chrisbeyersinut
New Member
- 19
I am at the preliminary stages of exploring the idea of using an auto dialer. Would love to hear from agents using them - what are the most important features in an auto dialing system?
Most Important Features in an Auto Dialer?
- Thread starter chrisbeyersinut
- Start date
- 11,996
To some degree it depends on what you're doing with it. First, let's talk about the difference between an autodialer, a power dialer, and a predictive dialer. I believe what you're referring to is a power dialer.
Autodialers do voice broadcasting, the press 1/robo call campaigns. As of September 1st, 2009 those are illegal in a business to consumer setting with almost zero exemptions, none of them would let an insurance agent use it to market insurance to individuals. That specifically relates to situations where you do not have permission prior to calling them using the voice broadcast and specifically permission to play the recorded message.
Power dialers dial out multiple lines at a time (or in theory one line at a time as an option as well). This is the equivalent of picking up a few phones at a time, dialing different numbers, and then hanging up on the other lines as soon as one picks up and you start talking to them.
Predictive dialers are typically used in situations where you have at least 7-10 agents. It will actually predict when the next agent will be available based on average call durations and connect times and route each picked up call to the next available agent.
There are a few different grades of power dialers (or the other dialers for that matter), but to a large degree it's going to come down to price and ease of use. Callfire offers an hourly service to get your feet wet, but if you're dialing much you're not going to find it to be economical. I believe Callfire also requires a phone to dial into the system. SalesDialers is another option that a lot of folks like and it's definitely geared towards ease of use. It does not require you to tie up a phone line to call in, but you can if you'd like. It's a flat $99/month (promo/discount code AML) which covers unlimited dialing with no extra costs. By the end of next week I'll probably be offering a dialer solution more geared towards folks that are looking for a more robust system to manage remote users or multiple users (it can function as a power dialer or a predictive dialer).
Features to consider:
-Call quality, which can vary depending on your network on your end
-Number of outbound lines, you probably want to be able to dial out at least three lines at a time on a business to consumer campaign, one or two are fine for business to business.
-Ability to record calls, it's not necessarily a deal breaker it's definitely something you'll want to consider if you like to evaluate the way the calls are going or do telephonic enrollments that require recordings
-System compatibility, not all systems are compatible with all operating systems/networks
There are some others, but those are the nuts and bolts of it. There is another option some folks go for, mojosells.com. It's a pretty slick system as well, but it's $149/month + $25/month for recording (as of the last time I checked which was a month or two ago and that's the price it's been for a long time). It also limits you to three outbound lines at a time, but overall it's a good solution as well.
If you go with any of the above you'll get a feel for what you like and don't like about them. In some ways it's like a car, you might not like the first one you get, but it will give you an idea of what you like and don't like. By contrast, if you don't like one of them it's really inexpensive to switch to another one (and unlike a car, it doesn't depreciate!)
Hope that helps, feel free to shoot me an email if you want more specific help/info ([email protected]).
Autodialers do voice broadcasting, the press 1/robo call campaigns. As of September 1st, 2009 those are illegal in a business to consumer setting with almost zero exemptions, none of them would let an insurance agent use it to market insurance to individuals. That specifically relates to situations where you do not have permission prior to calling them using the voice broadcast and specifically permission to play the recorded message.
Power dialers dial out multiple lines at a time (or in theory one line at a time as an option as well). This is the equivalent of picking up a few phones at a time, dialing different numbers, and then hanging up on the other lines as soon as one picks up and you start talking to them.
Predictive dialers are typically used in situations where you have at least 7-10 agents. It will actually predict when the next agent will be available based on average call durations and connect times and route each picked up call to the next available agent.
There are a few different grades of power dialers (or the other dialers for that matter), but to a large degree it's going to come down to price and ease of use. Callfire offers an hourly service to get your feet wet, but if you're dialing much you're not going to find it to be economical. I believe Callfire also requires a phone to dial into the system. SalesDialers is another option that a lot of folks like and it's definitely geared towards ease of use. It does not require you to tie up a phone line to call in, but you can if you'd like. It's a flat $99/month (promo/discount code AML) which covers unlimited dialing with no extra costs. By the end of next week I'll probably be offering a dialer solution more geared towards folks that are looking for a more robust system to manage remote users or multiple users (it can function as a power dialer or a predictive dialer).
