TMCnews Featured Article

Automatic and predictive dialers can play an important role in more than just business settings. Auto dialers have proven effective in a variety of other sectors as well, including law enforcement, public administration and activism. Looking at the news from the past seven days alone, we find perfect examples of automatic dialers performing in these additional spaces.

For example, on May 10th, according to police, an unknown man in a van approached a 12-year-old girl walking to school in Goodyear, Arizona. After the girl refused his offers for a ride, the man attempted to pull her from the sidewalk. Fortunately, the girl was able to break free and run to school, where the police were alerted. The elementary school was put in lockdown while the police investigated.

School officials notified parents quickly and effectively via an auto-dialing platform, explaining the situation and providing instruction from police officials. The auto-dialer served as an efficient way to spread an important message to a large audience, while apprising concerned parents on the safety efforts being implemented for their children. The community no doubt felt a sense of reassurance in the wake of such organized and prompt communication.

On May 11th, public safety officials were forced to issue a precautionary boil-water advisory for approximately 75 customers, due to a water main break in Huntington, West Virginia. With such an urgent message in need of dissemination, the water authority turns to their automatic phone dialer system to notify affected customers. This system no doubt saved countless customers from bacterial and viral infections that could have resulted from drinking contaminated water. As soon as repairs are made, an automatic follow up call will be made, signaling that the water is safe to consume again.

Finally, on May 8th, activists in Eastern Africa’s Eritrea turned to a computerized auto-dialer to circumvent the government’s ban on government criticism. Instead of taking to the streets every Friday, the grassroots Freedom Friday movement has been making thousands of automated calls to Eritrean phones to tell citizens to empty the streets in protest. The group’s auto-dialing campaign allowed citizens of Eritrea to protest without taking too much of a risk.

"We made phone calls from diaspora to Eritrea," Meron Estefanos told the International Business Times, a UK publication. "We have a phone catalogue and called random numbers every Friday, telling them to stay at home and think about problems in our country."  

Clearly, auto dialers and predictive dialing systems have an important role to play in many other places besides the call center. Stories like the above serve to highlight the growing value and capabilities of these systems, and how auto and predictive dialers can help organizations accomplish their goals.