By setting up preview calling, you are putting more power into your agents’ hands, allowing them to personalize the calls they’re about to make while still automating the process.
What is preview dialing?
When you run a campaign with lots of people to contact, your agents often have to go in blind. But preview dialing allows them to go into calls with a little more information. That’s because of the way they work: the dialer will offer your agent a number that it will connect them to and can provide basic information about the contact (the person’s name, the number, and in a comment below, anything else left in the contact list about that given number). Your agent will then have a moment to read the information and decide whether or not to agree to the call or to pass it onto another agent.
How to set up a preview dialer?
Installing the preview dialer takes just minutes and will pay dividends for your (and your agents’) future endeavors. While each provider’s dialer is different, MightyCall’s takes just a few steps to get going:
1. Start with the General Settings
This will tell the dialer the most essential information: when calls will be made, what time zone they will be made from, and what number(s) will be used to make the calls.
2. Set up the Dialer Settings
Next, you get more into the specifics. Select the type of dialer – in this case, Preview, though you can also select Progressive or Predictive – and then you can set different metrics
- Preview time: here, you can decide how many seconds agents can have to preview information about the caller before deciding whether or not to make the call
- Wrap-up time: this is for after the call; your agent reports how the call went and, if necessary, adds the number to the Do Not Call list
- Max ring time: how long the dialer will spend attempting to connect to a number on the list
- Default retry period: sometimes, people don’t pick up – so you can tell the dialer how long it should wait; it can be minutes or longer
- Max attempts per number: finally, to ensure that you are not spam calling, you can put a limit on how many times the dialer will attempt to contact a number
“An agent being well-prepared is 50% of the reason a call succeeds. That’s why setting the appropriate duration for preview time is crucial. The time set should be sufficient for the agent to familiarize themselves with the contact.” – Nick Kalinin, Product Manager at MightyCall
3. Set up Disposition settings
At the bottom of the screen will be two different types of “disposition” settings: System and Agent.
The system disposition is where you decide what happens to calls that don’t connect. You see some predefined call outcomes such as
- Contact busy
- Contact no response
- Agent abandoned
- Invalid number
For each of them, you can choose whether this outcome is final, meaning no actions will be taken after that, or if you want to proceed with trying, choose the ‘Retry’ option and the number will be dialed again. You can also set up custom rules for each disposition retry.
The agent disposition is where you can add and modify the call outcomes that your agents can select after completing a campaign call, dispositions which are then seen in the campaign reports section. You can enable some of the default ones or add your own tailored for the campaign’s details–up to 30 agent dispositions in total. The customizable retry option is also available here. Be sure to keep your campaign goals in mind when setting up the agent dispositions – after all, these will be the main criteria with which you will analyze your preview dialer campaign.
4. Select your agents
This step is straightforward: pick the agents you will be assigning to this campaign by checking the boxes next to their names. Be sure to prioritize any who have had previous experience with some of the customers on your list.
5. Upload your contacts
The last step involves uploading the actual numbers your dialer will be calling. Do so with a CSV file; if it is not perfectly formatted, don’t worry, MightyCall will map it for you.
Limitations
There are only a few common-sense limitations to keep in mind when you turn on preview dialing:
- Agents cannot pass around calls forever: The dialer is going to seek to call every number on the list (unless it hits the max attempts per number). So if an agent passes on a number, and other agents pass on that number, the dialer will eventually bring the number back around to the first agent
- The dialer won’t call until the agent agrees: If you want dialers that make calls “ahead” of time, try other dialer types.
Best practices for setting up preview campaigns
- Don’t overdo the preview time: The longer the preview time, the less calls will be made; it’s important to take advantage of it, but do not set it overly high
- Use the Do Not Call Scrubber: To avoid getting punished for violating the national Do Not call List, be sure to turn this option on; it will “scrub” any numbers it detects which are on the DNC list
- Keep state registries in mind: cross-reference your upload list with state Do Not Call lists, as these can differ from the federal listings
- Read the campaign reports: A useful aspect of the preview dialer setup is the fact that it gives you information about the campaign after it is over; read these to discover how you can make things better the next time around
- Remember time zones: calling people after a certain time is not only considered rude, but it can also be illegal; make sure to keep this in mind if you are calling outside your own time zone
Enable preview dialing and personalize your call campaigns
The details matter when running a call campaign – which is why an effective preview dialer setup enables you to have full control over those details. Plus, it clues your agents in on who they are talking to, ensuring that they can give their calls a personal touch.
