An Auto Dialer is a tool that will automatically dial multiple phone numbers at once and only connect to an available agent when a prospect answers a call. This is designed for extremely high volume outbound cold calling and allows agents to reduce the amount of time spent manually dialing, but favors quantity over quality leads.

Businesses who care about the customer experience may want to avoid Auto Dialers since there is often a lag in connection, which many people associate with a robocall, and can increase the odds of call abandonment. It's also challenging for agents who don't have enough time to research or get context on the prospects they manage to contact, which can create a frustrating conversation for both parties.

Auto dialers are best for teams with extremely high volume outbound cold calling environments and unlimited lead lists to call through.

The Aircall power dialer dials for agents with no pause following a live answer, and no risk of dropped calls. The software places calls and allows for easy contact management.

Reps can strategically call prospects and still hit (or exceed) their quotas without sacrificing effective, quality conversations. They have complete control over the prospecting process and can prepare themselves for calls with a one on one approach. They’ll be able to see an entire history of prospect activities—meaning reps are empowered with the context they need to best serve and convert prospects into customers. Our power dialer enables intentional selling, increasing agent productivity and allowing agents to seamlessly move from one call to the next, without the drawbacks of manual dialing between every call.

Automated dialers and predictive dialers are both made to contact as many people as possible in the least amount of time, but predictive dialers use a little more intelligence. They predict when a rep will be available to take a call, and begin dialing numbers one-by-one so a call is waiting by the time an agent is ready.

Since predictive dialers focus on keeping reps on the phone as much as possible, they may not be effective for organizations selling high-value items, or those who want to create an excellent customer experience, as they don’t leave any time for research between dials. Another concern is that some predictive dialers dial multiple leads at once without giving inside sales reps any insight into the dialing process. While they can increase call volume, predictive dialers don’t give inside sales reps as much power to prioritize leads. Learn more about the difference between auto, predictive, and power dialers in this blog post about sales dialers.

Predictive dialers are best for teams that need a smarter auto dialer solution and value quantity of calls per rep above all other metrics.