Organizations that rely heavily on the telephone for prospecting, sales, and customer support can do themselves few bigger favors than adopting a high-quality power dialer to streamline and enhance their daily calling operations. 

But with so many different options on the market, it can be a daunting task to review all the alternatives and settle on the right one. Fortunately, that process can be made easier by identifying the most important features ahead of time and filtering out any platforms that don’t include them as a minimum. The following represent five of the most important features that should go into that baseline and choosing a dialer that includes all of these features will help ensure a good return on investment. 

 

1) One-Click and Automatic Dialing

One of the primary functions of a power dialer is to reduce or eliminate as many of the repetitive tasks involved in calling as possible. Manual dialing is unquestionably the most mind-numbing and time-consuming parts of high-volume calling without a dialer, so it’s important to look for dialer software that offers multiple streamlined dialing options. 

At the very least, the dialer should enable one-click dialing from an agent’s contact list, so that calls can be launched with one push of a button instead of seven or more. Ideally, a dialer platform should also enable agents to build out queues containing all of their day’s calls, which the dialer will then work through automatically, connecting each new call as the previous one finishes. 

 

2) Interactive Voice Response

Interactive voice response, or IVR for short, is the electronic system responsible for directing incoming calls based on user voice inputs or key presses. Anyone who has ever been prompted to dial an extension or been asked to select from a menu of options is familiar with IVR, and it’s an extremely important tool for minimizing the workload of live support staff. 

A power dialer should offer a complete IVR system, ideally with unlimited options and levels for the calling tree. It should be easy to configure and should handle both individual lines and group extensions, with the option to default to a generic extension if the caller can’t find the right option for their needs. In the event a caller opts for a group box or presses zero, a dialer should offer round-robin routing to ensure an even distribution among available agents to ensure no one staff member gets overloaded and that wait times are minimized. 

 

3) Dialer Local Presence

One of the biggest problems telephone sales organizations run into is a gutted answer rate whenever calls are made out-of-area or out-of-state. Unfortunately, when people see unfamiliar area codes, they automatically assume that they’re receiving a nuisance call and are far less likely to answer. That represents a real problem for legitimate sales organizations reaching out to out-of-area prospects because failing to connect ends the process right then and there. 

Local presence is a feature that solves that problem by allowing sales agents to make calls from any area code they choose, ensuring that the number that shows up on the customer’s caller ID can be tailored to match their local area. Local presence uses legitimate, wholly-owned numbers, which can often be purchased directly through the dialer software, making it an extremely valuable tool for sales companies that operate across multiple states or countries. 

 

4) Quality Control and Training Tools

One of the biggest benefits of moving calling to a cloud-based system instead of traditional hardwired landlines is the ability to pull data directly from calls. That enables organizations to ensure regulatory compliance, monitor quality, and identify opportunities for training.  

An ideal power dialer should offer four primary features to aid in those tasks: call recording, listen-in, whisper, and barge. Call recording offers obvious benefits in that managers can go back and review agent performance, both for QC purposes and to develop individualized training plans based on historic calls. Listen-in allows managers to monitor live calls right as their occurring, and whisper and barge allow them to pipe in, either to the agent only for training purposes or to both agent and customer in order to offer assistance. 

 

5) CRM & Dialer Compatibility

One of the most powerful features a dialer can offer is the ability to integrate directly with a customer resource management platform. CRM systems are designed to enhance and improve all customer-facing aspects of a business while capturing and utilizing customer data to improve the sales process. Across all industries, CRM software is now considered a mission-critical tool for sales organizations. Integrating a power dialer with a CRM enables agents to access complete customer data right while on sales calls, and also ensures that the data from each call is captured back into the CRM for later analysis and use. 

The only thing more powerful than integrating a power dialer with an external CRM is engaging a platform where the two are integrated by design, right out of the box. That’s what CRMDialer offers, and it’s what makes the platform the most impactful dialing solution available on the market. CRMDialer includes all of the key features listed here, and many more, including one-click voicemail drop and advanced analytics. The built-in dialer integrates fully with CRMDialer’s full suite of sales and productivity tools, making it the ultimate one-stop software solution for sales organizations.

If you’re still on the fence about which dialer offers the right set of features for your sales organization, why not take CRMDialer for a spin? Put the platform to work and see everything it can do firsthand by starting your no-commitment 14-day free trial today!