Features to consider:
-Call quality, which can vary depending on your network on your end
-Number of outbound lines, you probably want to be able to dial out at least three lines at a time on a business to consumer campaign, one or two are fine for business to business.
-Ability to record calls, it's not necessarily a deal breaker it's definitely something you'll want to consider if you like to evaluate the way the calls are going or do telephonic enrollments that require recordings
-System compatibility, not all systems are compatible with all operating systems/networks
There are some others, but those are the nuts and bolts of it. There is another option some folks go for, mojosells.com. It's a pretty slick system as well, but it's $149/month + $25/month for recording (as of the last time I checked which was a month or two ago and that's the price it's been for a long time). It also limits you to three outbound lines at a time, but overall it's a good solution as well.
If you go with any of the above you'll get a feel for what you like and don't like about them. In some ways it's like a car, you might not like the first one you get, but it will give you an idea of what you like and don't like. By contrast, if you don't like one of them it's really inexpensive to switch to another one (and unlike a car, it doesn't depreciate!)
Hope that helps, feel free to shoot me an email if you want more specific help/info ([email protected]).
- 582
I get a few robo calls on my cell phone a week with the press 1 option. Josh are you saying all those different companies are breaking the law week after week?
- 11,996
Depends, but most likely.
If it's a b2b call it's exempt.
If it's b2c and you haven't given them explicit permission to contact you for that offer with a robo call, they're absolutely breaking the law. The powers that be are cracking down on that even harder lately.
Cell phones are tricky. They should be included in most list houses in the next 60 days and most of them will not have registered to the DNC yet.
Also, in SLUSHPUPPY's situation, if you list your cell as a business phone contact with NIPR then it is technically a b2b call if the robocall is insurance related. If they are selling bathtubs, it is a b2c call.
This is a mess waiting to happen. It will be interesting how it will shake out in the coming months.
- 582
Does the law pertain only to those on the DNC list or are you saying all robo calls are pretty much illegal?
Hmm, how in the hell would they crack down on this anyway? Most of the robo calls I get are caller ID blocked or if there is a number I call back and get nothing. Seems to me they would need to do some fancy tracking to really crack down.
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I just snagged this from wikipedia:
Surveys are exempt eh? Guess the survey door knocking method for insurance would be okay then
Hmm, how in the hell would they crack down on this anyway? Most of the robo calls I get are caller ID blocked or if there is a number I call back and get nothing. Seems to me they would need to do some fancy tracking to really crack down.
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I just snagged this from wikipedia:
Surveys are exempt eh? Guess the survey door knocking method for insurance would be okay then
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- 11,996
DNC is a separate issue altogether.
They busted voiceblaze. A few million dollar fine at that.
I just snagged this from wikipedia:
Surveys are exempt eh? Guess the survey door knocking method for insurance would be okay then
It has to be a survey. If the end goal is to sell insurance in any way, shape or form, it's illegal. If you get bored and really want to read up on it you should google "ftc robo call ban" and look at the stuff on the FTC site, lots of good stuff there.
- 5,262
Just don't do it B2C -- there's a VB vendor here that just got done paying off a fine to Pennsylvania.
With that said, the FTC and States are going after the huge operations blatantly spamming millions of people each day. I doubt their main target is your local, friendly insurance agent.
There's probably a way around it to hide yourself though. However, they way they'll catch you is on your first appointment where they get your business card. That's how this one agent in PA got canned.
With that said, the FTC and States are going after the huge operations blatantly spamming millions of people each day. I doubt their main target is your local, friendly insurance agent.
There's probably a way around it to hide yourself though. However, they way they'll catch you is on your first appointment where they get your business card. That's how this one agent in PA got canned.
- 11,996
Care to share who it was?
Nothing fancy needed at all. You just pretend to be a lead, eventually throughout the sales process you'll get the true contact information of the offender. If that person is not the actual user of the VB system, i.e. an insurance agent wanting to claim ignorance of how the leads were generated about how many minutes do you think it will be before they are singing like a canary when staring at a huge fine or they can roll over on the vendor?
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