The call center is a vital division of any company, yet it is also often the most expensive. As a result, decision makers often need justification for purchasing any type of technology or software solution. It may be easily assumed that a predictive dialer is essential for the call center – at least for the call center manager.

The executive approving the budget may not understand why a predictive dialer is an essential element within your environment; but if he or she understands what to expect from this technology, it may be an easier sell.

The individual approving your budget will understand the numbers and this is the first place to look when understanding what to expect from your predictive dialer. Let’s first look at the cost of handling calls. While this is the primary goal for your call center, it is also expensive. Any cost within the contact center should have a direct and measurable result or benefit to the organization and if it does not, it should be considered for elimination.

Live agents handling calls can cost your center up to $2 per minute, depending upon the rate you pay your agents and the associated technology being used to deliver customer support. As a result of this cost, call center solutions such as LiveOps have become a popular choice for contact centers.

The predictive dialer helps to eliminate wasted time by automating processes that agents should have to spend time to complete. These processes include dialing phone numbers and filtering out wrong numbers to ensure live agents can talk to the right person. When the contact center is focused on driving sales through right customer contacts, predictive dialers help to drive measurable performance.

Contact center performance is measured in the number of right contacts, among other things. If the center’s agents must spend time dialing numbers that may or may not reach the right person, the number of right contacts completed goes down considerably and the overall cost of the contact center will increase exponentially.

What should you ultimately expect from your predictive dialer? You should first expect that it will integrate easily into your call center environment. Any solution that does not present a right-fit integration could actually slow your processes and increase the cost-per-resolution instead of reducing it.

You should also expect that your predictive dialer solution adheres to all Do Not Call requirements within your state of operation, as well as within the state of call destinations. Any predictive dialer that does not take laws and regulations into account can put your call center at risk and increase your cost of doing business.

The predictive dialer you select for your environment should also deliver measurable benefit to the work process of your agents. If the solution does not increase their right contact figures, it is not delivering a benefit that exceeds its cost. The predictive dialer must be able to perform as promised within your environment or it is a waste of time and money.

Be cautious when selecting your predictive dialer solution as simply calling something a predictive dialer doesn’t mean it will deliver the value your contact center needs. You should set high expectations for your predictive dialer and if the solution cannot deliver, time to look elsewhere.