As the FCC enhances its enforcement of robocalls, many businesses are adopting TCPA-compliant dialers to stay within federal guidelines. A good TCPA-compliant dialer helps ensure your call center audits lead lists, facilitates compliant calls, and improves customer and agent experiences.
Would your contact center benefit from a TCPA-compliant dialer? Learn how their features can benefit your contact center.
What Is a TCPA-Compliant Dialer?
A TCPA-compliant dialer offers several critical features that help your contact center follow regulatory guidelines. Expect the dialers to:
- Scrub lead lists against the federal Do Not Call (DNC) database
- Use time-zone restrictions so agents can only place calls between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. (local time for the consumer)
- Provide an opt-out function for consumers
- Track and manage your consent lists
- Place calls while complying with automatic dialing system (ATDS) restrictions
Over the last several years, the FCC has started taking TCPA compliance more seriously than ever. At the very least, you want a TCPA-compliant dialer that will help you avoid monetary penalties. Fines vary from $500 to over $40,000 per violation. Even if your contact center commits minor infractions, the fines will add up quickly. For example, if you violate a rule twice per hour during an 8-hour shift, a $500 fine turns into $8,000.
How Does a Human-Assisted Dialer Work?
Human-assisted dialers rely on your human agents to initiate calls. The dialer can detect when it connects with a lead. When someone answers, it routes the call to an available agent.
Human-assisted dialer software doesn’t necessarily route the call to the agent who initiated it. Instead, it finds the next available agent trained to handle the call properly. For example, you might have 10 sales agents working during a shift. Agent One might start a call to Lead A. If Lead A answers, though, the call might connect to a different agent in the group.
Human-Assisted Dialer vs. Auto Dialer
Most auto-dialers place several calls at once. When a lead answers, the auto-dialer connects them with an agent. Human-assisted dialers don’t automatically call leads. Instead, they rely on agents to initiate calls. This maintains a 1:1 dialing ratio that conforms to compliance standards. With auto-dialers, the software maintains an N:1 ratio, where N is a number of calls preset by the software’s algorithm.
From the agent’s perspective, human-assisted dialers function the same as other auto-dialers. The key difference happens behind the scenes. Since it requires human initiation, though, it satisfies requirements set by TCPA. In other words, you get the speed of an auto-dialer while following TCPA rules that many auto-dialers can’t satisfy.
Human-assisted dialers, however, rely on human agents to initiate calls. The upside is that your contact center complies with TCPA dialing standards. The potential downside is that each call takes a little longer to complete. For most contact centers, a slightly slower completion time is worth it to comply with regulations.
What Is an Agent-Assisted Dialer?
As you explore human-assisted dialers, you might find options called “agent-assisted dialers.” These are interchangeable names that mean the same thing. They both require a live agent to place calls.
Some people, including those in the sales and customer service industry, find these interchangeable names confusing. Often, they believe that agent-assisted dialers are robodialers. It’s important to make sure that decision-makers within your business understand that agent-assisted dialers are not robodialers. These are TCPA-compliant dialers that do the same jobs as human-assisted dialers.
Benefits of a TCPA-Compliant Dialer
As discussed above, you want a TCPA-compliant dialer because it will help you avoid penalties and fines. But there are other benefits to using TCPA-compliant dialing software.
Promoting Brand Integrity
By using TCPA-compliant software, you show consumers, network providers, and regulatory bodies that you take the rules seriously. Over time, this should promote your brand’s integrity, making you look more reliable than competitors that don’t use TCPA-compliant dialers.
Increasing Contact Rates
While not as fast as robodialers that place numerous calls at once, human-assisted dialers can still help agents connect with more leads.
Optimizing Agent Productivity
Calls get directed to agents who have been trained to handle specific sales and customer service topics. This helps optimize agent productivity and avoid call transfers.
Enhancing Customer Experience
By connecting quickly to knowledgeable agents, human-assisted dialers enhance the customer experience, which improves brand loyalty and trust.
Maintaining Consent Management
TCPA-compliant software can manage consumer consent agreements. If regulators want to see a list of people who have opted in or out of future communications, you can provide that information.
Enabling Scalability
While you still need to abide by the 1:1 ratio, TCPA-compliant dialers let you add or subtract agents as needed. In some cases, companies turn to overseas contact centers to maintain a 1:1 ratio during their busiest seasons.
Features to Look for in a TCPA-Compliant Dialer
There are plenty of TCPA-compliant dialers to consider. When comparing your options, make sure you choose one that requires human call initiation and routes calls to available agents trained to handle specific tasks. You should also look for queue management, real-time dashboards, audit logs, and analytics reporting that lets managers control the flow of outbound calls.
You’ll also want CMR integrations that work with your existing tech stack. It’s much easier to scrub lists and avoid DNC numbers when your dialer can communicate with your CMR.
Call recording is another important feature for agent monitoring and training purposes. With recorded calls, you can use your top examples to train new agents. You can also use recordings to help existing agents understand where they went wrong during a call.
You’ll find these and other useful features in Dial Flex™ from CallTools.
Industries That Benefit from Human-Assisted Dialing
Some industries need to focus on compliance more than others. For example, any company that provides financial services needs to meet the highest levels of compliance. Additionally, the personalized services companies can give consumers often lead to improved lead conversions. If your sales strategy requires multiple customer contacts, you’ll want the professionalism and personalization TCPA-compliant software offers.
Other industries that benefit most from human-assisted dialing solutions include:
- Healthcare
- Insurance
- Education
- Collections
- Real estate
- B2B sales
- Complex sales
- Home services
Why Businesses Are Choosing Human-Assisted Dialers
Obviously, many businesses choose human-assisted dialers because they understand the importance of TCPA compliance. Avoiding fines, penalties, and service interruptions puts you on the road to success.
But that isn’t the only reason businesses adopt TCPA-compliant dialing software. Human-assisted dialers also improve agent experiences. Many agents report feeling more invigorated, focused, and enthusiastic when they use the right dialing software. You could even find that human-assisted dialers lower agent burnout while improving call quality.
CallTools Dial Flux™ is a powerful outbound dialing technology that eliminates the heavy lifting for your business while enabling TCPA-compliant calls. Our human-assisted dialer provides efficiency, peace of mind, and regulatory integrity.
Request a demo to learn more about how Dial Flux™ can help your business excel.
