progressive dialer will only dial one number per agent ensuring the agent and customer are both available to take the call.
- Preview dialer: The preview dialer allows the agent to preview the customer’s contact details before making the call. After going over the customer record, the agent can decide whether to go ahead with the call or move forward to the next contact. This feature helps to personalize the interaction between the customer and the agent.
Benefits of Auto Dialers
Auto dialers are ideal for time-sensitive situations where you need things done super-fast but that is just one of its many benefits. It is an effective tool to actively support call center teams, helping them ease their workload and achieve greater success. Let’s look at some of the key benefits of implementing auto dialer software:
- Expedite outbound productivity: Connect with more people per hour saving time, effort and call drop rate with an auto dialer. No more manually dialing telephone numbers, the auto dialer will call numbers automatically. Auto dialers also sort between productive and unproductive numbers and only route answered calls to live agents.
- Improved customer engagement: Auto dialers personalize customer experience and improve customer engagement. It gives you insights into the customer before calling them, which improves customer and agent engagement. This allows the agent to get familiar with the customer creating a stronger connection and loyalty with customers.
- Improved sales: When efficiency and productivity improve, so do your numbers. Auto dialer platforms give you the tools you need to succeed allowing for a higher standard of performance. Auto dialing allows you to have more time to focus on sales calls which increases your chances of closing more deals.
- Decrease idle time: Auto dialers ensure high call connect rates using predictive dialer software. Configurable dialer algorithms determine the time the agent is free to take the call and only connects calls answered by actual people.
- TCPA compliance: If you don’t follow TCPA compliance regulations it could end up costing you your business. Auto dialers can help automate compliance and minimize risk. Auto dialer software can help you stay TCPA-compliant with supporting tools. Your call center will need to abide by the rules and restrictions centering around the do not call list which can be found in a national registry of phone numbers of people who have requested not to receive sales calls.
How To Choose the Best Auto Dialer for Your Business
If you are looking for a way to simplify your call center and increase productivity, using an auto dialer may be a solution for you. There are many types of auto dialers on the market, each with an array of features so it is important to choose a program that is right for you. This will depend entirely on the needs of your call center. Let’s look at some key points to consider when choosing an auto dialer:
- Size of your organization: Consider the size of your organization and how many agents you have making calls. Are you a large business that needs to make a lot of calls or are you a small business that needs to provide a more personalized service to your customer. Make sure the platform is able to accommodate your specific needs in this area.
- Type of dialer: After you consider the size of your business and target goals, this will help you determine the type of auto dialer that best suites your needs. If you are a larger company with a high rate of calls per day, a predictive dialer will make multiple calls. If you are a smaller business looking to connect with customers on a more personal level, the preview dialer will support this.
- Business goals: Determining your business goals helps to choose the right auto dialer for you. It’s important to take a look at your specific needs. Maybe you’re trying to improve call connections, decrease wait times and make multiple calls. You may be looking to have a better experience with the customer or you’re in need of call queuing and variable dial ratios to regulate the pace of the call flow. Maybe you could benefit from real-time data integration capabilities to show measurable performance as well as tools to accommodate shift transition. There are many auto dialing features available with each platform.
- Features: After determining your business goals, it’s important to take a good look at the auto dialing capabilities and determine what features are a necessity. Decide what functionalities will best assist you in the success of the call center.
How Much Does an Auto Dialer Cost?
The price of an auto dialer all depends on the company needs. Some companies will pay between $300 to $10,000 and more, depending on how many channels are required. The price also varies according to how many calls are being made at once.
If you are an enterprise with multiple channels the price also increases. Auto dialing services offer a variety of pricing packages and are custom priced according to the company’s needs. Most plans are per user, per month with additional costs based on features and services, add-ons or pay-per-minute and pay-per-seat pricing methods.
If you have basic needs and you have a cellphone and Wi-Fi, there are free services available, such as Google Voice.
How To Set Up and Use an Auto Dialer
Fortunately, the dialing system is simple to use and set up. To get started you will need the essentials: Auto dialer software, computer, active telephone line and voice modem or VoIP. Generally, auto dialing systems work in four parts:
- Auto-dialer software: The majority of basic auto dialing software can run on nearly all computers with direct correlation between central processing unit (CPU) power and audio quality. Contact centers that handle up to 10,000 channels need a strong server rack with numerous CPU cores. The CPU core determines how efficient the auto-dialer program will run on a computer. A considerable amount of memory and a fast broadband connection is also crucial to support your system.
- Live agents: Live agents play a key role in the success of a call center as auto-dialing systems require a number of personnel to handle calls. Agents can also send prerecorded calls, upload and select the appropriate call list, add call scripts, record calls and much more.
- Voice modem: Voice modems are used for telephony and answering machine purposes. Look for a modem that comes with some form of voicemail software as it’s essential to use a modem that can handle voice transmissions. Take note, more auto dialing systems are moving toward cloud-based integrated systems that come with top CRM software solutions. This may eliminate the need for a voice modem.
- VoIP or landlines: VoIP is known as internet calling or internet protocol (IP) telephony. It is a type of communication technology that allows you to make calls using a secure and reliable internet connection rather than a traditional phone line. Landlines, however, do not rely on internet service and are more reliable in terms of call quality and outages. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Auto Dialer Features
Most auto dialers come with a plethora of features and functionalities and many call centers benefit greatly from such sophisticated tools. Let’s look at just some of the most common and valuable features and functionalities of an auto dialer:
- CRM Integrations: CRM systems help organize and keep track of customer details eliminating manual tracking and making calls more personal, informed and targeted. Auto dialers integrate well with CRM systems.
- Answering machine detection: This feature identifies calls that are answered by an answering machine leaving you the option to leave a message or hang up the call.
- Call transfer: Call transfer allows your contacts to leave a message after pressing a digit or transfer the call to a live agent.
- Remote access: Auto dialers allow agents to work remotely giving them the ability to transfer calls from multiple devices such as mobile phones, office phones and softphones.
- Callback and call forwarding: Any unanswered calls in the first attempt can be called back and connected to an agent through inbound calling. If the customer calls back and the agent is not available, they can get added back to the calling list.
- Time zone management: This feature helps regulate calling times and is set to reach your contacts within their time zone following the TCPA regulations.
- Do Not Call list: Some contacts do not want to be disturbed and may ask you to stop calling. This list stops those contacts from being called.
- Voice message broadcasting: Most auto dialers can deliver a variety of prerecorded voice messages to a large number of customers.
- IVR: Interactive menus on outgoing calls allow the recipient to press certain keys on their keypad.
- Insights and analytics: Thorough reports help call centers gather important information relating to the performance of calls, such as the number of calls made, average time, waiting time and so on. Reports help identify what tactics are effective and could use adjusting.
- Unproductive number: This feature helps to filter out calls with busy signals, voicemail or fax signals and will only route calls to a live agent.
- Interactive dashboard: Allows managers to monitor and assess outboard campaigns based on data and statistics.
- Contact list management tools: Users can import contact information from a database or files by providing a contact list uploader.
Methodology
To determine the best auto dialers for small businesses, Forbes Advisor researched providers in the space and narrowed it down to the 14 top providers. We analyzed these across five primary categories for a total of 27 different metrics. The criteria were then weighted to favor features that matter most to small businesses. The best auto dialers on our list had the best overall scores based on our methodology.
Here’s what we took into consideration while ranking each category:
Pricing
Some users may be looking for the best deal around for the most basic auto dialing services, such as voice calling, internet fax, free local and toll-free numbers, but some are willing to pay more for robust features and capabilities, value for money, additional add-ons and ease of use. We chose the best auto dialers that accommodate all sizes of businesses from small to enterprise offering affordable pricing, moderate pricing and custom pricing. This category makes up 10% of the overall score.
Core Features
Features make a product and users know the right features will boost productivity as well as create an overall experience, delivering value and functionality to the user. We looked for features based on the services each auto dialer provider had to offer. For example, software integrations, dialing capabilities, list filtering, unanswered number detection and collaboration tools. This made up 30% of the overall score.
Additional Features
Additional features help to set one product apart from the other. Some additional features come as an add-on while others might be included in the plan, making the service provider more appealing. Some additional features include contact list and time zone management, call transfer options, speed customization, message broadcasting and call monitoring. Our rating score was determined by which features were included, not included or add-ons. Additional features made up 20% of the overall score.
Third-party Ratings
An important product feature includes ratings and reviews. Customers are more likely to make a purchase when the product has user reviews, even with a balance of both good and bad. Reviews are weighted between ease of use, functionality, customer service, app ratings and UX. This category makes up 10% of the overall score.
Expert Score
In addition to the categories above, we also included our own first-hand expert score to account for qualitative factors that require first-hand experience to gauge. For example, this metric considers the quality of each auto dialer’s features, the value for price, ease of use, support quality and popularity. This accounts for 30% of the overall score.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is predictive dialing legal?
Automatic dialing software is legal but the call center must abide by the rules and regulations under the TCPA.
What are some of the key benefits of using an auto dialer?
Auto dialer software is ideal for call center teams to helping them ease workload and improve customer experience (CX). This can be achieved by expediting outbound productivity,
improved customer engagement, improving sales, decreasing idle time and providing TCPA compliance.
Can you use Wi-Fi calling with no phone service?
If you have a Wi-Fi connection you can still make and receive calls with your service even if you have little to no cellular coverage.
How many calls can an auto dialer make?
If you are looking to make multiple simultaneous calls, the predictive dialer can average a daily capacity of 100 to 900 contacts with about 100 to 250 calls per agent.
Why use contact center workforce software?
Sometimes, contact centers employ hundreds or thousands of employees, many of whom work part time, making it challenging for contact center managers to plan schedules and assign shifts without making errors or spending too much time. Thus, you need to find a way to resolve customer issues. Contact center workforce management software platforms can help you with the necessary forecasting, scheduling, agent assignment and management of intraday activities.